This scene is lovely and peaceful and not very similar to what we are feeling right now in our very last two weeks of finishing our first book. So, friends, we are on a little break from writing on the blog so that we can finish writing the book. We will be back with all […]
Author: Rebekah O'Dell
Mentor Text Round-Up: Year-End Lists
As I’ve trolled my Twitter feed in the days after Christmas, it seems that everyone is publishing their year-end lists — bests, worsts, most-shockings, favorites. I started thinking about what a fun mini-study this could be, especially when we return to school at the beginning of a new year and the end of a first […]
Happy Birthday, Moving Writers + Some BIG News!
One year ago today, we started a blog. Inspired at NCTE13, we felt compelled to join the global English teacher conversation. So, we picked a name, paid a graphic designer $5 for a logo, and hung a sign in our little corner of the Internet. We started writing. And we have loved it. We love […]
Questions from NCTE14: “How can writing workshop fit into the curriculum I’m given?”
At NCTE, Allison and I spoke to two different teachers who both shared that they want to use writing workshop in their secondary classrooms but teach in school systems with very specific curricular demands — “You must teach these novels”, and “You must do this many timed writings in response to prompts”, and “You must […]
“Where Do You Find Mentor Texts? How Do You Select Them?”
We loved seeing so many of our Twitter and blog friends at NCTE this weekend! Yesterday, during our presentation about technique-driven studies, two of the big questions that emerged were: Where do you find mentor texts? How do you select them? Our criteria: To select mentor texts, we begin by visiting our usual haunts (listed […]
NCTE14 Preview: Do Your Student Writers Need Technique Study?
Where does writing workshop go next? Traditionally, writing workshop is organized around genres. We write editorials, learning about the conventions of that genre, incorporating it into pieces of student writing, and then move on to narrative. Then literary analysis. Then, perhaps, a This I Believe essay. And this is great. Genre is important. Students must understand […]
All Writing, All the Time — My Plan for Semester 2
Maternity leave has given me a huge gift — the excuse to teach all writing all the time when I return to school in January. That might sound daunting or boring (writing every day? five days a week?), but for me it’s an enormous mental relief. Let’s be honest: the absolute most challenging part about […]
Mentor Text Monday: Engaging Students with HUMANS OF NEW YORK
Mentor Text: Humans of New York — blog and book by Brandon Stanton Also: LIttle Humans —book by Brandon Stanton Writing Techniques: Effective interviewing Fusing images and text Concision & drilling down to the essentials Background: While I’m off, I am dreaming of the mentor texts and units of study that will fill my second […]
Writing Instruction When You Aren’t There
I am not at school and won’t be for the next couple of months. Instead, I’m home snuggled up with this: Because of my impending maternity leave, much of my summer planning time was spent pondering a tough question: how do I maintain intentional, quality writing instruction when I’m not there to instruct? This is […]
Using Technology for Mentor Text Hunting
We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about all of wonderful things mentor texts can do for writers of all ages and abilities. If you haven’t noticed, we’re mentor text obsessed. But, in the interest of full disclosure, here is undoubtedly the worst aspect of using mentor texts in my classroom: it […]
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