Skip to content

Jun 17

9 Comments

From the Classroom: A Labor of (Book) Love

By Tricia Ebarvia

I wrote earlier this year about my efforts to foster a culture of reading in my classroom. I reflected on the ways reading has shaped how I experience the world. I considered how my reading practices and preferences affect my students, both positively and negatively.

As a result, I dedicated more and more class time to independent reading this year than I have ever before. I replaced mini-grammar exercises with book talks. I read the books my students read and recommended to me. I cut down on whole class novel analysis and gave students what they said they needed most—time. Time to read, read, and read some more.

But I’d be remiss not to also mention that extra ingredient which made our reading community possible: a classroom library. Read more

Jun 10

2 Comments

Tools of the Trade: Podcasts

By Rita Sorrentino

radio“Radio: it ties a million ears to a single mouth.”

In All the Light We Cannot See, author, Anthony Doerr, uses this powerful statement to emphasize the propaganda broadcasted across Germany to support Hitler’s agenda, and to give us a glimpse into the character Werner Pfenning, a boy with an enchantment for tinkering with electronic circuitry and a passion for seeking new knowledge and ideas through radio communication. Before only state-sponsored radio programs filled the airwaves, Werner and his younger sister, Jutta, secretly listened to a French Professor who sparked their curiosity about the changing world. The idea that “the brain has power to create light in darkness” lingered with Werner while he tried to block out the ultimate future awaiting boys growing up in an orphanage in the German mining town of Zollverein.   Read more

Jun 3

5 Comments

How I Became a Middle Grade Author: It’s Not a Lone Pursuit | Guest Post by Jeff Anderson

This month, we are absolutely thrilled and honored to have the Jeff Anderson blogging here at Write.Share.Connect. Below, Jeff shares the process of writing and publishing his first middle-grade novel, Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth (Sterling, 2015).

By Jeff Anderson

I started writing for children in 1994.

Yep, that’s right. I know. It’s 2015.  But every writer eventually wants to be published, and the good news is, in August I will celebrate the release of my first middle-grade novel, Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth (Sterling, 2015). It took me a winding road of over 20 years, but it happened…after a lot of practice. Read more

Jun 1

2 Comments

Monday in the Middle: Wonder,

Another installment of Monday in the Middle with librarian and media specialist Gabija Fischer!

Wonder by RJ Palacio

wonderRJ Palacio’s Wonder is the story of Auggie’s transition from homeschool to attending a traditional school. This in itself would be a challenge for anyone, but Auggie, born with severe facial deformities, must also combat the stares, fear, and avoidance of his peers. But the struggles aren’t Auggie’s alone. His parents wonder if they’ve made the right decision: how can they protect him from the cruelties of the world while give him the freedom to mature too? And his sister, Via, a constant source of love and support suddenly becomes self-conscious of her image as Auggie’s sister. Read more

May 27

2 Comments

The Writing Conference in Nancie Atwell’s Room (Part 3)

By Donald LaBranche

This post is the third in a series of reviews of In The Middle, by Nanci Atwell, Third Edition, 2015. Click here to see the previous reviews.

inthemiddleHere’s the first verse from Robert Bly’s poem “Things to Think”

Think in ways you’ve never thought before
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

When the best teacher in the world is a middle school English teacher, folks who do the same thing for a living might want to sit up and pay attention. When she has written book after book for decades telling us how to avoid becoming mere “technicians” and hold true to what is best in the teaching profession we might ask, “Have I heard what Nanci Atwell has to say?” and if the answer is no, then ask, “Why not?” Read more

May 20

3 Comments

From the Classroom: Reflection as Looking Back, Looking Forward

By Tricia Ebarvia

The other day I announced to my ninth graders that we were about to begin our very last book of the school year, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Some students were, no doubt, excited about the arrival of summer. Others expressed surprise at how quickly the year had gone by.

The end of the school year always brings mixed feelings for me. Read more

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →