The first six weeks of school is about providing structure for students. Teachers who are too lenient never seem to gain control of their class while teachers who are too rigid risk the chance of not building a cohesive classroom community since students don’t feel safe enough to take risks. There’s a fine line to… Continue reading Writing Workshop Expectations
Words that are Speaking to Me
"What's the point of living if you're going to hate the world? Guard your heart if you have to, but don't shut it away." ---Neal Shusterman, Bruiser I've been fighting to get this blog post up for the past 28 hours. So there's a quote by a new favorite writer of mine. Find out… Continue reading Words that are Speaking to Me
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Weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge
Please link the Slice of Life Story you write today to this post by leaving a comment. Be sure to check out other bloggers’ writing by clicking through the links in the comment section of this post. Come back later today (or even tomorrow) to read through the links of a few other Slicers who… Continue reading Weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge
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Writers use narrative, informative, and opinion modes of writing across genres.
Along with this slide, I said these words in the section of my key note called, "Using narrative, informative, and persuasion to tell your Story." One of the things unsettling to me is the segregation of the text types. Even though the text types appear to be separate, segregated into nice neat boxes, divided… Continue reading Writers use narrative, informative, and opinion modes of writing across genres.
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Certification
If you're like me, summer is a time to catch up on paperwork and things you've put off for months. Last Wednesday afternoon I went into the NY State Office of Teacher Initiatives' website to report my professional development hours for both of my NY State teaching licenses. I mistakenly thought I had until the… Continue reading Certification
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What are they hoping to get?
At my school, today marks day four for students. We are nearing the end of the honeymoon period. You know what I'm talking about, right? The newness of starting school is wearing off and we're starting to see the real kids behind the new school clothes. So how do we move past the honeymoon and… Continue reading What are they hoping to get?
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Nonfiction Mentor Text + a Giveaway
I've been thinking a lot about the balance of nonfiction and fiction texts in the classroom lately. Starting today, I'm making an effort to share more nonfiction picture books you can use as mentor texts in writing workshop. While I haven't taken stock of how many fiction picture books I've recommended as mentor texts here… Continue reading Nonfiction Mentor Text + a Giveaway
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Starting Slowly
One of the things I realized about myself when I went to the Choice Literacy writing retreat is how quickly I speed through the day. I like to pay attention to the world around me, but sometimes I'm moving too quickly. For the past few weeks I've been trying to slow down my pace. It's… Continue reading Starting Slowly
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The Secret Ingredient to Creating Engaged Writers
I’ve been thinking about student engagement in writing workshop for the past couple of weeks. I started thinking about it as I was reading Guy-Write, Ralph Fletcher’s new book. My thoughts about engagement continued as I sat in Maggie Beattie Roberts’s class about technology and media at the summer Reading Institute. Everything came to a… Continue reading The Secret Ingredient to Creating Engaged Writers
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The Weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge
Please link the Slice of Life Story you write today to this post by leaving a comment. Be sure to check out other bloggers’ writing by clicking through the links in the comment section of this post. Come back later today (or even tomorrow) to read through the links of a few other Slicers who… Continue reading The Weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge
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Fun with Language
Recently someone asked me about my writing routine. As I was responding to her email, listing the times I squeeze writing into the day, I added this line: I remember I'm doing this because I like to write. The minute it's lost its joy is the minute I know I something needs to change. It's… Continue reading Fun with Language
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Words that are Speaking to Me
Always and forever at the start of a new school year... If you want to teach me to write, first you must love me. ---Avi
