Slice of Life Buttons

Here are some buttons you can use if you want to proudly display your participation in the Slice of Life Challenge.    Also, feel free to use these with your students too. My friend, Monica, made this button into a hyperlink to use on your blog.  Here is the code that will get ya a [...]

Let’s Celebrate!

Today was the end of the trimester at my school.  This also means it is the end of the course I’ve been teaching for the past twelve weeks.  Naturally, we held a writing celebration.  I teamed up with another teacher, Tif Beer, and we put together a: RED CARPET CELEBRITY EVENT Writing Celebration & Awards Banquet [...]

Slice of Life Story Challenge Giveaways

Here’s a peek at what we’re giving away for participants of the March Challenge. (NOTE: If we have more daily participants than prizes, then we’ll go into drawing-mode.) NOTE: Each picture is hyperlinked to each artist’s shop (or author), so do click on the pictures to learn more about each artist or author. Additionally, Bonnie [...]

SOLSC Inspiration

Looking for ways to get your class inspired about the upcoming Slice of Life Story Challenge?  Here are a few ideas: 1.  Send a letter home like I posted on Sunday.  Be sure to have it translated so your students’ parents are fully aware of what’s going on.  (You may encourage them to participate too!) [...]

Looking for Feedback

Qualities of Good Writing Doodles0002 Originally uploaded by teachergal As a teacher of writing, what do these doodles say to you about the qualities of good writing? Please leave a comment and LMK what you think. THANKS, in advance, for your feedback!

And the Winner Is . . .

No video drawing this week, I had to use more archaic measures.  It went like this: Checked the number of comments and subtract one (since Stacey isn’t eligible to win our own giveaway!) Said to Andy (my sweet husband), “Hey, choose a number between 1 and 10.” “Seven!”  (It strikes me that it says something [...]

Reading Response Letters.

Today my students took a summative assessment over the novelsthey read for their literature circles.  There were four parts to include in the letter, which aligned with the kinds of notes they took in preparation for their discussions.  Then, as a conclusion, I asked them to tell me something about their lives right now.  Wow!  I [...]

Reflections

This week my students are reflecting on the drafting process (of their memoirs) more than they’re sharing at the end of Workshop time.  I wanted to have-a-go with them reflecting, in lieu of sharing, for just a week, after reading”Academic Resilience and Reading: Building Successful Readers” in Vol. 62, No. 5 of The Reading Teacher.  [...]

Noticing Exclamation Points and Periods in a Published Text

I’ve been preparing for a p.d. session on conventions that I’m leading with one of my colleagues next Friday.  Hence, I’m trying to look at picture books with an eye for grammar and mechanics.  Over the weekend I picked up a new, adorable book called Artichoke Boy, written by Scott Mickelson, and looked at it [...]

Ruth’s Slice of Life: A Nearly Perfect Moment

Sun streaming in Watching my students Pencils moving Thoughts swarming Ideas evolving Lives changing

Quote.

Ali Edwards has had this up on her site for a few days now.  It’s speaking to me. Souza : For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, [...]

Link Your Slice of Life Story Here!

The month-long Slice of Life Story Challenge is a few days away.  If you’re looking to get ready to launch a month-long Slice of Life Story Challenge in your classroom, then please click here for details. However, if you stopped by to submit the link to the Slice of Life Story you wrote for today, [...]

Ruth’s Memoir-ish Monday: Give Choice a Chance

So we’ve been studying persuasion in my ninth grade English class.  Since my students were required to write a persuasive piece, I placed the same expectation on myself.  I’m “getting away” using this as my Memoir Monday post because I used a narrative scene as evidence to support my claim.  I was inspired by my November [...]

Memoir Monday

Happy Monday!  Please link your marvelous Monday Memoirs in the comments section of this post!  (By the way, this will be the last Memoir Monday post until April 6, due to the month-long Slice of Life Story Challenge.)

Gearing Up for the Classroom Part of the Slice of Life Story Challenge

Are you planning to host a Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC) in your classroom during the month of March?  If so, here are some basic tools to launch it this-coming Sunday, 3/1/09. #1) Send home an announcement about the SOLSC this week.  Here’s an example of the one I’m sending home, which looks a [...]

messy assessment :)

Terri left the following comment on a recent post, “Tracks of Teaching.” I was just thinking of this very thing this morning.  How do you assess kids on what you have taught if none of it is evident?  For example, I taught a unit of study on narrative poetry.  A student turned in an essay [...]

A Thought + A Poem

Around Indiana, Kindergarten Round Up is in full swing.  This personally effects me since my red-headed flair of a five year old will be entering kindergarten next year.  She is so excited.  She’s unable to keep still just thinking about going to kindergarten.  I watch her pretend and imagine and dress up as a ninja-dentist-ballerina [...]

tracks of teaching.

I’ve always been a big believer that the “tracks of teaching” should be evident when walking into a classroom.  By this, I mean that if I simply scan the walls of a classroom, I should be able to know what has been studied.  Right now, if you would enter the classroom I teach in, you [...]

Well-Defined

Salinger’s book Well Defined: Vocabulary in Rhyme provides me with a way to teach my students vocabulary and poetry simultaneously.  I’m passionate about both, which is why I was so excited to get my hands on this book yesterday.  Each poem contains a title (the word) and a definition at the bottom of each page, [...]

Punctuation Is NOT An Editing Tool: It’s a Crafting Tool!

I started reading Dan Feigelson’s Book Practical Punctuation: Lessons on Rule Making and Rule Breaking in Elementary Writing yesterday.  It’s the first time I’ve sat down and read a book on grammar and actually stayed awake.  Seriously!  Every other book I’ve read on teaching kids how to punctuate, use conventions properly, etc. has made my [...]

Vocabulary

Michael F. Graves’s Book The Vocabulary Book: Learning & Instruction asserts that increasing a child’s vocabulary makes him/her a stronger writer (43).  He states: The goal is to get students to realize that the words they use in their writing are very important, that the words they use will affect both clarity of what they [...]

SOLSC Drawing

Watch the video to find out who will be receiving the coaster from reChinafication. Click here to view the video.  If you’re the winner, then please e-mail me your address.

Link Your Slice of Life Story Here!

The month-long Slice of Life Story Challenge is two weeks away. However, if you stopped by to submit the link to the Slice of Life Story you wrote for today, then Ruth and I have yet another little surprise for you. One lucky participant in today’s Slice of Life Story Challenge will receive a little [...]

Writerly Things to Do on February Break

Are you off from work this week?  Are you looking for ways to nurture your inner writer?  If so, then here’s a little list I made, which may (or may not) appeal to you. TODAY: Write a Memoir Monday Post. TUESDAY: Participate in the Slice of Life Story Challenge. WEDNESDAY: Do any planning you may [...]

Memoir Monday

It’s that time of the week again! Please link your memoir-ish post to this one by leaving a comment.