Writing and a little bit of reading for teachers and students in grades 3-5.
To help elemenatry students develop their writing muscles, early in the school year I introduce our daily sessions of 10 minutes of uninterrupted writing time. This is a very simple, yet effective strategy that can help students become comfortable with writing. I am all about helping students get over the hump of being reluctant writers! […]
At the beginning of the school year, I like my students to write personal narratives because I think this genre helps them to build their writing confidence as soon as we start talking about writing. I tell my students that a personal narrative is a story that has happened to them. They are writing about […]
Now that the benchmark writing assessment is out of the way, we can jump into writing. As it is still the beginning of the school year, it would be nice to have a fun way to get to know your students. I would like to share an activity that I have used that requires students […]
The start of the school year is full of assessments. We want to know where our students are as learners. In writing, I give a benchmark writing assessment to all my students. I do not grade this work as the purpose is to assess where students are in their writing at the beginning of the […]
Writing teacher, as you create your writing world in your classroom, you want to be sure that you are not just observing your students writing but you are participating as a novice/developing/expert writer. (You decide the word that best fits you as a writer.) No matter what your perceived level, everyone is working on growing […]
As I prepare my classroom at the start of a new school year, I think about the kind of writing environment I want to have and how best to create it. I want our writing time to have a different feel to the rest of the teaching that is happening each day. I want to […]
In the previous blog, I shared how students can personalize a physical writer’s notebook. This blog is about how students can create and personalize an Online Writer’s Notebook using Google Docs. Step 1. The teacher should send each student a Google document with their name as the Google doc’s name. For example, Student name – […]
A good one-off activity for the first week of school is to have your students personalize their writer’s notebooks as they learn the routines and procedures of your classroom. It is one way to ease students into their new learning environment and to get ready for writing. Encourage your students to personalize their notebooks in […]
Back to school signs are everywhere. I love these signs! They give me full permission to splurge on school supplies I like, both practical and impractical. Some I need and some just because they make me feel happy. Anyone else feel the same way? Keep writing in view! Let’s talk about teaching writing to […]