Last week, I promised more details on using the workshop approach to teach literary analysis. I haven’t forgotten you! And, so that you won’t have to wait to hear all we have in store, next week we will celebrate our very own Literary Analysis Blog Blast Week. Here’s the lineup: Monday, April 27: Ways to Think […]
Author: Rebekah O'Dell
Writing with Mentors: How to Reach Every Writer in the Room using Current, Engaging Mentor Texts
Coming in September! (Are we the luckiest girls in the world, or what?)
Writing Workshop Transforms Literary Analysis, Too
Last Friday, I dismissed my fourth period IB English class early. We simply couldn’t go on. They filed out, sniffling, wiping away tears, heads down. Some were silent and left alone; most found a friend or two and whispered as they left, arms around shoulders. They had just finished sharing their first piece of workshop […]
Writing Conference Road-Show (or Small Conferences with Big Payouts)
Writing conferences used to scare me. Big time. In fact, for me, it was the most-dreaded element of reading and writing workshop. How would I even start? What would I say if the student had a question I couldn’t easily answer? Would the other students really be working while I moved around the room discussing […]
A Visual Guide to Planning a Writing Study
“You can’t teach writing this way if you’re not organized.” – Donald Graves (Atwell 2014, p. 26). Before I immersed myself and my students in writing workshop life, I heard other teachers say things like, “Oh, writing workshop is organic. The writing happens. It just works.” They advised me that conferences with student writers gave […]
#engchat: March 16
In an age of standards, how can teachers bring the creativity and vitality of a writing workshop into the secondary classroom? How can teachers devote meaningful, consistent time to writing instruction while balancing the demands of literature study, independent reading, test preparation, and a standardized curriculum? For the #engchat conversation on 3/16/15 (at 7 PM EST), […]
Turning Mentor Texts into Book Talks
After losing days of school due to snow, I’m in a familiar we’re-never-going-to-get-everything-done panic. I feel this way every winter. The fact is this: none of us have enough time with our students. We constantly feel the pull of more-to-do; we live in the tension of what we have to teach and what we want to […]
Mentor Texts are for Social Studies, too!
Mentor texts aren’t just for English class. If mentor texts are meant to inspire writing and teach us something about our writing, then they should exist in every genre. And they should exist in every classroom where writing happens. It can be challenging, though, to wrap our heads around mentor texts in the content areas. […]
I’ve found some mentor texts…now what?
You’ve collected some awesome mentor texts to support your writing study. You’ve photocopied them and passed them out. Then what? How do we connect students with mentor texts in a way that will actually help them write? What are the first steps? My students have been immersed in a mentor text writing study for […]
Two Writing Workshop Calls to Action
Hi, friends. We’re back. Our little project is safely in the hands of our publisher, and we are so happy to turn our attention back to the blog. Ever since NCTE, I have been thinking about the challenging realities so many teachers face in their classroom. Not only poverty, not only discipline issues, not only lack […]
moving writers 