Nurturing Primary Writers: A Q&A with Jennifer Jacobson

No More “I’m Done!” Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades is a new book out this month from Jennifer Jacobson.  Since I consult with primary grade teachers, as well as upper elementary teachers, I started reading this book as soon as I received the review copy from Stenhouse.  Quite frankly, any elementary school teacher [...]

An Exquisite Touchstone Text for Memoir

I’ve long enjoyed reading aloud from What You Know First and When the Relatives Came when teaching memoir. I now have another text, Grandma’s Scrapbook written by Josephine Nobisso and illustrated by Maureen Hyde, that has been added to my list of favorite memoir touchstone texts. While Nobisso’s book is not new (It was published [...]

Standardized Testing + Workshop

Today I administered “The Sequel” of Indiana’s standardized test to a small group of sixth graders. This portion was all multiple choice. Last month was the first round of the test where students completed the written response portions. At the end of the testing session, I was left with similar feelings as the last round. [...]

Make Writing Workshop Work Better

I will be consulting with a couple of teachers next month who have questions about how to make Writing Workshop work better for their special needs students.  One teacher has a student with Asperger’s Syndrome, while the other teacher has students with other learning disabilities.  Since I’ve never taught a student diagnosed with Asperger’s, I’ve [...]

Share A Slice of Your Life Today!

Office Tour

Welcome to my office.  I’ll share some images and a little candid commentary. At the end I reveal my dark secret about organization. Computer Area I’ve used this so much the letters are worn off of my keyboard! The locker cubbies are used to store important documents like staff rosters, phone extensions, and the literacy framework. Quotes [...]

Poem in Your Pocket Day is Less Than a Week Away!

Be sure to have a poem you love inside of your pocket this-coming Thursday, April 29th, 2010 since that’s Poem in Your Pocket Day.  This day is such a big deal in New York City that the City Government created an entire website for their 8th Annual Celebration of Poem in Your Pocket Day.  The [...]

Make It Unique. Make It Your Own.

Last weekend I re-watched “With Honors,” the 1994 film starring Joe Pesci and Brendan Fraser. If you haven’t seen it, “With Honors” is about a Harvard senior who develops a relationship with a homeless man who unexpectedly lands up with the draft of his senior thesis.  In order to get his thesis back, a page [...]

Quips from Jeff Anderson

Today I listened to Jeff Anderson speak. (Tomorrow I’ll be part of a study group he’s leading and watch him model in classrooms.) He is the author of Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing and he is brilliant when it comes to teaching kids to understand grammar. Not to mention, he’s an exceptional presenter. So today’s post [...]

Slice of Life Story Challenge

A Bit of This & That

You may consider today’s post random, however, I prefer to think of it as eclectic. There are some things I’ve been meaning to share, some things I’ve been preparing to share, and some things I just learned about today and am wanting to share. Plus, I think a good dose of eclectic has never hurt [...]

Noise Level in Writing Workshop

One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve worked with many teachers across grade levels is we all have a different tolerance for noise level. This makes me realize that all of our students probably have different tolerances as well. Which makes me wonder — how much noise is enough in Writing Workshop and how much noise [...]

Love is in the Air: Poetry in Middle School

Springtime not only brings more poetry into our classroom, but it also ignites a desire for many middle school students to ask each other out.  When I taught fifth grade, I noticed some of my students were often lovestruck during the final months of school, even though they were just little kids a few months [...]

A Dose of Poetry

Recently I was directed to Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s new blog, The Poem Farm.  Amy’s poetry, photos, and insights are inspiring. You’ll find yourself filled with ideas for making poetry come alive in your classroom, as well as your fingers itching to write a poem. Hop on over and visit The Poem Farm soon.

A Song for You, Momma (Ruth’s SOLS)

Today was frustrating at work school. (I know it’s been a rough day when I begin referring to it as work.) On the way home Sam fell asleep in his car seat, which is a very rare occurence. I carried him in and he snuggled close, so I cuddled him in the rocking chair. We [...]

Spilling Ink in the Classroom

Nearly every professional book I’ve ever read has encouraged me to include guides about writing in the classroom writing center.  Year-after-year, I tried to search for books about writing for kids to stock in the classroom writing center. Year-after-year I found copies of said guides and placed them in the writing center once the school [...]

Join us for the weekly SOLSC.

First Draft Writing

When I was first learning about Writing Workshop, it was difficult for me to wrap my head around the process each student would be going through. I spent a lot of time thinking and re-thinking the writing process and the way it would become individualized. Going from idea to notebook to draft to publication seemed [...]

Organzing Teaching Materials

I recently received an e-mail asking me: How do you organize your material (mentor texts, charts, minilessons, etc.) for Writing Workshop?  I have just collected so much stuff this past year to do with Writing Workshop, but I just can’t figure out a way to organize it. Most teachers  are nearing the end of the [...]

You Be the Poet!

My husband and I spent last week visiting our families in the NY Metropolitan Area.  When we returned to our home in Central Pennsylvania, we were greeted by bursts of yellow on our street.  The forsythia bushes had bloomed while we were gone.  In the past five days, I’ve noticed April springing into action with [...]

OLW (One Little Word) Update.

Sometimes it’s important to take a deep breath and re-evaluate. Isn’t that what part of vacation is about? I know several TWT readers also participate in One Little Word, so I’d like to encourage you to spend some time thinking about your word and how it relates to your year so far. Every year I [...]

Weekly SOLSC Begins Again!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Third Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge.  Ruth and I were delighted to have new people join our growing writing community for the challenge last month.  Click here to view the recipients of the drawings. We hope you’ll continue writing anecdotes about little slices of your life by [...]

And the giveaways go to…

It’s time to announce the recipients of the Third Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge Giveaways.  Unlike last year, my ability to make a silent movie (or any kind of video) is gone due to a camera malfunction that happened last night.  While I shot a video of the drawing*, I’m unable to upload it [...]

Vanquishing Evil (Ruth’s SOLS)

Never fear, Hannah, Stephanie, and Sam are on a quest to capture “Ronald Darkin,” who is plotting to drop a peanut butter and jelly bomb on our house. They have top secret maps, magic rocks, deluxe weapons (made with aluminum foil), a wagon with super-powers, traps, and a plan to save the world. They’ve been [...]

Genre Choice

Going into the last leg of the school year, I’d like to take a minute to encourage you to empower students to chose the genre they are going to write. It is important for students to have the choice of genre throughout the school year. Often Writing Workshops become genre study after genre study. Before [...]