The Slice of Life Story Challenge Starts Tomorrow!

Ruth and I hope you are going to take part in the 31-day, Third Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge by writing and sharing a story about your day, each day, during the month of March. We know it might seems like a big commitment, but that’s why it’s a challenge. In order to make [...]

Building Bigger Vocabularies Through Books: Part 2 of 2

Yesterday I posted a document that contained a week-long series of lessons for teaching vocabulary from Willow’s Whispers, a new book by Lana Button and Tania Howells.  Since this type of vocabulary-building teaching was new to me in 2007, I figured it might be new to some of you.  Therefore, I put together an overview [...]

Save the NWP!

On February 1, the Obama administration released its 2011 budget proposal.   In this proposed budget, funding for the NWP is consolidated with five other literacy programs under a new states-based competitive grants program that provides money for improving literacy. The NWP national network would not be eligible to compete for its own funding. In [...]

Building Bigger Vocabularies Through Books: Part 1 of 2

In this month’s issue of The Reading Teacher, there’s an excellent article, “The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom: Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth,”  which deals with ways teachers can broaden students’ vocabularies.  Holly B. Lane and Stephanie Arriaza Allen, the article’s authors, provide concrete examples from a kindergarten and a 4th grade [...]

Keeping Joy.

Too often this business of ours is stressful.  Too often we get worked up over things that don’t really matter. Today’s post is about keeping the joy through it all. The longer I teach, the more I realize the importance of keeping joy.  Here are some ways I hold on to my joy, even on the rough [...]

Ruth’s SOLS: Remembering

Grading editorials; going through motions; completing the task, when I was smacked with images from four years ago. “Adoption is a choice to consider if you don’t want the baby,” I read aloud from the editorial I was grading.  Just like that, my heart did a flip-flop and my son’s birthmother was in my mind. [...]

SOLSC: Today’s Challenge and Prizes for the Month-Long Challenge

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for the weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge! The Third Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge, which will run from Monday, March 1st – Wednesday, March 31st, begins in just a few days.  Anyone who writes (and links to their posts by leaving a comment on this blog daily) [...]

What is collaboration?

Main Entry: col·lab·o·rate Pronunciation: \kə-ˈla-bə-ˌrāt\ Date: 1871 1 : to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor (Merriam-Webster Online) I’ve been learning a lot about collaboration.  Like many learning curves, I find myself with more questions than answers when it comes to collaboration.  One of the main reasons I’ve been learning [...]

Digital Storytelling: Technology & Mentors

The latest copy of NCTE’s School Talk arrived in my mailbox yesterday.  The present issue is entitled “21st Century Literacies: Young Children Reading and Writing in a Digital World.” Ceil Candreva wrote one of the articles, “Paving New Pathways to Literacy in the 21st Century,” in the issue. Candreva asserted: Digital storytelling expands the potential [...]

Slice of Life Story CHALLENGE

The trimester ends in 7 days.  So, beginning last Monday I challenged my students to write every day until the end of the trimester.  (After that, I’ll challenge them to join us here on Two Writing Teachers in the month-long Slice of Life Challenge in March.) Each day we read a little and then write [...]

More on Standardized Testing.

Have you read the comments to this post?  If not, you should scroll through.  You’ll find a slew of emotions. It is well worth checking out — especially Ryan’s comment, where he shares a speech by Lester Laminack. I thought I was done blogging about standardized testing, but then I heard this comment today: Standardized [...]

Share a Slice of Your Life Today!

It’s time for the weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge! In less than two weeks the Third Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge, which will run from 3/1 – 3/31, will begin. I’ve already obtained several prizes for our third annual challenge. As you know, last year, one author and a bunch of artists who [...]

The Most Important Thing about Taking a Standardized Test

So check this little conversation from Saturday morning.  It’s starring my second grade daughter and me: H:  So, Mom, are you impressed by my test scores? Me:  What? H:  Those are my NWEA test scores.  I’m suppose to bring them home to you.  Are you impressed? Me:  Not really. H:  (face falling) Oh.  I thought [...]

Writing Inspiration

Last weekend, when we were getting hit with the first big snowstorm, I was looking through our cable guide to find a movie.  A film starring Sean Connery, Rob Brown, and Anna Paquin, “Finding Forrester,” caught my eye.  I knew I could sell it to my husband since it wasn’t just about writing, it was [...]

Yes, students CAN publish their writing in two languages!

“The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”  — Joseph Joubert When I was at NCTE less than three months I was captivated with the bilingual picture book, Si, Se Puede! / Yes We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A., written by Diana Cohn and illustrated by Francisco [...]

Snow Day Poetry Activity

Schools from Indiana to Pennsylvania (and beyond) are closed today.  While I’m spending time working on the book we’re writing, I’ve also spent close to a half hour on Facebook.  As a result, I’ve noticed a lot of people are feeling trapped indoors with their kids because the wind gusts are pretty strong.  Sledding doesn’t [...]

Teaching Endings

On Monday we discussed endings to editorials in my ninth grade class.  This is how the teaching went: Me:  I’ve noticed many of you are ready to write an ending, but aren’t sure how to go about it.  So let’s talk about it.  Will you pull out the mentor texts we’ve been studying and reread each [...]

SOSLC

It’s time for the weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge! In just a few short weeks the Third Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge, which will last for the 31 days of March, will begin.  I’m continuing to think about prizes for our third annual challenge.  As you know, last year,  one author and a [...]

Let this be a reminder to you too!

I almost lost this: It’s not quite a tragedy, since it is something I could have recovered. Granted it wouldn’t have been much fun and I would have been grumbling on the inside about the time it takes to collect and scan old photos, especially old photos I’ve already scanned. Still, it was recoverable.   Other [...]

Why do you care?

My students are in the heart of a study on persuasion.  They selected their own topics for their editorials.  What I’ve noticed this week is they are depending more on collecting facts and statistics to support their stance, rather than their own logical reasoning.  So minilessons have been centered around this issue.  We’ve discussed using evidence [...]

Letters of Gratitude

I am consistently moved by meaningful letters.  When I write thank you notes, I am sure to take time with them so the recipient can feel my genuine gratitude.  However, when I write other notes, specifically condolence notes, I find it more challenging.  (Let me be honest, I’ve even looked for mentor letters to help [...]

The “Real” World

A few years ago our county hosted Dr. Ruby Payne.  Every educator in the county was expected to read her book and attend the day-long training.  One of the things which stuck with me from this experience was the idea that teachers are often far-removed from the worlds our students live in.  The home I return [...]

Op-Ed

The New York Times published an Op-Ed, “Playing to Learn,” today by Susan Engel, who is a senior lecturer in psychology and the director of the Williams College Teaching Program.  It’s about education reform, specifically curriculum reform.  Engel spent one full paragraph on the type of writing that she things should exist in elementary school [...]

Thinking Ahead to the Month-Long Challenge

Today’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for the Slice of Life Story Challenge! However, it’s also the second day of February, which means it’s time to start for me to start thinking about the Third Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge that lasts for the entire month of March.  By thinking about the Third Annual [...]

Classroom Management.

Since the first few weeks of my student teaching, classroom management hasn’t been something I’ve struggled with.  (Although I do struggle with the term.)  The first week of my student teaching I planned a lab.  Everything went smoothly, except clean up.  The lab was a mess.  Nothing was put away.  Nothing was set for the next class [...]