How to Encourage Elementary Writers
How do students in 3rd Grade who are brand new to the paragraph form and still mastering foundational skills become unencumbered idea makers? Incrementally and inspired by idea making, of course! Writing is a creative habit that begins with…
How to Encourage Primary Writers
And the ability to tame an idea begins with some foundational skills introduced and practiced in the primary grades—Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd! Our Grade Level Collections include everything you need to introduce and reinforce phonics for reading and writing, plus…
The 5-Minute Conference
Five minutes are not to be scoffed at! It is amazing what can be accomplished during a 5-minute one-on-one writing conference with a student writer. Here’s how: Have the student read the rough draft aloud. Your job is to protect…
Editing Level 1 Writing, Part 2
Here again is an example of a 3rd grade student’s weekly writing, this time tied to the story, The Night Crossing. While it was pointed out that the student didn’t describe an inanimate “object or objects” tied to Christmas or…
Editing Level 1 Writing, Part 1
There is a wide range of ability encountered when it comes to Level 1 writers as this post will demonstrate. Students entering the third grade who have been using our curriculum, have been introduced to the whole of phonics (for…
Writing is NOT Calculus!
When we teach a student calculus, we are teaching them to attend to small parts of a larger form. The word calculus comes from the Latin, meaning small pebble. When teaching our students to write, we should begin by teaching…
The Character of Characters
When readers open the cover of a book and enter the pages of a story, they begin a journey. Each of our Literature and Writing Discovery Guides, Earlybird through Level 4, is a personal journal of that journey. Each section…
Comprehension is Comprehensive
Students working in our CORE Literature and Writing Discovery Guides will, each week, respond to “comprehension” questions that chronologically review the plot points from the week’s reading. But here, “comprehension” is an exercise that both draws students deeper into the heart…
Treasure Trove of Words
Exploring vocabulary is so much more than an activity to check off the list! Words are the building blocks of language, are what we humans use to communicate our ideas, and each one holds certain specificity. Specificity is a pairing…
Introducing Intermediate Composition
WE ARE HAPPY TO WELCOME TWO BRAND NEW UNITS: Intermediate Composition: Little Worlds This intermediate unit is developed to teach high school students how to translate a BIG idea tied to a little story into an essay. Over the course…