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During today’s Writing Circle Luncheon, I had two of my students share a piece of writing they did this week that they were pleased with and on which they wanted feedback.  I wanted to see how they were with providing each other feedback (e.g., peer conferring) by paying each other a compliment and by giving [...]

I’ve blogged about mentor texts a great deal since we started Two Writing Teachers in 2007.  I learned a lot about the way students use mentor texts after spending a year researching this when I was in grad school at Teachers College.  As a result, I recently had an article, entitled “Using Mentor Texts to [...]

Part of the reason I took a blogging break last week was because I was in San Diego presenting with some of my former classmates and instructors at the AERA Conference.  We presented the action research projects we did while we were at Teachers College before an audience of professors.  It was exciting to think [...]

Six of my students opted to stay up with me during lunch today.  Two were under the weather and wanted to chill with me; two wanted to finish their reminder posters; the final two wanted to peruse New Moon for Girls to get ideas about writing their own article. Two of the five kids from the [...]

We had a classroom situation we had to take care of last Tuesday at lunchtime.  Therefore, my weekly Writing Circle didn’t meet.  (I was happy they were disappointed since I felt disappointed too.)  Hence, I’m leaving each student a reminder notice about Tuesday’s upcoming Writing Circle tomorrow. I’m hoping we have a lot to celebrate at [...]

I feel like someone handing out bids during Rush, which is not a great feeling. However, this is the invite I’m extending to five students for a lunchtime writing group, which will start this Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed that it’s well-received by all! Click on the image to enlarge it (and [...]

With the action research project I’m about to embark on, I’m trying to get a better hold on the writing behaviors my students, who do not write regularly, possess. I reached for M. Colleen Cruz’s New Book from the Workshop Help Desk Series entitled A Quick Guide to Reaching Struggling Writers. This book [...]

I think I finally formulated the question I am going to use to guide the teacher-research I’m going to do in the months to come. It is: What kinds of things can I do to nurture the writing habits for the students in my class who do not write regularly? Out of all of the questions [...]

In my most November 2008 issue of The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, I came across an article by Gloria E. Jacobs, “We Learn What We Do:  Developing a Repertoire of Writing Practices in an Instant Messaging World.  The tag line caught my eye: Students can be proficient in instant messaging as well as in [...]

I just found out a proposal two of my instructors from Teachers College submitted to the 2009 AERA (American Educational Research Association) Annual Meeting in San Diego got accepted. I will be presenting along with them, and three other former classmates from the Literacy Specialist Program at T.C., at AERA in mid-April 2009. [...]