homework · notebooks · writing workshop

Dear Kids… A Post You Can Share With Your Students on How To Use Writing Notebooks Home

Inspired by a recent conversation I had with some fourth graders, today I want to share a post with you that is also something you can share with your students. Feel free to read, display, or otherwise share with your third fourth, fifth graders, and middle schoolers.

writing workshop

The Good-Enough Writing Workshop

When we're new at doing something, we try to achieve perfection too soon. Greatness isn't something that can be achieved when we begin teaching writing using a workshop approach. It helps to extend ourselves some grace and accept being "good enough" when we start.

NCTE · writing workshop

It’s Tuesday! Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge

Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts.

minilesson · repertoire · writing workshop

The Importance of Repertoire for Teachers

We can change up how we are teaching depending on the situation and circumstances, but in order to do that, we have to know some choices and moves we can make. Knowing this, there are a few quick ways we can think about repertoire within our whole group instruction.

EAL · Inventive spelling · multilingual · spelling · writing workshop

Spelling in a Writing Workshop

The truth… I’d rather not talk about spelling. There are more important things in a writing workshop, than to talk about spelling. Spelling well is a good thing. When we edit what we write, it is profusely important, but it has nothing to do with growing a writer. When we focus on spelling or grammar correctness, the growing writer becomes stifled.

September 11th · writing workshop

Pausing to Remember 9/11

While every day is an opportunity to practice kindness, put our arms around the people we love, and cherish all that is good in our lives, perhaps today is an especially good day to remember the importance of doing those things.

slice of life · Toni Morrison · writing workshop

It’s Tuesday! Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge!

Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts.

goals · strategic conferring · strategies · writing workshop

What’s in a Strategy?

Do your writers know how strategies can help them reach their destination? Better yet, do they know where they are going?

slice of life · Toni Morrison · writing workshop

It’s Tuesday! Join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge!

Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts. This month, I have collected some quotes from Toni Morrison to inspire us. Some of them come from a 1993 interview in The Paris Review. If you have time, the entire interview… Continue reading It’s Tuesday! Join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge!

writing workshop

Read Alouds for Writers

For students, a read aloud is a serious tool. It is a source of building community, language, literacy, and much more. Read alouds offer a lot for the growth of a reader, but they offer much more than we think for writers, especially writers who are also EALs (learners of English as an Additional Language).… Continue reading Read Alouds for Writers

writing workshop

How do your students learn?

The more that we understand the distinctive characteristics of the intelligences, the better we can recognize ways to differentiate for learners, honoring the spectrum of learning styles that exist in not only our classrooms, but also our world.

materials · toolkits · writing workshop

Writers Need Tools!

As teachers, we have tools we use across the day and toolkits we use within our writing workshop. As I get ready for my second week of school here is a glimpse at the tools my writers will be gathering this week as we get further into the routines of our writing workshop!