4 Common Narrative Writing Mistakes Kids Make (And How to Fix Them!)

Narrative Writing Mistake #1: Boring Beginnings This is probably one of my favorite narrative writing mistakes to solve. I love […]

As the Plot Thickens: Narrative Writing Lessons That Go Beyond Basic.

Narrative, Writing Types

As the Plot Thickens: 5 Narrative Writing Lessons that Go Beyond Basic

Take your middle school narrative writing lessons beyond the basic beginning, middle, and end with 5 key elements of storytelling: The Active Main Character, The Plot: A Series of Bad Decisions (Action, Reaction, Decision), The Immersive Setting (Sensory Details), Dialogue & Character Thoughts, and The Satisfying Ending.

Images says, The Truth About My Unbelievable Summer A Back to School Mentor Text Lesson. Image shows the picture book sitting in the sand at the beach.

Mentor Text, Grammar, Writing Types

The Truth About My Unbelievable Summer: A Mentor Text Lesson

I love books, don’t you?

I mean, I’m a teacher and a writer, so yeah. Of course I love books.

But more specifically, I love buying and sharing a good mentor text with my students. Because I’ve found that some of my best lessons start as a mentor text lesson.

If you don’t know what a mentor text is, it’s a text that can be used as a model of good writing.

Poetry Month Glow-Up: 7 Powerful Poetry Ideas for Teachers

Writing Types, Classroom Tips, Poetry, Teacher's Life

Poetry Month Glow-Up: 7 Powerful Ideas

As a teenager, I loved writing poetry, albeit admittedly badly. Each poem was like a verbal puzzle to dwell upon

Writing Types, Grammar, Mentor Text, Vocab Development

The 411 on Mentor Texts

Using a Mentor Text as an Author Let me show you how I turn any romance novel I read into

Writing Types

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.

Grammar, Writing Types

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.

Writing Types

Writing 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

Writing Types, Teacher's Life

Creating a Writing-Centric Classroom

This is my first official week of summer break, and I am beyond excited to finally delete all my alarms and sleep in for a change.

Of course, sleeping in for me means I’m still up between 6 a.m. – 7 a.m., but I’ll take it.

So what have I done so far?

I’ve added 3 new resources to my TpT store, started an Instagram account and this blog, and obsessed over my just-released state test scores.

Oh, and yesterday I met up with a teacher friend of mine at Starbucks to chat about teaching and writing. More specifically rethinking how we teach writing and grammar in our upper elementary classrooms.