With no rigid rules, free verse poetry invites every writer in. Discover how including poetry at the beginning of the year celebrates student identities and builds an inclusive classroom community.
Category: Straight from the Classroom
More Chants for Handwriting and Conventions
Check out these three chants I wrote to help primary students with handwriting and conventions!
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Class Newsbooks: Daily Interactive Writing and Language Development That Builds Community
Class Newsbooks are an interactive writing routine designed to support oral language development and writing skills, plus foster strong classroom community in the primary grades. Read all about how to get started with this routine in your own classroom.
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A Little More Voice in Writing? Yes, Please
Templates and organizers are effective scaffolds for many writers as they navigate their learning of sentence, paragraph, and compositional writing. And, along that pathway, exists the challenge of incorporating their voice, cadence, and interest into their writing.
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Making the Case for Paper Charts (Plus Some Tips)
Charts have become less common in the classroom as slides become more prevalent. But paper charts serve specific purposes that slides can't serve. Here’s why we all should be making more charts.
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One Topic Writers: The Importance of Interest in the Writing Workshop
What do we do when a student wants to write about the same topic every day? Let them be! Keep reading to explore why interest is so important for our student authors.
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Family Write-In: Inviting Caregivers to Write Alongside Their Children
What happens when you invite caregivers to write alongside second graders? Joy, vulnerability, and a powerful shift in perspective.
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Strategic Vocabulary Connections: Straight from the Classroom
Here are three strategies for integrating intentional vocabulary connections into your reading and writing instruction. While these examples come from a seventh-grade classroom, they can be effortlessly adapted for K-12 learning environments.
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How AI Can Enliven a Unit and Spark Revision
What if your students could see their stories come to life with just a few clicks? That’s exactly what happened when I introduced AI-generated images to my second-grade writers.
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Learning Logs: Straight from the Classroom
Learning Logs are a low-prep, highly transferable, and easily adaptable strategy that helps students process new learning and make personal connections to their learning through writing.
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Stronger & Clearer: A Partnership Protocol
The Stronger & Clearer protocol incorporates oral rehearsal, peer feedback, and revision into the writing process. Check out the steps to try this partnership protocol in your own classroom.
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Getting to Know You: Building Classroom Community Through Shared Writing
Get to know each student and build classroom community with this beginning-of-the year shared writing activity that also includes language development for multilingual learners.
