I’m a bit of a professional development hoarder, mainly books, but also sometimes courses. Like most teachers, I consider myself a life-long learner. The biggest part of my PD book collection is writing instruction. I’m pretty passionate...
Getting students to work through the revision & editing process in writing can be a huge challenge as a teacher. It tends to go the same way for most teachers I know. You start off the year with a strong focus in the area but just seems there...
Beginning and ending personal narrative pieces can be a challenge. These simple tips will help you create an easy, engaging lesson for your students! Planning Mini-Lesson Students can get stuck when it comes to beginning and ending their personal...
Last year, a panicked teacher e-mailed me and said they had taken a practice writing test and her students did not follow the writing process. They went straight to writing the one and only draft that they would eventually turn in. This is a writing...
Organize Writing Organization is an important part of writing instruction – both organizing ideas and papers. I run my writing classroom as if my students were authors. It’s important to me that they have the skills to organize their work in a...
Learn the benefits of a grammar mini-lesson! One of my biggest struggles with teaching writing is fitting in time for grammar. My students desperately need it, but we barely have enough time for them to write, much less for me to teach the grammar...