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18 Hook Ideas with Mentor Texts
You just spent three weeks teaching a unit on argument writing. You’ve analyzed essays, modeled writing in front of the students, had lots of discussions, and have just given your students the final prompt that they’ll complete independently. Most of your class is clacking away on their Chromebooks. But there’s one student just sitting there,… Read more
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41 Poems I Love to Teach In the Middle Grades
Poetry is powerful. These engaging, shorter texts offer an abundance of opportunities to work on reading comprehension, fluency, and writing skills while building background knowledge and connecting social and emotional learning. See my Poem of the Week post for tips on how to incorporate more poetry into your classroom. Here’s a printable PDF of the… Read more
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5 Types of Writing on the Mississippi State Test
If you teach in a state where your standards are influenced (or copied… š) from the Common Core State Standards, then your Writing Standards 1-3 say that you should teach: Did you know there are actually five types of writing on the Mississippi state test? š¤Æ The free PDF below explains why. It also contains… Read more
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3 Things I Learned from Joining a Writer’s Club
When I moved to Jackson, TN over two years ago I had a problem. I was desperately missing my cherished book club from my hometown in South Mississippi. So I went to the local library to see about joining one and the most applicable club on offer was a Writer’s Club. I’m a writer, am… Read more
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Bless Your Heart, Lucy Calkins
I was first introduced to the ideas of Lucy Calkins during a summer institute with the South Mississippi Writing Project. We discussed both her and Marie Clay as they applied to writing, particularly writing workshop, which has a lot of beautiful elements to it. I had never heard of the 3-cueing system until I listened… Read more
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The Writing Process Explained in Memes
I know that poster you got from the teacher supply store ten years ago (before it too went the way of the Blockbuster) has the writing process formatted as a numbered list. However, the writing process is inherently recursive. It’s a generalized process of common steps that authors take while writing. Rather than rigid marching… Read more
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