Welcome to the Podcast
Places to Find Mentor Texts That You May Not Have Thought Of!
The phrase “mentor text” is pretty new. Ralph Fletcher, a guru in the writing instruction world defines mentor texts as, “Any writing that you can learn from…”, this definition is so satisfying. It’s satisfying because often, one of the biggest challenges about being a writing workshop teacher is finding mentor texts. But, this definition opens a plethora of texts up to us.
5 Fun Activities to do with Your Students the Day After Coming Back from a Long Break
Coming back to school after having two weeks off (or the summer off) can be really rough for students and teachers. The last thing anyone wants to do is get right back to work the first day back. It’s important for us to reconnect with our students, have some fun and listen to what they’ve been up to the last few weeks/months. Here are five activities that can help you do just that!
I’m More than an English Teacher
Don't have time to read? I received an email recently (I love receiving emails from teachers who read my blog!) asking me a really interesting question... Do you do workshop all year? I immediately yelled (in my mind) NO! In this moment, it occurred to me that my...
The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Workshop
Many secondary teachers, like you, are beginning to realize the power of running their English classes using writing workshop. Maybe you keep seeing references to it on Pinterest or in Facebook groups. Maybe a teacher friend is trying it and finding success. Or maybe...
10 Ways to Make Grading Writing Easier
Don't have time to read this article? Listen here! Grading hundreds of papers is the bane of an English teacher's existence. Don't get me wrong. I love being able to get a thorough look into the minds of my students and their writing abilities. Reading their writing...
Mentor Texts for Middle School by Genre+Summaries and Skills to Teach
Amanda Write Now · 29. Middle School Mentor Texts Every writing unit should start with mentor texts. Students need many examples of the type of writing we expect them to do. In this article, I've compiled my favorite middle school mentor texts. Each mentor text...
Teach Students HOW to Use Mentor Texts
Most writing workshop teachers know what a mentor text is (examples of writing in books, short stories, articles, poems etc.). But, what about how to use a mentor text? When I scoured the internet for the answer to this pressing question I found very little....
We Need to Stop Neglecting Fiction
Don't Have Time to Read? Fiction writing is neglected in English classes everywhere for many reasons. We don't have enough time. Or we are afraid students might produce pages and pages and pages and we feel too guilty about not reading all of those...
What I’m doing the very first day of school might surprise you…and why you should try it too.
I let students socialize the first day of school. Read on to find out why... After reading this important article by Write On with Miss G (which I highly recommend you read), I thought back to my first day of school, last year. Here's what's written in my plan book...
10 Reasons Secondary Teachers Should Try Reading & Writing Workshop
Don't have time to read this article? Listen on iTunes instead! We all have our own curriculum, our own teaching teams, our own way of doing things but it's summer vacation and time to ponder other options! This article is meant for secondary teachers who are on the...
My Students Don’t Write During Writing
Don't have time to read all of this?!?! Listen below:) So, some of your students aren't writing during writing? Maybe they are just sitting there staring off into space. Or maybe they are sneaking onto their phone, they'll probably tell you they were looking up a word...
Whole Class Novels Reading Workshop Style
English teachers struggle to fit it all in. We want to teach the novels we love while also allowing the freedom and choice that reading workshop provides. Can we do both? Yes! Keep reading to find out how…
First a bit of background about my interpretation of what reading workshop and whole class novel teaching looks like: