by Amanda | Dec 26, 2018 | Back to School, Holiday Writing, Make Writing Fun, Podcast
2.9kSharesShare Tweet Pin It Don’t have time to read? Listen to this post here… 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...
by Amanda | Dec 21, 2018 | Back to School, End of the Year, Make Writing Fun, Secondary Teachers
1.1kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It Sometimes we just need to have fun with our students and what better way than with simple classroom games? Having fun is important for many reasons some of which include: it builds community, it’s a stress reliever, it...
by Amanda | Dec 10, 2018 | Podcast, Secondary Teachers
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...
by Amanda | Nov 18, 2018 | Beginners, Featured Post, Management, Podcast, Secondary Teachers
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...
by Amanda | Oct 28, 2018 | Assessment, Podcast, Writing Units
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....
by Amanda | Sep 23, 2018 | Featured Post, Mentor Texts, Podcast
6.9kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
by Amanda | Sep 23, 2018 | Mentor Texts, Podcast
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....
by Amanda | Aug 26, 2018 | Featured Post, Make Writing Fun, Podcast, Writing Units
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...
by Amanda | Aug 5, 2018 | Back to School, Management, Podcast
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...
by Amanda | Aug 2, 2018 | Back to School, Podcast, Secondary Teachers
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...
by Amanda | Jul 30, 2018 | Back to School, Featured Post, Management, Podcast, Writing Independence
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...
by Amanda | Jul 18, 2018 | Mini Lessons, Podcast, Reading
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...
by Amanda | Apr 28, 2018 | End of the Year, Make Writing Fun, Podcast
The end of the school year can be chaotic, so keeping students engaged and having fun is incredibly important. I have used the project detailed here every year I’ve taught and it never fails to keep students loving their school work and writing until the very...
by Amanda | Feb 4, 2018 | Holiday Writing, Make Writing Fun, Reading
Teaching students how to identify themes in literature can be challenging! It takes a lot of abstract thought which students may not even be capable of yet. Why not use the Valentine’s Day holiday to your advantage? Often, themes in literature involve...
by Amanda | Jan 15, 2018 | Conferencing, Differentiation, Podcast
Teaching writing is tough and differentiating writing instruction is tougher! Student writers have so many varying needs. What do you do when Steven can crank out a well organized, thoughtful literary essay in twenty minutes and John can barely write a paragraph? What...