Writing Territories + Test Prompt Writing
One of the causes of anxiety regarding the writing prompt, is the unknown. We don’t know what genre students will be asked to write. We don’t know the topic. Test situations are stressful… Read More
Monthly Archive: February, 2012
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Classroom Resources for the SOLSC
If you’re leading a Slice of Life Story Challenge in your classroom in March (or any month for that matter), there are a few things you might want to have. First, you’ll want… Read More
Our Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge
Reminder: This is the last Tuesday-only SOLSC until April since THE FIFTH ANNUAL SLICE OF LIFE STORY CHALLENGE begins here in less than 48 hours. Looking forward to having all of our regular… Read More
Releasing Teachers’ Individual Performance Assessments Does Nothing to Strengthen Teaching
Last Friday New York City released the individual performance assessments for 18,000 elementary and middle school teachers in New York City. While teachers have long known how they’ve been “ranked” based on their… Read More
Slice of Life March Challenge Nuts and Bolts
Some useful notes from last year (updated for this year)… Here is a button just for this year’s challenge. Please copy it & use it on your SOLS posts. (To do this: 1.… Read More
Prizes for the Fifth Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge
The Fifth Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge, which will run from Thursday, March 1st – Saturday, March 31st, begins a week from today. Anyone who writes (and links to their posts by… Read More
It’s Late…
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Let Their Writing Take Your Breath Away
Last week I was selecting some student writing to share with participants of the Conferring in Writing Seminar I’m leading at Penn State Harrisburg tomorrow. I didn’t want to go down to my… Read More
“Test Prep”
This post has been marinating in my mind for awhile now. I made myself promise it to you last week to make sure I would actually write it. I need to write it.… Read More
Trains Go Giveaway Winner
Special thanks to Chronicle Books for sponsoring a giveaway of Steve Light’s new book. Val was commenter #24, which was the random number generated (left). Therefore, she will receive a copy of Trains Go.… Read More
GEARING UP FOR THE SOLSC: Classroom Prizes
I wanted my students to be intrinsically motivated to write daily when I was a classroom teacher. When I began teaching I naively thought my enthusiasm for writing would be contagious. While my… Read More
Digital Conferring Notebook
A Note from Stacey: A little over a year ago Amy Platt, who is a sixth grade teacher at Melissa Ridge Intermediate School in Melissa, Texas, contacted me with a question about something… Read More
Remember This…
I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming standardized test. I have a whole post percolating about it, but because it’s late and I’m completely worn out — in six schools, with seven… Read More
Growing Readers Initiative
I worked at The Learning Community: a public charter school in Central Falls, RI from August 2007 – June 2009, which is when I lived in Rhode Island with my husband. I had… Read More
The Book Stack (02.13.2012)
It’s kind of an eclectic mix tonight… I am thrilled about this new little gem! I can’t wait to share it with a second grade class I’ve been working in as they’ve been… Read More
Slice of Life Buttons
Since it’s five years, I really think we should have five different buttons. Here we go… Red… Green… Yellow… A new color for all of you blue lovers (like Stacey)… A special 5… Read More
5th Annual SOLS Button?
I ran out of time today for just about everything. Anyone else have a day like that? Which means you’re just going to have to wait for the new SOLS button to be… Read More
