New York Times Article about Reading Workshop

Mindy Hoffar, leader of the All-Write Consortium, sent this article to coaches.  The article opens a discussion of teaching according to the reading workshop philosophy versus the “canon” of assigned texts.  Although, perhaps the most interesting part is reading through a few of the comments at the end.
Take a few minutes to read “A New Assignment: [...]

Back to School: I’m Thankful . . .

Inspired by Friday’s “Living Like a Writer” post, I took a few moments to slow down and make a list of gratitudes when it comes to my teaching life.  To kick off Back to School Week, won’t you do the same thing?  Then take a few minutes and leave a comment with your three favorite [...]

Back to School Week.

Next week will be a week where we celebrate returning to school.  It is our vision to use the week to answer questions or elaborate on ideas that are most pressing to our readers.  We’d love to know what’s on your mind . . . so please leave a comment or take the poll (or [...]

Living Like a Writer: Slow Down.

So much of writing is living.  The actual putting of words to paper is only a small fraction of what it means to be a writer.  For us in the Midwest, school is in full swing and life is busy.  Teachers feel pressure, students feel pressure, administrators feel pressure, parents feel pressure . . . [...]

The Power of Three

When I was at the TCRWP’s Writing Institute a couple of weeks ago, there was a buzz about the power of three. Funny how I’ve been in and around lots of writing-related professional development in the past five years and have never heard anything about the power of three until mid-August. I heard [...]

Congratulations Penny Kittle!

As I was finding links for the last post, I came across this announcement on Heinemann’s website:
Congratulations to Penny Kittle! She has won the 2009 NCTE’s James N. Britton Award for Write Beside Them. Penny will receive the Britton Award on November 20th at NCTE’s annual conference in Philadelphia.
For the complete announcement, click here. 
Here’s wishing [...]

Need inspiration? Check out this book!

I have loved Wednesdays this summer on Two Writing Teachers.  Lately Stacey has been blogging on Wednesdays and I’ve been envisioning my post for one of my recent favorite books from the field.   For those who are regular readers, it won’t come as a surprise that it is by Penny Kittle.  Her book, Public Teaching: [...]

Another Tuesday. Another Call for Slice of Life Stories.

Link your Slice of Life Story to the comments section of this post. Happy Writing!

Last night, when Ruth and I were on the telephone, I informed her about an experience I had about a week-and-a-half ago at the TCRWP Writing Institute.  I took a course with Mary Ehrenworth that dealt with breathing beauty and life [...]

Memoir Monday

Welcome to Memoir Monday.  Those who are regulars, we are looking forward to reading your memories as you record them and share them today.  If you are new to Two Writing Teachers, or a Memoir Monday rookie, we would love to have you join us.  Here are two simple ways to dip your toes into [...]

Living Like a Writer: Goals for the Upcoming School Year

Raise your hand if your administration makes you do goal setting at the beginning of the school year?
Okay.
Now raise your hand if your administration collects the goal setting you do as a way to help you monitor those goals throughout the school year.
Did you raise your hand both times?
It’s great to have administrators who [...]

Mentor Texts: The Importance of Rereading

I live with a three year old.  Sometimes he becomes obsessive about a book.  He’ll get on a streak and only want the same story read over and over and over — many times a day for many days in a row.  The current obsession is David Shannon’s A Bad Case of Stripes.   At first [...]

Professional Talk: Shared Writing 2.0

I recently received a review copy of Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom, which is edited by Anne Herrington, Kevin Hodgson, and Charles Moran.  The text is comprised of short texts by a variety of teacher-authors who have mastered the art of using technology in their writing classrooms.  The [...]

Are you out there Slicers?

My apologies for the late post today.  Teachers returned yesterday at my school district.  We had huge thunderstorms and lost power.  Can you imagine no copy machines on the day before opening day?  The Internet was still down today.  Not to mention that on the home front my second grader and kindergartener started school today [...]

Memoir Monday: Origins of Writing

I’ve been thinking a lot about the questions Pam Muñoz Ryan posed to the audience at the TCRWP Writing Institute last week. There are many reasons I write: to communicate with others quickly, to persuade, to record family stories, to venture to new worlds, etc. However, none of those quick reasons really get [...]

Living Like a Writer: Why do you read and write?

I had the absolute pleasure of listening to Pam Muñoz Ryan deliver the keynote address at the TCRWP Writing Institute this past Wednesday. (And to make things even better, she even signed my copy of Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride for me.) The topic of her keynote address was “Reading to Write, [...]

What book will you read aloud on the first day of school?

When I was a middle school teacher, and now in most workshops that I lead, my favorite first read aloud is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Dr. Seuss (with some help from Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith). This book is not only perfect in its message, but a rich source for a  mentor text.
It sounds [...]

Professional Talk: Differentiation in Word Study

I recall hearing about differentiated spelling words, for students in Word Study, the first time I visited the school I taught at in Rhode Island.  I was unsure of how it would be possible to differentiate for students.  Once I began teaching fourth grade in Rhode Island, I quickly learned the easiest way to find [...]

SOLSC: Internal and External Writing

This week I am immersed in professional development at the TCRWP Writing Institute.  One of the many things Lucy Calkins eloquently discussed in yesterday’s Keynote Address was the idea of writing in order to figure out the internal story, rather than just writing the external story.  Therefore, I challenge you to try to bring out [...]

Second Memoir Monday of August

It’s now the second week of August. In Central Pennsylvania, it feels hotter and muggier. In fact, yesterday morning we even had a thunderstorm. While I wish it was a bit cooler, I’m sure that there are plenty of people who feel it’s not hot enough for outside. It’s funny how [...]

Living Like a Writer: Someday

Yesterday morning I received a promotional e-mail from The Daily Planner, a company that sells oodles of interesting writerly supplies.  I perused around their site for a few minutes, find an “8 Days a Week” Tear-Off Pad that included space for the seven days of the week + an extra section for someday.  The word [...]

The Joy of Apostrophes

Is there any joy when teaching apostrophes? Certainly! The only thing is that the joy doesn’t come from disseminating worksheets to kids… it comes from using books to demonstrate the concept.
A couple of weeks ago I received a review copy of Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons [...]

Greater Expectations

Greater Expectations by Robin Turner is an excellent resource for secondary Writing Workshop teachers.  As a high school teacher, he shares real life experiences, authentic teaching points, superb advice, and high quality rubrics and units.  The subtitle of the book is Teaching Academic Literacy to Underrepresented Students.  He offers practical, wise advice for preparing this [...]

Time to Slice Away a Bit of Your Day

It’s that time of the week again!  Please join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge by posting just a snippet about your day.  Then, be sure to click on the comments to get the links to the other amazing Slicers’ daily writing!

Memoir Monday

There’s something about the transition from July to August that gives many teachers have a bittersweet feeling.  For those of you who live in the Northeast, it feels like summer began a week or two ago, rather than in late June, doesn’t it?  However, summer is halfway over.  (And for some folks I know down [...]