One way to improve student writing

What is the #1 way to encourage a student to improve his writing? Write a note to tell him what he's doing right! And while you're note writing, wouldn't it be great to reinforce the 6 traits at the same time?    read more...

Starting a Writer’s Workshop in your classroom

Writer's Workshop sounds like a great idea, right? But where do you start? So many teachers have told me through the years that they shy away from the idea of a Writer's Workshop approach beacuse they're just not sure how to get it going. What do you teach first? How do you get students to do what you want them to do?    read more...

Dissecting picture books to use as mentor texts

Picture books make great mentor texts! Teachers kept asking me if there was an easier way to figure out what to use from each book. So many great picture books out there, but when do you have time to look through all of them to pick out a passage for your next mini-lesson? That's what prompted me to create the Trait Trackers.    read more...

Publish “real” books with Studentreasures

Even though "publishing" can take forever, kids love to finish a book they can call their own. Wouldn't you loev to be able to give your students slick-finished, permanently bound books with their names on the spines? Well, you can! Studentreasures is a company that offers to do just that.    read more...

Engage more students with highlighter tape

West Side Middle School (Union City, IN) seventh grade teacher Carla Durham likes to engage her students with fun reader and writer tools in the classroom. One tool that she has found many uses for is highlighter tape.    read more...

New resources for the secondary teacher

Check out a couple new resources for secondary teachers.    read more...

Twenty ways to develop an idea

At this point in the year it's time to hone in on students' development of their writing topics. And with state standardized tests approaching in late February and early March, we need to fine-tune students' strategies for elaborating in their writing.    read more...

Go ahead, laugh out loud

The goal of revision is to make the piece sound better, more clear, more thorough. Revision shouldn't be about rewriting or recopying.    read more...

Strengthen student titles

It seems rather insignificant, but there is great power in teaching young writers about titles. For a kindergartner, the title is the first beginning they write. Eventually, as writers develop, a title becomes the attention grabbing words before the first sentence.    read more...

Teaching grammar within the writer’s workshop

Attempting to fit grammar and convention lessons into the writing time can prove troublesome for many teachers. In order to ensure they are "getting their grammar in," many resort to a separate time of the day/class period. While this does provide for regular grammar study, it is done in isolation. There is little to no skill transfer for students into their own, authentic writing. So, how do you combat this dilemma?    read more...