A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.
If you’d like to start the school year with a poem or two, this post may give you a few ideas that have worked for author Connie Wanek.
Read Connie’s post and then leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of her newest book with U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.
Poetry, she thought, with a sigh,is little more than proseedited forbrevityand line breaks. Right now, I’m doing a poetry unit with my fourth graders. Most of them dread poetry writing. … Continue Reading Poetry Month: That’s the (Line) Breaks
I was in a fifth grade classroom in February during writing workshop, and a student flagged me down, eager to share her work. Now this is a student who (historically), I have been much more likely to encounter reading on the sly than writing during workshop.
When your “to-do” list is super long at back-to-school time, should you take time for poetry, writing and friends? A resounding yes! How are you making time to nourish your teacher soul during these challenging times?
Let’s start the year with poetry! I’ve shared some tips, resources, and favorites that will get everyone excited to put pen to paper.
What is a memory? What makes a moment memorable? Were they moments of utter joy and warmth? Or was there embitterment, stress, and even trauma that made it special? For … Continue Reading I Remember
Poet and educator Georgia Heard discusses My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness and talks about how both poetry and mindfulness invite us to slow down, be present, listen more deeply, while quieting our restless minds.
The 2020-2021 school year will likely be different than any other school year we’ve ever known. While last year ended with emergency remote learning in most places due to COVID-19, … Continue Reading Seen, Valued, Heard: Poetry to Establish Community
Today I share a poetry lesson from one of my favorite resources. This lesson is ready to use in your classroom too!
This is an invitation to write a poem with me today! You might also find this post helpful to you as a teacher and wish to share it with your students.
Instead of being delegated to April only, poetry can be a pathway. We can make the deliberate choice to lead our students down this road on our way to learning and sharing new information, telling a story, discovering a person from history, persuading others, playing with language, responding to reading, opportunities for collaboration, and alternatives to morning work. Poetry should be woven into the fabric of your curriculum and, can be the new road you travel down to reach many goals and objectives. Please include your favorite poetry titles in the Padlet linked in the post!
Prepare yourself for some exquisite words to get your writing week off to a wonderful start.
Reading Ralph Fletcher’s newest book, Focus Lessons, revealed memories of my childhood much the way photos can be revealed in a pan of solution. Slowly, vividly, and magically.
What happens when the next unit in third grade writing workshop is poetry and the classroom teacher stumbles across an anthology of bilingual poetry? This post describes how a third-grade homeroom teacher and a Spanish teacher collaborated to implement an interdisciplinary, bilingual poetry unit.
Writing workshop thrives when a community of children come together as writers who know each other. The first six weeks of school is when we build community. Here’s one way to build relationships and encourage kids to write about one of their favorite things simultaneously.
Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of Eric Carle and Friends’ newest book, What’s Your Favorite Food?
Big, blank spaces means big possibilities for a poetry unit!
Did you experiment with some poetry now that the school year is in full swing? If not, here are a few more ideas to convince you poetry can be woven into your day. It starts with you.
For some, this might be your last evening before school begins. For others, you might be on your third week! Tonight I’m sharing five, five-minute ideas that might just help you fit poetry into your day, each day. I needed to find a solution to the lack of poetry in my day for my students and I’m hoping these ideas might just inspire some of your own as you begin a new year.
It’s that time of year when we start to think about all the things we didn’t get to do with our students! Here are five writing exercises I am going to make sure students don’t leave without!
Kids are inundated by rules. If the gift of writing is freedom of expression, are we imposing too many “rules” on writers? What if the rules of every genre, like poetry, were limited to just two or three?
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 