I think most of us will agree that we’d like our students to keep a record of the lessons we teach in workshop each day. They need something tangible to look back at as they progress through each study. And in a perfect world, they’d want something to take with them at the end of […]
Author: Allison Marchetti
Mom, Teacher, Writer, Postpartum Doula.
Books: Writing with Mentors & Beyond Literary Analysis (Heinemann)
Notebook Time: What It Is & Why We Do It
Rebekah and I often often tweet ideas for notebook time, and recently many of you have been asking us to explain it and show how it fits into the workshop. Put simply, notebook time is an opportunity for students to play in their notebooks with different ideas, information, and genres. In our classrooms, notebook time […]
Teaching High Schoolers How to Read Like Writers with Cynthia Rylant’s When I Was Young in the Mountains
Fact: high schoolers love storytime. They love sitting cross-legged on a patch of carpet as the teacher reads a story from a chair, fanning open the pages of the book. When I told them we were having storytime, my ninth graders appeared confused at first, exchanging dubious glances around the room. “Like in elementary school […]
The Liebster Award
Thank you Dorothy of junglegymnegotiations.com for your nomination. We are honored! Official rules for the Liebster award: List 11 random facts about yourself. Answer the questions designated by the blogger(s) who nominated you. Place YOUR nominations for the Liebster Award! Nominate five (or more) other bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Make sure to […]
Resource Roundup: Mentors for Teaching Satire & Humor Writing
When people ask me if I’m excited for summer, I sound my barbaric yawp over the schoolhouses of the world–but not for the reasons most suspect. Don’t get me wrong: I love waking up to my own internal clock and sipping on my coffee slowly. I love having time to wade through all the house […]
The “Data” that Writing Workshop Works Part II
I was surprised to see him in the doorway of my classroom, holding a piece of computer paper. “Steve! It’s so good to see you. How’ve you been?” It was 3:00 on a Tuesday. I wondered why he wasn’t at practice. A star baseball player, Steve isn’t the kind of student who hangs around after […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: Mentor Text Anchor Charts
All year long we have been working backwards. In our genre-driven workshop, we have always begun with a genre, figured out how it works, and searched for an idea to fit it. But now that my students have a command of several genres and an understanding of the varying purposes and audiences of each, they are […]
Encouraging Revision: Advice for Teachers from a Student Writer
In April, my returning creative writers choose from one of two projects: write a novel, screenplay or book of poems in 30 days, or revise their novel from November. Catie, a senior, was the only student who chose revision. I wasn’t surprised. It’s hard to motivate students to revise! So I pressed her a bit, […]
Mentor Text Wednesdays: Dropbox Project Tutorial
Watch this short screencast below (click on the picture) to learn how to access and add to our Mentor Text Dropbox Project!
A Lesson for Tomorrow: Writing Like Crime Scene Investigators
I cringed as I listened to a former student explain how her teacher grades discussion. “You have to talk three times to even be graded,” she said, swirling the last inch of iced coffee in her plastic cup. “And you can’t ask questions. Questions show that you haven’t thought something through enough to talk about […]
moving writers 