Some strategies for motivating writers to engage in meaningful revision.
Category: Writing Workshop
Ask Moving Writers: What does a writing unit look like?
We are spending Mondays this summer answering reader questions in a series called Ask Moving Writers. If these reading our answers sparks yet more questions, please feel free to ask below and join the conversation! Here’s our first question: Hi, Sylvia,
A New Approach to Literary Essays in Middle School: Part II
Today’s guest post is part of a series on changing the way we think about literary essays in middle school. In Part 2, Beth Toerner (@btoerner) will share how she moved students from thinking about texts in interesting, fresh ways to actually producing polished pieces of literary writing! Earlier this week, I shared the beginning […]
Adapting Mid-Stream: A New Approach to Literary Essays in Middle School
One of the very best parts of writing this blog is the opportunity to connect with inspiring educators across the country. This week, we are sharing a two-part guest post from Cincinnati teacher Beth Toerner (btoerner). We connected this year through a mutual professional friend and spent months corresponding about her 8th grade classroom and her […]
Fostering Reflection in Narrative Writing
Today’s guest post is from Liz Matheny (@matheeli) I like to open and close the year with reflective, narrative writing. I do this for two reasons: to help my students explore themselves and their experiences, but also to help them see the growth in their writing. One of my favorite ways to do is to […]
The Wonder of Whipstitch: Poetry as Literary Analysis
We are delighted to share a guest post today from middle school teacher Elizabeth Oosterheert. You might remember her from a post earlier this year! You can connect with her on Twitter @oosterheerte. Ah, spring. It’s that vibrant time when my “garden” of students begins to blossom beautifully, and the seeds planted earlier in the […]
Voice First: An Argument for Rethinking Priorities for Novice Writers
Struggling writers have fun–and write better–when the emphasis is on creativity before mechanics.
Scaffolding Authentic Literary Analysis
Sometimes we need to scaffold the thinking that goes into writing more than we need to scaffold where a topic sentence goes in a paragraph. Mentor texts can help with that!
Writing Center Update: The Good, The Bad, and The Tricky
My IB teaching partner dropped a calendar page on my desk yesterday morning that reminded me–in its stark black-and-white boxes filled with Easter vacation, early release days, and special schedules–that we have very few weeks left in our semester. That somewhat panicked calendar also means that the Triton Writing Center, the fledgling dream I committed […]
How Mentor Texts Engage Secondary Students in Play
We are over at the Heinemann PLC Series this week chatting about mentor texts & discovery . Read — and watch — more here!
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