Teaching Grammar Through Revision
If you’re looking for a better, faster, and more engaging way to teach writing, revision, and grammar skills all at once, then you need to pick up the book, Revision Decisions by Jeff Anderson & Deborah Dean.
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The 411 on Mentor Texts
Whenever I – or really any of my Writing Project colleagues – present to teachers, inevitably the topic of mentor texts comes up. For many teachers, the concept is a completely foreign one. Others may have heard the term, but in reality only have a hazy idea of what we’re talking about. And usually zero idea how to use a mentor text. So What Is a Mentor Text? Mentor texts are an invaluable part of teaching students how to write. Simply put, a mentor text is a text you can learn from. More specifically, you can learn how to be…
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Host a Halloween Glow Party in 3 Easy Steps
As elementary and middle school teachers, we all know kids are totally wound up in the days leading up to (and after) Halloween. All the kids want to talk about is their costume, the candy, and trick-or-treating.
This year, why not lean into it and harness all that energy by hosting a Spooky Halloween Story Glow Party.
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Level Up Your Grammar Game
Teachers, if you absolutely dread teaching grammar and try to avoid it at all cost, you aren’t alone. In fact, grammar is the most common complaint I hear when I present workshops for schools or at conferences. To learn more about best practices in grammar instruction, keep reading.
Keep readingWriting a School-Wide Book: The Jimmy Journey
Meet Jimmy. Jimmy has joined my class for the rest of the year, and the kids are over the moon thrilled. Now, Jimmy must posses some form of telekinesis because as soon as he “walked” through my classroom door, a collective cheer went up and the class shouted, “Jimmy!”. There was no prior discussion (that I’m aware of) about this name. But Jimmy’s here now and he’s here to stay. To be honest, I probably should have been paying closer attention during the fundraiser kickoff assembly. If I had, I might have realized my class had a pretty good chance…
Keep readingMoving into a New School Year
Being asked to move classrooms is never very much fun, but that’s exactly how last school year ended for my entire 5th grade team. Now, we may have grumbled a bit amongst ourselves as we packed up. What teacher wouldn’t? I’d personally been in room 12 for the past 12 years and had accumulated quite a few books. But most of us chose to have a good attitude about the move. We were turning the gated portables into a 5th grade “campus” and had high hopes for our new space. The district allotted one day at the end of the…
Keep readingTop 10 Reasons to Love Going Back to School
Despite the fact that TpT’s Back to School sale is starting soon, I am not in any way, shape, or form ready to return to school yet. I feel like summer just barely got started. Where has the time gone?! So, in an effort to give myself a new perspective on the topic, here are ten reasons why heading back to school is actually pretty awesome. So how about you? What do you love about heading back to school? Drop your comments below! Check in next week to see how I’m setting up my new classroom. Here’s a hint . .…
Keep readingToday Only: Birthday Sale
I’ve never been very comfortable celebrating my birthday. To me, it’s just another day. I don’t expect anyone to stop what they’re doing to call or text me and I most certainly don’t need any gifts.
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Assessing Writing Through a Generous Lens
I don’t know about you, but nothing gives me more anxiety as a teacher than a huge pile of papers waiting to be graded. Well, that and field trips, but I digress.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to assign writing pieces to my 5th graders: short poems, long narratives, quick summaries, or detailed research reports. I love them all.
But I absolutely, positively HATE grading papers, so in this post, I’m going to explain how to assess writing through a generous lens and I promise, it will make your life so much easier.
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