SOLSC

Please post a comment with a link to your Slice of Life Story for the first Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC) of the year!

The Big Picture Series: Teacher as Writer

“If you are not a writer, you will not understand the difficulties of writing. If you are not a writer, you will not know the fears and hopes of the writers you teach.” – Mem Fox Interpretation of the Quote: Right before Winter Recess, I gave three of my students a printout that included the [...]

Purposes for Writing in a Notebook: Kids’ Responses

My markers may have been drying up, but there was nothing that was going to stop me from recording my kids’ responses during the minilesson I gave today. Take a look at what they had to say. (Click here for the corresponding lesson.)

Big Picture Series: Conferring

“Teach the writer, not the writing.” – Lucy Calkins   Do you ever feel exasperated by all of the errors you see in your students’ writing?  The conference begins and before you know it you’ve given lots of useful advice on how to fix the writing.  You look over and notice your student is completely [...]

The First Memoir Monday of 2009

It’s the first Memoir Monday of 2009. Won’t you share today? All you have to do is leave the link to your post in the comments. Happy Monday!

Big Picture Series: Fellow Travelers

Too often, there are isolated islands of teachers who are attempting best practice, yet feel no support from the teacher across the hall or even in the building.  We want to be the comforting colleagues at the end of the rough day or the people who rejoice with you when things go well.  Through this Big [...]

Launching Minilesson: Writer’s Notebook Unit of Study

I head back to school tomorrow. I am starting a new unit of study in both Reading and Writing Workshop (nonfiction and notebook writing, respectively). Hence, I thought I’d share my first Writing Workshop Minilesson of the new year about the multiple purposes writers have for using writer’s notebooks. Minilesson Teaching Point: Writers understand there [...]

Networked Blogs

Two Writing Teachers is now a Networked Blog on Facebook. You can find us by clicking here. We welcome you to join our network!

Poetry Friday & Photo Friday Collide (Again)

The Perfect Hot Fudge Sundaes Originally uploaded by teachergal Bernard Friot gives readers a charge on Day 100 of The Aspiring Poet’s Journal to write a poem as a text message. Since I’m not a big text-er (and don’t pay for them), I thought this would be a challenge. My poem is about the hot [...]

Classroom Re-Org for 2009

Spaces & Places: Designing Classrooms for Literacy Written by Debbie Diller Published by Stenhouse Publishers in 2008 Review copy provided by the publisher It’s a new year, not a new school year… so why think about reorganizing your classroom now instead of over the summer? Well, if you’re like me, you’re noticing your students are [...]

Ruth’s OLW for 2009

Happy New Year!  I hope that you have been soaking up the joys of vacation.  I have and plan to continue doing so for the next three days.  Soon enough the daily grind will be back. Delight.  Yes, that is my delightful One Little Word for 2009.  I’m looking forward to all that I have [...]

Memoir Inspiration

Need some inspiration for Memoir Monday?  Need more reason to write your life?  Maybe you’ve chosen write for your One Little Word?  If so, read this Reader’s Digest article “5 Extra Memoir Excerpts.”

My One Little Word of 2009

Ali Edwards’ Post (yesterday) got me going with the creation of my “placard” that contains my One Little Word of 2009. I toyed with a variety of words to help me capture what I want 2009 to look like for me; to help guide me through the year just like the word balance guided me [...]