A Teacher's Ruminations

Recently, the mom of one of my students talked to our class about her work as a writer of YA books.  She prepared a PowerPoint presentation using Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt as her mentor text.  The following list includes some of the tips she gave the children. (1) First, it's important to write about what you know so that you can write with confidence and authority. (2) A well-developed beginning, middle, and ending is a critical component to any story.  Just writing "the end" is not enough.  It was great to have a professional writer point this out to the children since often that is how they end their stories because they've figured out that they don't have anything else to say.  The truth is that either they didn't plan their story before sitting down to write, or they didn't have a problem in the story that needed development and resolution.  This is something I'm planning to address during the last term of this year. (3) Pay especial...

About a year ago, maybe more, I read  The Complete Four  by Pam Allyn.  See it here http://amzn.to/zpRRWl  I appreciated the concept of integrating reading and writing lessons so that what you do in reading workshop directly impacts what you do in writing workshop.  Here's what the authors say about "the complete year":  " Organized around the Complete 4 components (Process, Genre, Strategy and Conventions) and four unit stages (Immersion, Identification, Guided Practice, and Commitment), each book in the Complete Year series features a year's worth of integrated reading and writing curriculum.    Because we honor your professional decision-making, you will find the Complete Year provides a flexible framework, easily adapted to your state standards and to the needs and goals of your community, your students, and your teaching style ."  I particularly like the last sentence of the above description of the "complete year", and that is why ...