I had a really great first day of work. I learned a lot. The first thing I learned is that fourth graders are way different than fifth graders. Here's what I mean. My new students were a bit confused by the bio poems. In the past, my fifth graders never had trouble with completing a… Continue reading Modeling Our Writing
Category: writing
get a giggle out of this.
You absolutely must take two minutes and click over to Christi Overman's blog, Chocolate for Teachers, and read about her very first sharing session of her teaching career. I think I'll be giggling for days over this one. Clarification: I'm giggling about the unexpected nature of kids in workshop -- not the content of the… Continue reading get a giggle out of this.
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Scanning, Cutting & Pasting, or Rewriting?
I've come to realize that this whole "I'm going to recopy all of my writer's notebooks into one" thing has become exceedingly tedious. I found another old Miquelruis Notebook yesterday and realized I need to be putting that into my master notebook. This is just one of MANY entries from 2006: Aaaagggggh! What did I… Continue reading Scanning, Cutting & Pasting, or Rewriting?
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WN Entry: Making A List
I got inspired by Reflections from the Rockies' Post entitled "My Favorite Things About Colorado So Far." Since a good deal of my students' first couple weeks of Writing Workshos will revolve around the creation of lists (and then the development of a list item into an entry in their writer's notebook), I thought, "Why… Continue reading WN Entry: Making A List
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the balance of teaching writing.
Do you ever feel like you're being pulled in different teaching directions -- conventions and craft and process? Do you sometimes feel guilty when you're teaching about craft that you should be teaching conventions? Or in a conference when you compliment on the great focus of the writing, that you should be correcting the spelling? … Continue reading the balance of teaching writing.
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New Magazine for Student Writers
The first issue of Launch Pad: Where Young Authors and Illustrators Take Off will be coming out this January/February (2008), according to Reading Today, which arrived at my apartment yesterday. I explored Launch Pad's Website and found the following information about student submissions: Launch Pad invites submissions of creative works by young authors and illustrators,… Continue reading New Magazine for Student Writers
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notebooks: make ’em work for you!
What a great discussion Stacey got started about writer's notebooks. To see it, read her post One Notebook or Many? (as well as others since, click here). I've been thinking a lot about notebooks this week too. It is one of the basics of writing workshop and essential for us, as teachers of writing, to… Continue reading notebooks: make ’em work for you!
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Great Button About Writing
Kim from Bookworm Bookmarks created this great button for us. Kim creates some of the most beautiful hand-made bookmarks I've ever seen. She'll create a gorgeous one for you by going to this link. You can have Kim send you this bookmark that she created for us, or commission her to create something else for… Continue reading Great Button About Writing
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NCTE National Convention
After meeting Andi, Angela, Beth, and Molly at the WLU Conference in Louisville last month, I decided to attend the 2007 NCTE Convention in New York City. (Those four ladies will also be presenting at NCTE on 11/17 in a session called "OBSERVING DIVERISTY: A 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM INQUIRY JOURNEY.") I received the convention preview… Continue reading NCTE National Convention
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the gift we give.
Sharing. What a gift! I had the pleasure of spending last week with 25 teachers who were concentrating on becoming more effective writing teachers. I'm a firm believer in one of the best ways to become a better writing teacher is to become a writer. Therefore, each day was devoted to experiencing writing workshop first… Continue reading the gift we give.
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What really matters when providing quality writing instruction…
One of Ruth's Colleagues from Indiana, Jen Barney, wrote a post about the top ten things she's learned as a teacher of writing in the past year. I think she touches on some very important ideas in her posting, which reflect the same thinking Ruth and I have about teaching writing. Do stop over to… Continue reading What really matters when providing quality writing instruction…
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Getting Started: Creating CWPs
Heinemann just published a lovely series of three booklets by Jim Vopat entitled Micro Lessons in Writing. I am so excited about infusing these micro lessons into my classroom, starting with some of the ideas presented in the first of the three booklets, Big Ideas for Getting Started. In fact, I loved one of the… Continue reading Getting Started: Creating CWPs
