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Cultivate home-school partnerships around writing by hosting a family writing night this fall.

I met a fantastic educator, Susie Barcus, from Fort Worth, TX when I attended the August Writing Institute at TCRWP.  We worked together in a small group where we shared some of our… Read More →

I’ve been wanting to try out Storify for awhile, but haven’t head a reason to use it.  Until now.  I decided to put together Storify some of my tweets and pictures from last… Read More →

Day one at the TCRWP Writing Institute was fantastic! Here are a few important take-aways I gleaned from yesterday’s keynote and sessions. The TCRWP feels the same pressures all of us feel about… Read More →

The call for slice of life stories AND a question about what you're doing next week.

Reflections on my first Twitter Chat: what worked well, what overwhelmed me, and some silly things I tweeted.

I purchased the original Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3 – 5 when they were published in 2006. In the early days, those books were like a Bible to me. I… Read More →

We are thrilled and honored to be guest blogging here this week.  We are both huge fans of the blog, the Two Writing Teachers community and of Ruth and Stacey’s work. Having recently… Read More →

I learned about digital text bins when I took Maggie Beattie Roberts’s session “Tap the Power of Technology and Media to Teach Higher Level Comprehension” at this past summer’s Reading Institute.  Now that… Read More →

Spending a week at the TCRWP’s Reading Institute is good for my soul.  I always learn so much when I attend an institute.  It’s going to take time for me to sort through… Read More →

I will be attending the Teachers College Summer Reading Institute this week. While this will be my ninth summer institute, it’s only going to be my third time attending their Reading Institute. Since… Read More →

“The act of telling your story and sharing part of your life with somebody is alive and well—even more so than at the dawn of blogging.” –Lee Rainie, director of the Internet and… Read More →

I’ve been working on a few sample minilessons to give my grad students next month when I start teaching “Children’s Literature in Teaching Writing.”  I’ve been making tweaks to the traditional minilesson structure… Read More →

I’ve been meaning to share my notes from “Methods That Matter: Using Mini-Lectures, Interactive Video Alouds, and Centers to Raise the Level of Engagement in Social Studies” ever since I attended the TCRWP’s… Read More →

I’ve been meaning to share my notes from “Methods That Matter: Using Mini-Lectures, Interactive Video Alouds, and Centers to Raise the Level of Engagement in Social Studies” ever since I attended the TCRWP’s… Read More →

I was on the phone with my friend Christina the other day. I told her I was coming to New York later this month for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project’s Saturday Reunion.  She hasn’t attended one of the summer institutes before so she was unfamiliar with who was reuniting.  While I think it [...]

I was on the phone with my friend Christina the other day. I told her I was coming to New York later this month for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project’s Saturday Reunion.  She hasn’t attended one of the summer institutes before so she was unfamiliar with who was reuniting.  While I think it [...]

Taking Kristi Mraz‘s chart-making course at the July Writing Institute was so helpful to me.  Kristi really got me thinking about having a take away item (made with a post-it note) that you can hand to kids if they need a reminder to do something.  In addition, she encouraged the use of illustrations on charts.  [...]

One of the many charts I made, with the help of some wonderful Kindergarten teachers, while I was taking Kristi Mraz’s chart-making class at the July Writing Institute was a scaffold to get Kindergarten students ready to write an all-about book.  Betsy Engel, who will be teaching Kindergarten in Manhattan this-coming school year, shared a [...]

Lee Bennett Hopkins delivered an inspiring keynote address, “Writers — Real People” last Wednesday morning at the TCRWP Writing Institute.  His keynote address seemed to have three parts.  First, he spoke about other authors and how they struggled to get published.  Second, Hopkins shared his background with the audience.  Third, Hopkins talked about the gifts [...]

“A pen is better than glasses as a tool for seeing.” –Lucy Calkins, Keynote Address, July Writing Institute, 6/27/11 I walked into the Levien Gymnasium yesterday morning and was greeted warmly by Tisha, of the Thinking Aloud Blog, who I had never met in person ’til yesterday.  We chatted for a few minutes prior to [...]

My afternoon session, “Writing from the Heart: Finding Your True Voice,” at the TCRWP Writing Institute was taught by James Howe (aka: Jim).  During the course of the week Jim provided us with a variety of writing exercises, which lasted from 5 – 20 minutes, to help us write from the heart. One of the [...]

Jen Munnerlyn is a teacher, literacy coach, and international educator. Her family has been working in international education for 30 years beginning with her parents first overseas teaching assignment in American Samoa in 1980.  She is married to a man she met in 8th grade at International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and has her [...]

I’m getting ready for the Teachers College Writing Institute, which begins next week.  Anyone else going to be there?  If so, please drop me a line.  It would be great to meet up before one of the keynotes. I’ll look forward to sharing what I learn, in this forum, during the month of July.

Just as I have to think about how I can mentor myself after poets when I want to write vivid poems, I encourage children to make reading-writing connections with the poems they encounter.  Young poets can be taught how to develop theories, or hunches, about what they’re noticing poets do in poems they admire. Teaching [...]