January 2024 is right around the corner!

Pages classes are designed to foster competence, creativity, and confidence in students as they press into the important work of becoming literate.  Being able to communicate an original, BIG idea is the ultimate goal of English Language Arts.

Get the most out of Blackbird & Company’s materials and methods! Classes range from 1-5 weekly sessions, and will kickstart your work with skills, tips, and tricks to help you succeed. We offer a wide range of humanities classes, all designed to explore the art of idea making:

1. CORE – Read and Write and Discuss! These classes are tied to individual Literature + Writing Discovery units (2nd grade through 12th grade). Students will receive weekly feedback on their writing via the one-on-one conference!
2. The History Opt-in – These classes will provide extra historical background tied to specific CORE Level 2 (4th & 5th Grade), Level 3 (middle school), and Level 4 (high school) units. Students must be enrolled in CORE to participate.
3. Research – Learn to explore the life of a famous person, extract fact, and write a unique biographical essay. Students are supported each step of the way.
4. Creative Writing – Each session we are offering short thematic classes that will apply writing skills in beautifully creative ways.
5. Visual Arts – Explore great works of art and their makers. Students will learn about and practice art making while gaining skills that will transfer to all areas of academic pursuit, especially the art of writing.
6. Music – Explore the works of great composers and the language of music. Students will gain skills that will transfer to all areas of academic pursuit, especially the art of writing.

Enroll today!

What parents are saying about Pages:

“Thank you for making class so enjoyable and personal. My daughter’s writing has really expanded since being in classes with you.” ~Brit Riddle

“I really appreciate you going through the different areas of reading and writing in class as opposed to having him do it all on his own at home. It sets a good example of what to do (i.e. what to look for and pay close attention to as he reads) and how to do it (i.e. organize his thoughts and get ready to write into paragraphs).” ~Paulina Yeung

~Kimberly

Enter by using the form below to submit a photo of your student’s most beautiful lettered-by-hand version of the following pangram:

Win a penmanship mug or a set of our beautiful Blackbird & Company stationary. Four winners will be chosen and will be announced November 30, 2023 on our social media platforms.

Enter here!

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:

1. Have the student read the rough draft aloud. Your job is to protect and promote the student writer’s idea. This is accomplished by listening and caring! It was tempting to ask this CORE Level 2 student to add more details to this tiny paragraph, but in listening (and in knowing where this student was in the process of skill acquisition), I realized that this type of “ask” would certainly be discouraging. So, first and foremost, do everything to listen and encourage.
2. Now choose your battles. I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to help students open their paragraphs with a sentence that will draw the reader into the idea. This paragraph needed a HOOK. Often students, once they begin flowing into an idea, will have a sentence that, with a little rearranging, is transformed into a terrific hook. This is the case with this Section 2 paragraph inspired by Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. While there is nothing wrong with the first sentence, it is certainly more intriguing to begin: We all lived together for a week.
3. A simple skill that young writers can learn easily during the 5-Minute Conference is to leave space on the page—space between words, space between sentences, space at the margins. A trick I’ve learned is to remind students why space matters and I do this by demonstrating somewhere within the rough draft white space. As example I might say and write: “Do you mean ‘yummyapples’ or ‘yummy apples’ here?”
4. There are no misspellings here, but there is an opportunity to add a comma in a sentence that is made up of a dependent and an independent clause. “The word ‘if’ is the clue, “I say to my student, “Can you hear where I pause after the word ‘me’ in this sentence?” And then I plop a red comma down, right where it should be: If I had to share a story about me, I would share about Utah.
5. The twist at the end is set perfectly for a simple OMIT edit. I simply point out that the phrase “big family vacations” is used twice in this sentence and suggest omitting the last phrase and replacing it with a single word: one. The student loved this idea!

Not only were skills introduced, I guarantee these skills were mastered during this meaningful 5-Minute Conference.

[As an aside, just to prove my point, I read this student’s work and the above post aloud to myself. This took 3.5 minutes!

FIVE minutes, once a week will make all the difference in the world!

~Kimberly

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 birthdays, it is clear in the writing that it is the people who make the celebrations special, even though the idea of “presents” is offered. These are the things that are important to notice as we shelter the ideas of young writers.

At this point in the year, this was the third Level 1 journal for this student, I had the student join me at my desk and read aloud what she wrote as I made little notes directly on her rough draft.

The HOOK

Often times, the student has crafted a terrific hook a sentence or two into the writing (sometimes we stumble upon it at the very end!). This one happened to be the second sentence. Instead of combining the two thoughts she wrote as topic openers, we decided to rearrange and punch the sentence with a little alliteration:

I love two celebrations because they both involve presents and people.

In doing so, I got to share with her the fact that writers love to inject sound into writing and, that putting words that begin with the same consonant together is called alliteration. And then I chanted: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…!” This lesson will likely stick more so than working through an unrelated worksheet exercise on alliteration. Why? Because this is the student’s original idea, it is meaningful, relevant.

Misspellings and Capitalizations

In this paragraph there are two misspellings. I noted them with a check mark and corrected them in a list in the white space of the rough draft. Capitalization mistakes were simply corrected as the student read and a reminder was made to copy capitalization correctly in the final draft.

What else…?

Instead of delving too deep into content changes, at Level 1, try to encourage details in the form of additions. What else do you do on birthdays? What else do you do to celebrate Christmas?

Omissions

Because the student used the word “also” in the “what else” idea, I suggested omitting “also” in the previous sentence.

Next week we might focus on word choice. For example, the concluding sentence, the TWIST at the end, might become more interesting with some added specificity of “fun” and “amazing” activities. But for this week, battles have been chosen! It’s time for the student to polish this little idea.

Ultimately, the goal with Level 1 writers is to shelter the idea of the young writer with editorial feedback to grow skills.

~Kimberly