Hi, Beth! Thanks for asking. As you know, mentor texts can be incredibly powerful tools to help students see the beauty in our language—and studying mentor texts at the sentence level can help students see what happens when we craft together the best words in… Read More
All posts tagged “writing workshop”
Ask Moving Writers: In Pursuit of Meaningful Feedback
Hi, Elizabeth! First, thank you for asking this important question! We know how important it is to find ways to give meaningful and timely feedback to students. But we also know how limited our time is—there are only so many minutes in a day, in… Read More
Conferring as Prewriting
I was reminded the other day of the work of Don Murray (who, with Don Graves, I affectionately refer to as “the Dons” in my head). “Prewriting usually takes about 85% of the writer’s time,” Murray wrote in his wonderful essay, “Teaching Writing as a… Read More
Never a day without a line
“Never a day without a line,” Brenda repeated. In the summer of 2011, I had the pleasure of participating in the PA Writing and Literature Project Summer Invitational Writing Institute. Although I’d been teaching for several years by then, my experience with the writing project… Read More
Discovering a Writing Process that Works
I knew I wasn’t doing things as well as I could. My instruction felt fragmented. For example, when my students and I were working on a memoir essay, I used one process for instruction. When we worked on a book review, we used another process.… Read More
Finding Moments Worth Writing About
It’s just after 7:20 a.m. and my students are settling into their seats. Although it’s early, this class is lively, with students generally willing to try out whatever their English teacher has planned for them that day. This morning, I pass out cream-colored quarter sheets of… Read More
Notice & Note, then Write: Quickwrites
* This is Part 3 in a series on how to use the signposts from Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s Notice and Note to inspire student writing. Here are parts 1 and 2. In Notice and Note, Beers and Probst make this important observation: As you… Read More
On the Need for Peer Response
Irecently had the opportunity to present at Strategies for Writing, a PA Writing/Literature course. One of my writing institute colleagues was teaching the course and asked me to come in to present on using peer response groups in the classroom (she knew that I had… Read More
Notice and Note: Invitations to Write
I ‘ve been rereading Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading as I look to teach and apply the signposts with my 9th graders (we introduce the signposts within the first few weeks of school). At the same time, I’ve also been reading the 3rd edition of Atwell’s In the… Read More
Tricia Ebarvia 
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