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Happy New Year: New Posts for Teachers and Writers in 2014
January is an exciting time—a time for new things. So on this blog, there will be some new things rolling out in 2014. Here are some of the things I have planned. For Teachers Teacher Useletter I am introducing my useletter for teachers. I will include links to things…
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Verseday: Concrete Poetry Picture Books
Back in August, I did a post on resources to use when teaching LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech. I didn’t include my concrete poetry picture books because I knew it would be a post all on it’s own. Here are some of my favorite concrete poem picture books.…
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Onomatopoeia Palooza!
I am a contributor to this onomatopoeia resource. If you are a writer or a teacher of writing, I hope that you will find this helpful. It’s like an onomatopoeia encyclopedia. To download this onomatopoeia resource, click on the picture below. Onomatopoeia Sounds Like… Other Onomatopoeia Resources: Onomatopoeia Mentor…
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Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Familiar Books
Tip: Use a book students are already familiar with as a mentor text. When I pull out a book to use as a mentor text and students say, “Oh I’ve read that book,” I’m always thrilled. You know why? The first time we read a book, we are interested…
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VerseDay: Resources to Use with LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech
One of the highlights of my year is teaching LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech. My students love reading this book and discovering that they can write poetry too. Over the years, I’ve collected some favorite books that I use while teaching LOVE THAT DOG. The resources are listed…
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Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Use Non-Book Resources
Tip: Use examples from non-book sources like newspapers and magazines. I tend to focus a lot of my energy on fictional mentor texts. However, much of what students will have to write and read in their school career will be non-fiction. So I’m working on incorporating more non-fiction into…
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Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Scavenge the Books
Tip Scavenge your favorite books for good writing. In a recent onomatopoeia lesson, one of the activities includes creating a Noisy Words chart—looking for onomatopoeic words for every letter of alphabet. But looking for onomatopoeic words is just the beginning. Young writers can go on a scavenger hunt for…
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Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Make a Chart
Tip When I’m introducing a mentor text to students for the first time, we talk together about the things we admire about the writing. One way to do this is by making a chart. It gives us a chance to color-code phrases or words and talk about it in…
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Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Haiku Magnets
Tip: Make Haiku Magnets I love writing haiku with my students. One of the tricky parts about writing haiku is getting to them to be highly selective with their word choice. I ban words like cool, awesome, great, fun. But sometimes it’s hard to for them to know what…
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Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Laminate the Text
I’m starting a new summer series for teachers called “Mentor Text Tip Tuesdays.” These will be practical tips on using mentor texts in the classroom. If you follow my blog, you know that I’ve been posting mentor text lesson plans. I hope these tips will help you visualize how easy…