A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.
Calling all middle school teachers! Today I’m sharing a ready to use set of lessons, resources, and a digital notebook for adolescent readers and writers featuring some of my favorite books in verse.
Calling all middle school teachers! Today I’m sharing a ready to use resource toolkit for adolescent readers and writers featuring the book, Look Both Ways, by Jason Reynolds.
In my experience, many young writers struggle to use a writer’s notebook as a tool. They’re excited to have a notebook but unclear about what to “do” in there. Shared writing can be a powerful way to teach writers how to generate ideas for writing and to get themselves started, based on the books we are reading and discussing as a community.
Increase engagement and memory by learning how to Sketchnote
Growing up the younger sibling of a sister with pervasive disabilities was a crash course in perspective. The lessons I learned from my sister have made me who I am. … Continue Reading Writing about Reading: Considering Perspective Paves the Way for Critical Thinking— Part of #TWTBlog’s Throwback Week
A little peek inside the final chapter of THE READING STRATEGIES BOOK and a giveaway!
This statement is sticking with me following a session at a conference with Kate Roberts. As I prepare for the next school year I am thinking, processing and evaluating where … Continue Reading How To Write “Long” About Reading
Have plans mid-June? Cancel them and prepare to run to your nearest bookstore. The Reading Strategies Book by Jen Serravallo is a must and is intended for grades K-8!
I miss many things about being a classroom teacher. I miss the camaraderie with the students, the collegiality with the staff, and the sense that what I’m doing really matters. … Continue Reading Tuck Everlasting: 40th Anniversary Blog Tour #Tuck40th
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 … Continue Reading Writing About Reading Begins With Thinking About Reading
Another strategy for writing about reading: Written Conversations
Rubin’s vase is a famous optical illusion that can be interpreted in multiple ways. When looked at one way, it appears to be a vase. When looked at another way, … Continue Reading Writing about Reading: Considering Perspective Paves the Way for Critical Thinking
I remember now why it is important to keep a reader’s notebook.
Ever since I began teaching, my students’ reading journals have been as much “the gateway to all the work we will be doing from September to June” (to borrow a … Continue Reading Setting up the reading journal for a year of writing about reading
Today’s post is based on a workshop presented at the International Reading Association conference titled: Thinking, Talking, and Writing about Nonfiction Reading. Nonfiction Book Clubs provide the perfect opportunity for students to solidify all they are learning and to get better at writing about their reading.
The last quarter of the school year signals a time of mixed feelings – the year is almost over, and even though we look forward to restful summer days, there … Continue Reading Revisiting the Writer’s Notebook with “Revision Centers”
The writing a child crafts about a book or an article in her writer’s notebook often holds a lot of meaning or value to her. This kind of writing about reading isn’t about finding the main idea, making predictions, or intertextual connections. Rather, this writing about reading is usually composed in response to something that affected a child so deeply she had to write about it on her own terms.
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 … Continue Reading Reflecting on Reading Like a Writer
This past summer I spent a week at the TCRWP Summer Writing Institute. One of my week-long courses was about mentor texts. Emily Smith, the section leader, introduced us to … Continue Reading Developing Theories About Craft Moves
I conferred with one of my students during Reading Workshop today about the writing she was doing about her reading. I noticed the words “things” and “stuff” appearing. I showed … Continue Reading Using Precise Language When Writing About Reading or When Writing in One’s Notebook
