Today is the first day of the new trimester.  This means two things: I get to teach my own class starting today -- English 9A with 26 students. I barely slept last night and woke up early today.  This is typical behavior prior to the "first day of school."  Starting a new trimester is like… Continue reading Today.

I'm intrigued by peer conferring.  There's just something about two writers coming together to talk about their work that's interesting to me.  I love the nuances of peer conferring -- learning what works well and what doesn't.  I like to study really strong collaborations to find the little-known-secrets to a specific grade level of writers. … Continue reading Peer Conferring: Questions

These words are speaking to my soul tonight.  I'm planning to use them in a workshop I'm leading tomorrow. Students such as these walk into your classrooms in every size, shape, and color.  You can't know their histories because their only control is control of their secrets.  You are asked to create a safe enough… Continue reading Speaking to Me.

At the Basic Workshop Training there is always time for Adult Writing.  Yesterday, I shared one way to help get students writing is to read aloud a well-written text (a poem, picture book, or novel excerpt) and then allow the words "to hang in the air" while everyone silently picks up their pens and begins to… Continue reading Allowing Words to Hang in the Air

This finally led me to thinking about my high school art classes.  I was in the Honors Art Course and for me it was tough to get into.  I worked even harder to stay in it.  I didn't have the talent that everyone else had and I lived with the pressure that someone else could… Continue reading Motivation (Part II).

Last week I was in a history class.  It was the teacher's prep, but there were students working to put final touches on their presentations which were due later in the day.  Out of the blue, this conversation ensued: "I've got to start all over!" a student shouted. The teacher smiled and said, "What do you mean?" "Look… Continue reading Motivation (Part I)

Revision is one of my favorite parts of the writing process to teach.  I enjoy figuring out ways to encourage writers to make significant revisions.  It seems so often our students revise just to appease the teacher and the revisions don't really matter to the writer and don't really matter to the meaning of the… Continue reading Encouraging Revision

This morning as I was listening to the radio on my way to school, they were asking little kids to respond to the question:  How do you know someone loves you?  This response stuck with me: You know someone loves you by the way they say your name.  Your name just sounds safe in their… Continue reading Making Students Feel Valued.

It's getting late.  I'm tired.  A blog post is required before I go to bed.  Although I have a list of possibilities, I don't have the energy for them.  Not tonight.  Tonight I simply want to take Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith's advice:  "There's nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and… Continue reading Write What Matters Most.

Today Tony Miller and his third grade class invited me to celebrate with them the publication of their first pieces.  (Although we considered this the launch unit, it was actually the third unit of study, following Oral Storytelling and Launching Writing Notebooks.)  It was a perfect celebration. We started in the traditional way, meeting in… Continue reading Here’s to Writing Workshop!

I've been thinking a lot about authenticity when it comes to Writing and Reading Workshops.  I'm beginning to think that a big part of authentic instruction lies in trusting students.  Today Mr. Miller showed me what it means to trust students. We were conferring with a student and the longer we talked to him the more… Continue reading Trust