Some weeks ago, when the school year was brand new, I wrote about setting up our Reading Journals for a year of writing about our reading. Now we are approaching the end of the first marking period, and the truth is that we are just beginning to be ready to write about our reading. I… Continue reading Writing About Reading Begins With Thinking About Reading
Category: reading-writing connections
Writing about reading: offering students choice in reading responses
When I first began teaching, Nancie Atwell’s In The Middle was my go to PD book for all things to do with reading and writing workshop. I modeled so many of my teaching practices on what I learned through that book and through a few workshops with Nancie. More than anything else, I wanted to… Continue reading Writing about reading: offering students choice in reading responses
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Craft Tables for You — Part III of III
This week I'm sharing the Happy Like Soccer craft table my graduate students created. My students worked in partnerships to flesh out explanations for craft moves they identified in Maribeth Boelts's book on the second day of class. I asked them to create a craft table with a partner for two reasons. First, I… Continue reading Craft Tables for You — Part III of III
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Craft Tables for You — Part II of III
This is the second in a series of three posts that include craft tables you can download for use during your conferences or strategy lessons. If you missed last week's post, which talked about what craft tables are and how to create them, then click here to read it now. This week I'm sharing two… Continue reading Craft Tables for You — Part II of III
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Craft Tables for You — Part I of III
Craft tables are a way to organize one’s thinking about a books teachers will be use as a mentor text. Since a good deal of the mentor text work we do with students in writing workshop happens during one-to-one writing conferences and during small group strategy lessons, it helps to know books really well. Hence,… Continue reading Craft Tables for You — Part I of III
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GUEST BLOG POST: Growing as Writers through an Author Study
Stella Villalba teaches English as a Second Language at Beechwood Elementary in Columbus, Ohio. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she started her career in education teaching ESL in Asuncion, Paraguay. Stella also publishes articles on the topic of teaching ELLs at Choice Literacy and is a teacher consultant for the Columbus Area Writing Project. Stella… Continue reading GUEST BLOG POST: Growing as Writers through an Author Study
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GUEST BLOG POST: Savor a Book: Reading like a Writer
Edited by Ruth: Pssst...today is Mary Helen's birthday! Won't you join me in leaving comments on her blog post about one of her very favorite books? Mary Helen Gensch is currently a literacy coach and Title I interventionist for Pierceton Elementary School in Indiana. Her journey as a writing coach began with the AllWrite!!! Consortium… Continue reading GUEST BLOG POST: Savor a Book: Reading like a Writer
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Reflecting on Reading Like a Writer
So I took some time to create a video about the system I created in order to track and reflect on my summer reading. Because I pushed myself to reflect in a new medium, I feel like I dug deeper into the work I've done with reading like a writer. (I hope it's not too… Continue reading Reflecting on Reading Like a Writer
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A Mentor Text that Deals with Social Issues
We’ve all had that kid in our class. You know who I mean. It’s the kid who sticks out like a sore thumb because of his weight, because of his hair, or because of the way his voice sounds. I had that kid in my class each year… sometimes more than one per year. That… Continue reading A Mentor Text that Deals with Social Issues
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Scaredy Squirrel Books in the Primary Writing Classroom
Ruth was shocked when she learned that I had never heard of Scaredy Squirrel Books when we passed the Kids Can Press Booth at the NCTE Conference. Quite frankly, once I started paging Mélanie Watt's first Scaredy Squirrel Book, which was published four years ago, I, too, was shocked. It was humorous! I found the… Continue reading Scaredy Squirrel Books in the Primary Writing Classroom
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Picture Books in Upper Elementary School
The Fall of 2006 brought me the savviest class I ever taught. Nearly all 32 of them scoffed at me on Wednesday, September 6th when I pulled out Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street. "A picture book?" one student said disdainfully. "Yes, a picture book," I replied. "We're going to read lots of picture books… Continue reading Picture Books in Upper Elementary School
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The Power of Three
When I was at the TCRWP's Writing Institute a couple of weeks ago, there was a buzz about the power of three. Funny how I've been in and around lots of writing-related professional development in the past five years and have never heard anything about the power of three until mid-August. I heard it first… Continue reading The Power of Three
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 