I was on Bethany's Blog this morning and came across a meme. Since I woke up around 4:00 a.m. this morning (couldn't sleep), I decided to give it a whirl. So, here I am! Here's the drill with the meme: Go back through your archives and post the links to five of your favorite blog… Continue reading A Retrospective of Posts
Category: writing workshop
Amaze Me!
You know the student who always rushes through assignments? You know, that kid... the one who sacrifices quality to finish his/her work? Well, I thought one of my students was rushing through their writing (which was all about elaborating using 'prompts to push our thinking about reading') when I saw that child's hand waving at… Continue reading Amaze Me!
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Immersion Begins Tomorrow
I'll begin immersing my students in the literary essay genre tomorrow. I'm fortunate to have had some wonderful students last year who graciously allowed me to share their essays with future students to-come. Hence, I have quite a few literary essays copied, ready-to-go for my students to possibly use as mentor texts tomorrow. I realized… Continue reading Immersion Begins Tomorrow
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MAKING KIDS FEEL BIG, NOT small.
I had the pleasure of hearing Linda Christensen deliver the keynote address at today's RIWP Spring 2008 Conference. Linda wrote a book entitled Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power, so it was natural for her to speak on the subject of the "Politics of Language: Teaching About Language and… Continue reading MAKING KIDS FEEL BIG, NOT small.
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Peek Into My Classroom
Some images that represent the writing-related things going on in my classroom. Enjoy the "tour!" (Many of these photos were taken by my students with my camera.) News & Announcement Chart Originally uploaded by teachergal
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Thinking Critically About Writing Workshop
I wanted to reflect on some questions Stephanie Jones, one of my former T.C. professors and author of Engaged Intellectuals, presents at the end of chapter 11 in her book Girls, Social Class, and Literacy. She asks readers to consider some questions about the Writing Workshop they teach. Here are her questions and my answers:… Continue reading Thinking Critically About Writing Workshop
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Units of Study
polls - Take Our Poll
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Working My Way Backwards
I started a story mountain for my W.W. minilesson demo today. I started with the climax of the story: Then, I started working my way backwards: I'm hoping this will illustrate for my students that you don't start at the beginning of and work your way forward. Sometimes, you have to go backwards and forwards… Continue reading Working My Way Backwards
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Persuasive Letter Lessons
Here's a great link to some persuasive letter lessons, complete with a business letter template, which I've used with my students since I started teaching, over at Scholastic.com. True, it's written for high schoolers, but you can adapt some of these sheets, as well as the lesson, for an elementary school Writing Workshop.
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Amazing Reasoning
I tried to announce a working snack time, like I always do, at the end of Writing Workshop today. However, my students didn't budge. Every single child in the classroom stayed-put where they were sitting and continued to write! What were they writing? Well, they were writing down the logical reasons they'll use to try… Continue reading Amazing Reasoning
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Choice & Genre Studies
After I attended the November 17th NCTE Workshop entitled "Where Has All The Real Choice Gone?" my mind started turning. Ruth and I went out for cupcakes and coffee at Buttercup Bake Shop hours after attending together and we couldn't stop talking about the issue of choice in the writing classroom. Hence, after grappling with… Continue reading Choice & Genre Studies
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New Header
Joel from "So You Want To Teach" created our new image header. It's a combination of our old one (sans the paper clips) and a little something new. Please let me us know what you think of it (and which one you prefer: the old one or this one). THANKS!
