Demonstration in Minilessons: my personal narrative

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Hosting a Writing Night

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Outdoor Outlet

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

PBWiki

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Twenty Published Pieces

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Poetry Friday Submission

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Q & A: A Writer’s Identity?

by Ruth Ayres

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… Read More →

On-Demand Writing Time

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Writer’s Notebook Wednesday is Here!

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

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

by Ruth Ayres

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… Read More →

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

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Memory Boxes are a big hit!

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

fantasy writing.

by Ruth Ayres

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… Read More →

playing with technology.

by Ruth Ayres

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… Read More →

moving from notebooks to drafts.

by Ruth Ayres

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

by Stacey Shubitz

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

How can we help?

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

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

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Memory Boxes

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →

Weekend Writing Assessments

by Stacey Shubitz

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… Read More →