Closeup elements are how the story is told. Big Picture elements are the story itself.
Tag: moving writers
Deep Dives and Side Quests: Idea Gold Mines
As an American now living and teaching in Canada, I’ve had to learn a lot in a short period of time. I’m teaching a self-contained 3rd + 4th grade class this year, which means I’m teaching Social Studies, and the American Education system doesn’t really give us all that much about our neighbors to the […]
Fostering Risk-Taking During the Revision Process
We all take risks when we need to. In essence, risks allow us to squash the “what ifs,” to feed our curiosity, to discover what’s possible. And of course, they offer us the chance – through trial and error – to strike gold. While there is a time to play it safe and trust what […]
Story Setting and Writing Calls to Action
Image via Davide Restivo on http://commons.wikimedia.org While designing a short story unit for my AP English literature students this past August, I was eager to identify stories that acknowledged the environmental challenges that we are currently facing. I’ve always had faith in literature’s ability to help us enter into an imaginative awareness of what others […]
Top 5 Tools for Digital Revision Work
When writers revise in our classrooms, it is vital that they have the guidance and the tools to empower them to do so. Between last spring and this school year, writing teachers have especially turned to a variety of digital tools to find ways to keep the revision process authentic, valuable, and productive. In a […]
New Year’s (Writing Workshop) Resolutions (or, Why Didn’t I Do This in August???)
Midterms are over, and we have reached the point of the year where, inevitably, I second guess every decision I have made so far and long for a do-over. And while this year hasn’t been without its victories, I still wonder, What ever happened to that uber-planned-perfectly-balanced class I dreamed of while I sat by […]
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