In Legos and Editing and One-Minute Editing Check, I shared the idea of giving students a lens through which to edit their writing. Rainbow Editing is another strategy that helps them do that. The physical use of a different color of pencil for each convention gives students a concrete tool for a skill that often seems …
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Writing Instruction
Daily Dictation Sentences
I used to use Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) to teach many grammar and usage concepts to my students. I thought I used it pretty effectively, too. Then I started to hear rumblings that maybe this was not the best practice, but I didn’t really know why, so kept doing it but behind closed doors. Even though …
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One-Minute Editing Check
Today’s post gives a strategy for teaching editing, but also helps students develop automaticity using language conventions as I described in the blogpost Tidy-as-You-Go. In the middle of independent writing time, instead of or in addition to doing a mid-workshop teaching point, consider stopping to do a one-minute editing check. The key is that the editing needs …
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Spotlight on Professional Resources: Kids’ Poems
When I was first introduced to the idea of teaching free verse poetry to elementary students, I felt overwhelmed. Teaching form poetry such as haiku, cinquains, rhyming couplets, limericks, etc. felt safe–there was a formula that was easy to follow. But free verse poetry felt wide open and like it had no guiding principles. Then I …
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Legos and Editing
When my sons were younger, they liked to play in our basement playroom. If I didn’t go down to check on the condition of the playroom every day, I would sometimes find the entire floor covered with toys and would have to make the announcement that is was time for all toys to be put …
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Tidy-as-You-Go
In a recent post I compared editing to “tidying up for company” before a housewarming party. In that analogy the tidying comes after building the house and decorating the house (structuring writing and developing writing). That being said, I do not believe that all “tidying” should wait until company is coming! Don’t we also “tidy-as-we-go”? …
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Where’s the Grammar?!
I hear this question all the time. It usually comes from teachers who have adopted a workshop approach to teaching writing but are struggling to get students to use proper conventions in their writing. Other teachers are skeptical about using a workshop approach because they are under the assumption that we don’t teach grammar and …
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The Big Three
My husband works in the automotive industry, so to us, the ‘Big Three’ refers to Ford, GM, and Chysler. But during the past couple of years, the “big three” has come to have a different meaning for me. I’m talking about the three big skill areas of a writer: structure, development, and conventions. Understanding that …
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