Sometimes making a small change can produce big results.
Category: personal narrative
Change & Personal Narratives
“There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus As a child, I didn’t know much about change. I moved from Brooklyn to New Jersey when I was a baby. I switched schools in the fall of sixth grade, thereby dividing the first thirteen years of my schooling between two educational institutions. I lived under the… Continue reading Change & Personal Narratives
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Kids As Mentors
I'm getting ready for Family-Teacher Conferences tomorrow. As I do, I'm putting together folders for each family, which includes the following things: A reading & word work assessment profile with each student's score and the benchmarks The most recent math test Each student's most recent on-demand assessment (for personal narrative) Suggestions for helping students with… Continue reading Kids As Mentors
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“Time Line” for On-Demand Assessments
I mapped out the way my students could go through the Quick Publish Process today. (They have today and tomorrow to quickly publish a personal narrative before we begin our next unit of study, personal essay, on Monday.) Here's what the "time line" of the writing process looked like:
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Character Traits
I just put together a list of character traits for my students, ranking them as positive, negative, or a mix between the two for an upcoming character study unit we're doing in Reading Workshop. That being said, this list of character traits can certainly be used within a personal narrative or short fiction unit of… Continue reading Character Traits
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Publishing Personal Narratives
Student Reflection Sheet for Personal Narratives Originally uploaded by teachergal I updated the Personal Narrative Page on the Two Writing Teachers Website to include a student reflection sheet and an in-depth comment sheet that my students will be putting in their personal narrative portfolios when they get ready for this Tuesday's Publishing Party. I hope… Continue reading Publishing Personal Narratives
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“So What?”
Ruth and I spoke at-length this summer about the benefits and detriments of starting off the school year with memoir, as opposed to beginning with personal narrative. While my colleagues and I have chosen to start with personal narrative, there's one piece of my conversation with Ruth that makes me think it's possible to really… Continue reading “So What?”
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Keeping Demonstrations Fresh
I've found that my demonstrations run a little long if I'm not adequately prepared. When I say "not adequately prepared," I mean that if I don't have recent writing to support my minilesson in my current writer's notebook, I feel unprepared since the stuff I'm sharing with my kids feels old and often distant from… Continue reading Keeping Demonstrations Fresh
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Personal Narrative Texts.
In many of the classrooms I'm working in, we are moving into a Personal Narrative study. I asked teachers to gather books they would like to use to anchor their teaching. Below is a list of some of the texts: A Tree Named Steve by Alan Zweibel and David Catrow Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good,… Continue reading Personal Narrative Texts.
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Those Shoes: The Mentor Text Teaching Document
I worked on the Reading-Writing Connections Document for Those Shoes until 12:30 a.m. Here are two examples of the way I set it up: Craft MovePage Number(s)Why the Author Might Be Doing This…Varied Sentence LengthsPgs. 2, 15 & 30One thing writers do is vary the lengths of their sentences when they write. If an author… Continue reading Those Shoes: The Mentor Text Teaching Document
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Customized Spelling Lists
I've been grading my students' personal narratives this morning using the rubric I created last month. That being said, I decided not to just grade their personal narratives, but also to use them as a way to create lists of misspelled words so that I can differentiate their weekly spelling lists. My colleague Kate gives… Continue reading Customized Spelling Lists
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Revising… Editing… Publishing…
My students are in the revision stage for their personal narratives. I'm anticipating a November 15th Publication Date. Hence, I've been working all morning to put together revision minilessons, an editing checklist, an about the author page, and more. I've also spent some time reading Jim Vopat's "Big Ideas for Editing and Publishing," which is… Continue reading Revising… Editing… Publishing…
