I've been seeing a lot around the blog world and on Twitter about summer reading plans. I think it's also important to help the writers in our classrooms think about their summer writing plans. Here are some ideas to encourage summer writing. I'm hoping you add to the list in the comments. Help students think… Continue reading Summer Writing Plans

I feel like I have to apologize. Because of the storms, I keep coming home to no Internet. Boo! So like Monday, today's post is from my phone. (I'm hoping there won't be any errors!) Tonight we went to Sam's preschool graduation. On the way, he requested we play Kool & the Gang's Celebration. "Turn… Continue reading Celebrate!

Leave a comment and share... What have you read lately... For fun? That your students loved? That changed the way you teach? On the web? That you couldn't put down? That made you want to write? Can't wait to read your comments!

When it comes to reading fiction, I have no self-control. I tell myself novels are meant to be read over a series of days. I do not have to engulf an entire novel in one setting. It is fun when the characters linger at the edges of my mind, waiting for me to return. Still.… Continue reading Ruth’s SOLS: I Have No Self-Control

Happy Mother's Day. I hope you had a good day. It's a bittersweet day for me. I spent so many years missing a baby on this day that even now I'm reminded that it is a day where mothers miss children and kids are missing mothers. Whatever emotions today brings for you I want you… Continue reading Sundays for the Soul: Pass a Note

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt it didn't matter. --- Edward Albee

Linda left a comment on my last rereading post reminding us about the voices we ask kids to turn off when they are writing. You know the voices -- the monsters that tell you evil things like: This is dumb; You can't write: Why are you writing those words? These monsters must be squelched. This… Continue reading Little Writer or Little Monster?

Last Friday, after Christi read Thursday's post about rereading, she said, "Will you teach a lesson like that in here?" Naturally I was game and a little excited. Lessons are always better when you get to try them again. This time, I explained rereading is something writers do to get a feel for how the story… Continue reading More on Rereading

Make plans now to attend the All-Write Summer Institute! I'll be there along with: Jeff Anderson Ann Marie Corgill Georgia Heard Lester Laminack Debbie Miller Katie Wood Ray Terry Thompson Cris Tovani Kristina McBride (YA author of Tension of Opposites) Barbara Morrow (children's author) As if this isn't enough, Gordon Korman will be speaking on… Continue reading Sundays for the Soul: Summer PD

It begins with character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does. --- William Faulkner

This book will be for sale on May 10 and I suggest you make a plan to get it! I've read it to my own kids more than ten times already and today I shared it with two second grade classrooms. True to Lauren Child's work, the illustrations + text are full of whimsy and… Continue reading Slightly Invisible