In January, Moving Writers did a series on test preparation and writing instruction. How do we prepare our students for the realities of the tests they will need to take while also being faithful to what we know is good for kids and their writing? One of those posts struck a cord with teachers; Hattie […]
Just in time for National Poetry Month, we shared a little writing unit studying and creating InstaPoetry — the super-visual tiny poems that have become so popular on Instagram and other social media. While this is a fantastic way to celebrate National Poetry Month, this would also be a perfect beginning-of-year unit as you introduce your […]
Over time, I become increasingly convinced that the more choice students have, the more magic you’ll get. To give students myriad opportunities to craft the writing they care about, I instituted writing homework this year — 20 minutes per night of completely independent, free-choice writing. Our #7 post of the year looks at the structures […]
For some young writers, finding ideas is a struggle. But for many, the struggle lies in finding the words to articulate the idea that is forming in their head. In this 8th-most-popular post from the 2017-2018 school year, Allison gives us three strategies to help these writers move from ideas-in-their-heads to words-on-paper. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Can you […]
Our 9th most-popular post this school year is about to explode with mentor texts ready for you to use in your classroom the first weeks of school! Writing about place is a powerful way to write about identity, and Tricia Ebarvia (@triciaebarvia) has given us more ideas and resources that we can possibly even use! […]
I’ve been learning a ton on Twitter recently, like the fact that many of you are already on summer vacation. And I am not. I eventually moved past that, though, and decided to write this post anyway. After all, we’re all colleagues and once I’m finally on summer break too in a couple weeks, I’m […]
During the school year, Time is one of our biggest hurdles. There is never enough time to do all the things. Summer is a fantasy with its long, light, unencumbered days spread out before us. We plan road trips and brewery crawls and projects and beach days and fill our calendar with all the things […]
When Rebekah and Allison originally pitched the idea of Moving Writers developing something to help teachers promote summer writing for their students, I was already knee-deep in a discussion with my AP Lang Voxer group about writers’ notebooks and how we can make them authentic for our students. One thing we all noticed pretty […]
My students are at that time of year where they need to be constantly entertained. They like the satire unit we’re in the midst of (some of them have even said so out loud!), but their attention spans are starting to resemble that of my eight year old this afternoon as the rain poured down […]
Mentor Texts: Jon Recommends: “Head Rolls Off” by Frightened Rabbit By Jon Johnson Sean Recommends: “Ocean Drive” by Lighthouse Family By Sean Cunningham Techniques: Using music as inspiration for memoir writing Mood Connecting elements in writing Symbolism Brevity Background – This is the first of two Mentor Text Wednesdays that finally allow me to fulfill a vision I’ve […]
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