Some sit at a keyboard and the words just pour out. Others use a pen and paper, working slowly and deliberately. I know one writer who prefers a typewriter to a laptop.
And then there are the storytellers.
Hey, pssst… Yeah, you. Have you noticed that it’s already the middle of April? It’s spring. There are only a matter of weeks left in the school year (not that anyone’s counting). And… Continue reading
What are the books that have shaped you as a teacher of writing? Reflecting today, in thanks, for the authors and books that have influenced my life as a teacher.
Whether it’s storytelling, or shared writing, or interactive writing, any piece of writing that your whole class created together is going to be extremely helpful to have at your fingertips while you are moving about the classroom conferring.
Thinking about your demonstration texts this way can give you some inspiration for multiple ways to teach the same minilesson, to the whole class, or to small groups as follow-up.
Last week I wrote a post titled How To Plan A Minilesson From Scratch, and I outlined a very simple way to plan minilessons, based on the work of my wonderful colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Now, I am going to backtrack a bit and revisit just a teensy weensy bit of what I said. I wrote, “Every minilesson can pretty much go the same way.” And this is absolutely true, most of the time. Except for those times when it’s not true.
It’s been several months since I’ve written for Two Writing Teachers. In December my son was born, and I was on maternity leave until a few weeks ago. Then, in March I pushed aside all excuses… Continue reading
A quick, down and dirty, overview of shared writing and how it might support your students.
Even if your students won’t be blogging in March, you can still dip-in & dip-out of the Classroom Challenge in one of two ways.
Karren Colbert is an educational consultant and founder of Write Brained Learning. She works with elementary teachers across the country and also presents at state and national conferences. Karren blogs at The Write Brained… Continue reading
I recently received a review copy of Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom, which is edited by Anne Herrington, Kevin Hodgson, and Charles Moran. The text is… Continue reading
I’ve read Jacqueline Woodson’s Book Sweet, Sweet Memory to three classes now. However, I’ve never had such an intense discussion with any other group of children about Sweet, Sweet Memory as I did… Continue reading
