A Writerly Life: Wisdom from Georgia Heard
Writing should be expressive and enjoyable – a way to share your feelings and ideas.
-Shannon DeGeorge (2016 participant of Grammar Matters)
Sep 12
Sep 8
Teacher to Teacher: Helping Students Write
by Lynne R. Dorfman
“I don’t have anything to write about!” I remember how I felt every time I heard that announcement from one of my students. A few months ago, friend and colleague Rose Cappelli introduced me to Ralph Tells a Story by Amy Hanlon, a charming picture book about a little boy who could never think of anything to write about. Ralph’s best friend Daisy is always writing. She even wrote a story about Ralph. But when the students gather on the rug to share, Ralph’s heart beats wildly as he is called on to read his story. What follows is quite wonderful! Ralph begins to talk about finding an inchworm at the park. Daisy and other classmates ask him questions, and all of a sudden, Ralph is telling the story he didn’t write. His peers love his story, and that is all Ralph needs. Finally, Ralph becomes a writer. Read more
Sep 5
A Writerly Life: Wisdom from Brian Kelley
Let’s encourage our young authors by supporting their grammar and writing needs! We aren’t born knowing. We need teachers to show us the joy of learning; never lose sight of that.
-Kamal Hassan (2016 participant of Grammar Matters)
Sep 5
Books on the Blog: Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille
by Lynne Dorfman
Fabulous! Inspirational! Captivating! Award-winning author Jen Bryant has created 
another masterpiece with Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille. In this touching story, Bryant gives us the fictionalized voice of young Louis Braille, capturing the full range of emotions as he confronts his blindness and becomes a teenage inventor who makes his mark on the world.
From an early age Louis Braille loved to spend time with his father. An accident in his father’s workshop led to an eye infection that eventually caused his blindness. Luckily, he had a family who loved him and tried in every way to help him. A big decision that probably changed his life – Louis was sent to a school for the blind in Paris.
Sep 2
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, 2016
By Donald LaBranche
They came, they saw, they conquered.
Way back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, we played Dungeons and Dragons. It was low tech then. Dice, plastic avatars, and the imaginative gumption of the Dungeon Master who set up the adventure, set the boundaries, and set down the parameters. The rest was up to the players as they set foot in that world for the next dozen or so hours.
Just so sixteen students walked into my Young Writers Classroom this past July. (Three of them repeats!) They bought into the adventure as I described it to them and off they went. From the very first prompt (“Machine”–Expound) to the last day when they suffered their parents to collaborate with them on a story, they were writers. Read more
Aug 31
Pause
by Mary Buckelew
The following incident occurred in my high school classroom on the West Side of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The occurrence — its details, the students, and the implications continue to inform my teaching.
“How is your life like Odysseus’s life?” I read aloud with Monday morning enthusiasm to my ninth grade students. Engage, Empower with your own Enthusiasm. The most recent inservice mantra echoed in my head or maybe throbbed is more accurate. Monday.
I had pulled the Odysseus question from the student prompt bank/bowl. Students submitted their own questions or statements at the beginning of each week, and three to four times a week, I used a student generated prompt for our opening focused freewrite. The only requirement – the prompt needed to relate to our reading or a current event.
We were in the midst of reading The Odyssey. A watered down version, but a riveting and rich story nonetheless for my ninth graders — a story they were actually reading. And so – unbeknownst to me until this moment — one of my students had pondered the connection between his or her life and the challenges Odysseus faced as he made his way back to Penelope and home. Read more
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