Each Spring as I begin to move into my final units of the school year, most of the summative assessments that I’ve designed for students have been written assessments. Some years I’ve added in Socratic Seminars or other discussion formats. Other years we’ve had presentations. But, often I’m looking for some other assessments that break from these molds […]
Tag: Mentor Text
Writing Inspired by Nature
Use nature as your guide for writing. Come join Abigail in her beat this month which offers ways to get involved in the beloved Write Out event going on– and ideas to spark your students writing all year long.
Leaping into the Figurative
This is why I love the leap into non-literal sense making that is Nancy WIlliard’s poem “Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him.” Each of the questions are lovely and from a child’s mind of wonder. But, the answers exceed that sense of childhood awe into a kind of riddle-world where wisdom […]
Writing into the Eclipse
There are so many wonderful eclipse resources out there but this month I wanted to put a resource in your hands of some pretty beautiful writing that you can invite in your own classroom. Being that it is April, what a time to celebrate our beautiful nature with poetry. And while nature is doing […]
Sparking Writing with Photography
This post is all out using students photography to generate writing juices in the classroom
A New Spin on an Old Text: The Catcher in the R(I)
(See what I did there?) “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I […]
Making All Things New: Imagery
This year on Moving Writers, I am dusting off some old-but-wise books on my shelf about writing, creating a tiny review, then considering how one passage from the book can inform writing instruction today, even decades after the book was first published. September’s Book: The Creative Process by Carol Burke and Molly Best Tinsley. Length: […]
First Writing Moves of the School Year: PART 2 (Storytelling)
How do we get students to buy into writing? How do we begin to hear their stories. Oral storytelling is a way to engage your writers in a low stakes way and create a basis for a really strong writing community.
First Writing Moves of the School Year
In this summer’s beat Abigail takes you through two strategies that you can discover in Liz Prather’s new book “The Confidence to Write”… two strategies to start the school year off right and a great starting place for teacher growth this summer.
Science Writing…For Kids!
Sodium Polyacrylate In science, my 4th graders are learning about the Law of Conservation of Matter after about a week of reviewing ideas around solids, liquids, and gases. Instead of doing the classic cornstarch and water lab, I decided to try something new this time around. If you go online, you can find packets of […]
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