Demonstration in Minilessons: my personal narrative

When I attended T.C., I took “The Teaching of Writing” with Lucy Calkins, who truly taught me how to write better (not to mention how to be a better teacher of writing!). We wrote personal narratives for her class in which we went through many drafts and had to keep a log of our [...]

Hosting a Writing Night

My October newsletter is being translated right now. I expect to be sending it home to my students’ families sometime next week. I’m excited about it since I’m announcing a Wednesday Writing Night for late November in there. My colleagues, Kate and Felicia, and I will be hosting it for all of [...]

Outdoor Outlet

Please check out Jen’s Post about taking her students outside to write. It’s a great idea to try before the weather gets too cold (which is happening soon in most parts of our readership’s world.)

PBWiki

Ruth and I have both set up Wikis. Her’s is for teachers and mine is for my students’ families. However, I just found out that there’s an educator wiki at PBWiki.com. Be sure to check it out if you’d like to jump on the Wiki Bandwagon! (Not sure what a wiki [...]

Twenty Published Pieces

Twenty Published Pieces That Grew Out of Writer’s Notebook Entries

Caption: My students spent two days working on on-demand writing pieces. Today eight of them shared their small moment stories in front of their peers. However, all of them took time to decorate the covers of the manila folders that hold photocopies of their original entries, [...]

Poetry Friday Submission

Ahh! Poetry Friday is here!
My poem comes straight off of the Giggle Poetry Website, which my former students have always loved. I hope you enjoy today’s selection AND will share the Giggle Poetry Site with your students as well.
I Brought My Grandma’s Teeth to School
by Robert Pottle

I brought [...]

Q & A: A Writer’s Identity?

Sarah Amick left the following comment –
Hey, do you guys have any information on developing a writer’s identity? I have a kiddo that doesn’t think that his words matter. Do you have any mini lessons that I can teach or a good book to go along with that?
First, check out Sarah’s post about her solution [...]

On-Demand Writing Time

They’ve collected and collected and collected some more in their writer’s notebooks. Now it’s time for my kids to publish something. I’m giving them two days to do an “on-demand” piece of writing about a small moment in time. Today I had them use post-its to help themselves find some entries they [...]

Writer’s Notebook Wednesday is Here!

This week I remembered to post the entry before going to work. Hooray for me!!! Anyway, we’re trying Mr. Linky again. Do link us to your entry and/or leave us a comment.
Looking forward to reading your entries!

ruth’s wn entry: fantasy story character & magic & setting.

Here are a couple of pages from my writer’s notebook.  I put them on transparencies and used them to teach a focus lesson about doing some “deep thinking” about a story before actually drafting.  I encouraged students to begin with their character and to then explore other elements of their story.  (I also explained that [...]

Stacey’s WN Entry: Weekends in Brooklyn with My Dad

Coney Island: 2004
Originally uploaded by teachergal

When I was a little girl my father used to take me to Brooklyn at least once a month so we could spend time with his dad, my grandfather. One of the things I loved the most about going to Brooklyn to visit my grandfather was taking a side trip [...]

Memory Boxes are a big hit!

I modeled the golf glove piece to my class today during my demonstration. I partially wrote it out and partially wrote in the air. Then, I had the kids select one item from their memory box, during the active engagement, and had them write in the air about it, telling the story of [...]

fantasy writing.

I’m working in a fifth grade classroom this week who studied Chris Van Allsburg and are now working on their own fantasy stories.  I must admit I was a bit skeptical about the teacher’s decision to begin the year with fantasy writing, but after a few days in the classroom, I think it’s a brilliant [...]

playing with technology.

I started a wiki a few weeks ago and have been playing with this form of sharing .  When you go there, you will see it’s a work in progress.  I’m still in the midst of determining the purpose.  (Kind of like a lot of other stuff in my life, like my original blog.)
Today I added [...]

moving from notebooks to drafts.

It’s that time of the year in many classrooms.  Check out the discussion (via the comments) in Jen Barney’s post:  A Moment.  Great discussion & ideas.

Cybils

I’m honored to be part of the Cybils Fiction Picture Book Judging Team.
Thanks Anne and Kelly!

How can we help?

I noticed that the First Year Teacher Page is one of the second most-popular “post” on our blog. Since we’re about one month into the school year, I wanted to ask HOW we can really help you more? Are there forms or templates you want to see? What kind of things can [...]

Here’s what’s going inside of the memory box I’ll create tomorrow with my students…

1. Golf Glove purchased on Kiawah Island in the late 1990’s. Used twice. Maybe three times. Stories from my golf lesson abound. (I think this is what I’ll model with during my Minilesson Demo since I have very few memories of using this item. But the ones I do have [...]

Memory Boxes

We’re creating Memory Boxes in Writing Workshop tomorrow. (Then on Tuesday they’ll start writing entries based-off of the items in their box.) Problem: It’s 10:03 p.m. and I haven’t figured out what to put in my box yet. ARGH!!! I’ve started looking around my desk and have come up with [...]

Weekend Writing Assessments

Davis and Hill gave me the idea to have students fill out a weekend writer’s notebook assessment. I gave it to my students for the first time today and walked them through a sample of how to fill it out on the overhead projector. I also provided copies in English/Spanish so [...]

Poetry Friday is here!

“Hurt No Living Thing”
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.
–Christina Rossetti
Poetry Friday is being held at Read Write Believe this week.

Reacting to the World

I shared my September 11th WN Entry with my class today since my teaching point was:
Writers react to things that are happening in the world around them by writing long about events in their writer’s notebook.
I was a bit nervous to share it with them since it paints a very vivid picture of what life [...]

Round Challah

I’ve noticed that there aren’t any explicit directions on how to make a round challah online for the Jewish High Holy Days. Hence, since I’m about to engage in some challah making, I think that my writing for today will focus around how to make one of those. I’m striving to make an [...]

comments.

We’ve been noticing that we’re getting visitors from across the globe.  Can’t tell you how much this makes us smile!  In an effort to boost comments, we’ve made it so you no longer need a WordPress account to leave a comment.  Here’s hoping this makes commenting easier and more people will begin sharing.

Mapping Our Hearts

Heart Map Display

Originally uploaded by teachergal

My demo was too long. And because of that, the entire day ran late. HOWEVER, we had an amazing Writing Workshop where my students crafted maps of their hearts (Thanks to Georgia Heard!), which visually illustrate the most important things to them.
Here’s a photo of them [...]