• Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Type Up the Text

    Using Mentor Texts Myself I learned a lot of tips by writing myself and knowing what helps me. In one class I took at Hollins, Lisa Rowe Fraustino encouraged us to read like writers. We took a look at Katherine Paterson’s BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA. She made us find a…

  • Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Haiku Magnets

    Tip: Make Haiku Magnets I love writing haiku with my students. One of the tricky parts about writing haiku is getting to them to be highly selective with their word choice. I ban words like cool, awesome, great, fun. But sometimes it’s hard to for them to know what…

  • Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: Laminate the Text

    I’m starting a new summer series for teachers called “Mentor Text Tip Tuesdays.” These will be practical tips on using mentor texts in the classroom. If you follow my blog, you know that I’ve been posting mentor text lesson plans. I hope these tips will help you visualize how easy…

  • What’s New in 2014

    January is an exciting time—a time for new things. So on this blog, there will be some new things rolling out in 2014. Here are some of the things I have planned. For Teachers  Teacher Useletter I am introducing my useletter for teachers. I will include links to things…