Why Teach Children Poetry? Are you a true lover of poetry? Are you an avid and exceptional teacher of poetry in the classroom? If so… then this article is not for you. This article is for the rest of us teachers who know that poetry has value… but with limited time and so much to [...]
Students need to be taught how to use formal language in report writing. You can add a little bit of variety and a little bit of fun to report writing if you treat it more like “formal voice.” After all, there are degrees of formality… The term “voice” is used in the “Six Traits of [...]
State Standards, Standardized Tests, and… Writer’s Workshop? In the real world of state standards and standardized tests, it can be a little difficult for a teacher to get their head around what Writer’s Workshop is. As long as I have been teaching there has been a continuing push towards making teachers more and more accountable [...]
The Dentist A while back I was having some rather annoying dental issues. My dentist, Dr. Karen, had all sorts of ideas. She was saying, “Well, we could try this procedure or we could try that procedure…” In the end I explained to her that my bottom line was, “I want it fixed. The truth [...]
First Off… Since calling a bottom on the stock market on March 5th, 2009 during one of the worst financial crises in history I’ve received quite a few emails from people that read my post at “The Elementary Educator” blog. They seem to be impressed. I’ve only brought it up in relation to “Pattern Based [...]
Transitions We want our writing to flow naturally. We want our readers to feel that we know where we are headed and we are in control of our writing. This means they can just sit back and enjoy the ride! We don’t want our readers to feel that we are jumping all over the place. [...]
Disorganized Boys The New York Times published an article by Alan Finder in January 2008 entitled, “Giving Disorganized Boys the Tools for Success.” The article addressed the educational achievement gap that is growing between boys and girls. These days it is girls who are having more success in school. The major premise of the article [...]
Organization and Ideas: The Most Important Traits A pioneer of Six Traits writing was Paul B. Diederich. His traits were a little different than the current Six Traits of Writing; however, his traits did include both organization and ideas. In fact, for Diederich organization and ideas were the most important traits and they received greater [...]