Category: Writing Resources

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First, Read a Book!

I’ve been asked more than once: Do I have to read the book?

My response? No—you GET to read the book!

Having homeschooled my four children alongside countless other children in my hybrid micro-school, I know “reading a book” sounds like an impossibility. It’s not.

First, read a book!

Ultimately,  to be the exceptional teacher I believed my children and my students deserved, I read some books! MANY books! And you know what? I was WOWed! Great stories are simply amazing!

I’m proud to report, I read alongside my children kindergarten through 12th grade.

I read on the beach in summer while my children made sand castles. I read at the park while they climbed up and down the slide. I read during swim lessons. I listened to a child read aloud here and there while I did dishes. And I enlisted Audible! You can do this!

What I decided, early on, was to become the teacher who is delighted to learn.

Blackbird & Company curriculum is designed to inspire children to read and to write and to think well. During the process of engaging with books, journalling their way through stories, and working through the process of writing original ideas, your students will gain skills and confidence.

So back to “Do I have to read the book? (Yes), ” and on to the the next step: Prepare to be a guide.

Next, pack a knapsack of tools!

The following “support materials” are NOT simply “extras” but, rather, tools designed to help YOU, the teacher, make the most of our ELA curriculum. You don’t need to be an expert or have all the answers tied up in a pretty bow. You need to be willing to teach, mentor, guide. Our support materials are not scripted. When it comes to the art of teaching, we left plenty of room for YOU—the teacher, to teach, to mentor, to guide. We have built into each student guide: pacing, a rhythm of routine, and simplicity that will allow YOU to actually teach.

Always begin at the beginning.

Get to know the student guides—begin with out CORE Literature and Writing units. Once you understand how these work, the APPLICATION materials will be a breaze to navigate. There is valuable information for YOU, the teacher, to implement alongside a mentor built into the scaffolding that will guide your students through the journaling, research, and writing.

Our TEACHING TOOLS are designed to give you space to confidently set learning into motion. Every element of our student materials is designed with purpose, our teaching tools are no exception. The following materials will help you create opportunities for your students to be curious, imaginative, and to develop the tenacity to bring shape to their ideas.

Teacher Helps: For our Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers we’ve created a Hatchling Teacher Helps that will support you through these crucial years. We’ve also created a slim handbook filled with strategies to support you, the teacher, with students utilizing CORE Levels 1, 2, & 3 (3rd grade through 8th grade).  This said, every single student guide contains its own pacing, information, and strategies to support your students well.

Answer Keys: English Language Arts is just that, an art form. As such, the majority of what your student journals and writes about is subjective in nature. Our blog contains many articles to help you edit student writing. We have created answer keys for the small portion of each guide that is answerable, or objective in nature. These can be downloaded and printed for FREE! Or, you can save paper / printer ink and simply access online!

Reader’s Guides and Seven Tips:  Leading young minds through literature can be intimidating—teachers are forced to ask the big questions, like, “What are the themes of this story?” and “How can we learn from these characters?” And that’s not even mentioning the pivoting we have to be prepared for when our students pull questions seemingly out of nowhere! Consider our Reader’s Guides are the helping hand we extend to, your, the teacher and parent-teacher as you read along your students.

Lesson Plans: Because each and every classroom is unique, be it a traditional seated classroom, a  hybrid micro-classroom, or a homeschool setting, our lesson plans are a great place to get started. We have created lesson plans for curated Grade  Level Collections and also for every single individual type of product for those who curate unique ELA collections.

Downloadable Materials: Print Shop is the place to discover some wonderful downloadable resources. From primary ABCeDarian projects to Writer’s Checklists to Cgaracter Trait cards to Reader’s Guides for teachers—the resources are rich.

Videos: We are constantly adding videos to support. From our Hatchling videos for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, to the Leonardo da Vinci instructional videos, to our most recent “How to Edit Student Writing” and more. Explore and check back often.

You don’t have to have all the answers. You simply have to be willing to be a guide, wandering with your students in the realm of wonder.

 

~Kimberly

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Combating: “I can’t!”

Fall for me is a time to reminisce on back-to-school. What motivates a student to engage in the work of learning? Long ago I wrote an observation of my youngest son engaging in one of our Level 2 Integrated Literature and Writing units.

What stood out to me as a mom and an educator is the fact that, after writing his way through the book, Søren created a culminating project that was conjured up in his very own imagination. Creativity is NOT extracurricular. Creativity combats the “I can’t” grumbles.

With our approach, each book is read and explored over the course of four weeks. During the fifth week, students develop a creative culminating project with options that provide a variety of ways for them to demonstrate deep understanding of the book. Students not only get a chance to demonstrate their originality, organization, clarity of purpose, and critical thinking skills, more importantly this culminating endeavor will allow them to show off what they have learned in their own, uniquely creative way.

 

~Kimberly

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We love (and support) our teachers.

The first day of school is right around the corner. Your curriculum is selected, your books assembled, your students in their seats (or near them, at least)—but, as you know, there’s so much more to teaching than having the right materials. 

A good teacher is inspired. And they pass that inspiration on to their students. 

We at Blackbird & Company are here to walk alongside you, lightening the burden of planning and logistics to create room for your imagination to soar. Let us support you through this adventure of a school year.

Here are some of the support resources we offer on our website:

  1. The Blog — You’re already here, which is a great step to take! BUT, chances are, there’s more to the blog than you would have guessed. Filter by category to peruse the topics that are most relevant to you, like Pages, Print Shop, Write Ideas, and Writing Resources. Glean new teaching strategies and learn more about the resources at your fingertips.
  2. Schedules and Lesson Plans — Fitting together teaching schedules and lesson plans can feel like putting together a puzzle in which none of the pieces fit together. That’s why we created these resources for every grade level collection AND individual subject. Take a moment to peruse our expertly-assembled teaching schedules and lesson plans. 
  3. Online Pages Classes — Whether you’d like to learn how to use Blackbird & Company guides by seeing another teacher apply them, or you’re homeschooling and want your student to find community with peers and another teacher, our online Pages Classes might just be for you.
    We offer 5-week (and longer) classes for every student. From our CORE curriculum of Earlybird to Level 4, and our Application materials like Essay, Research, and One True Sentence, our friendly teachers can’t wait to meet this year’s students.
    But keep in mind, the deadline for Session 1 sign-ups is September 1st—so take a look now!
  4. Print Shop — We’ve been abuzz with the Print Shop news lately, which you’ve probably picked up on if you’ve kept an eye on the blog! With a slew of downloadable ABCeDarian crafts, Reader’s Guides, One True Sentence worksheets, and more, we aim to create thoughtful, high-quality learning supplements that will deepen students’ engagement with the arts. 
  5. Video Collection — Learn more about how to adopt a literature-based language arts education with the Video Collection on our website. We offer professional development videos, including how to teach phonics, and videos that supplement units like Operation Lexicon: Traits of Character.

So amidst the whirlwind of educating young minds, draw on these resources to take time away from planning and stressing, and channel it into inspiration. Let us not forget that learning—and watching others learn—is one of the greatest joys of this life!

~ Claire S.

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Let’s Edit Together.

Many teachers and parents hit a wall editing student work—it can seem so subjective! The last thing any of us want is to discourage our budding writers. But editing doesn’t have to loom large like a specter of educational despair. YOU are equipped for this task, and we are here to help with some quick online resources.

Earlier this week, we took a look at the Blackbird & Company Writer’s Checklists, which detail what to highlight in a 5-minute editing conference. But today we’re going one step further.

Drum roll please….

Introducing our new Editing Tutorials!

These videos look at real samples of student work and model how we would edit them with the Writer’s Checklists. Check out our first batch of tutorials centered around Level 1 edits on all our social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest). Our first five videos explore how to edit:

  1. Hook and Indent
  2. Mechanics
  3. Supporting Ideas and Adjectives, Example 1
  4. Supporting Ideas and Adjectives, Example 2
  5. Twist

 

With examples of dos and don’ts for each checklist bullet, we’ll give you practical tips on how to edit student work. And stay tuned for our Level 2 and 3 tutorials—they’ll be following shortly.

Every teacher edits differently. No matter your editing style, however, the most important part of a red-pen edit is (1) to help our students’ ideas shine, and (2) to empower them to keep writing. We don’t edit to crush their spirits or to force them to conform to an outline. No! We edit because our students’ ideas deserve to gleam and shimmer in the sun like a cracked geode. We edit because we believe that our students are capable of so much more than they know. 

Browse these editing tutorials for a little inspiration and direction. YOU are more than ready to pick up that red pen!

~ Claire S.

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Learning with Leonardo

Look • Imagine • Create

Observation begins with a question: What am I seeing? In a world filled to the brim with stimulation, it is easy to take our senses for granted. Though we are usually quick to have thoughts on things that we taste and smell, sight (of all things) can often be overlooked. We see so many things on a daily basis that it’s easy to forget to stop and really look.

Learn to think and create. This 20-lesson interdisciplinary unit guides students into biographical research of Leonardo. Students will read to discover and write what they glean. Each week they will be guided through observational exercises and learn to draw from the Renaissance Man’s sketchbooks, encouraged each step of the way by our instructional videos that can be accessed at your convenience.

Your student will culminate with an original research paper, a sketchbook of warm-ups + drawings, a focused framable drawing, and a tool kit of skills.This unit is recommended for students 5th grade through adult!

Click through to see one week of the unit in action.

 

~Kimberly

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Romeo + Juliet are Everywhere

One of the significant milestones for student writers is the ability to connect the dots. A big part of becoming educated is acquiring knowledge. In English Language Arts as with all the humanities, students engage in reading and learning from books. Shakespeare is the bedrock of storytelling. We believe a must for students to gain a richness of language alone. Our Operation Lexicon guides students into the vast array of words unique to Shakespeare’s work. This is a great unit to begin in summer before diving into his sonnets and plays larger work. 

Operation Lexicon 11 - Shakespeare

 Here again, our student Kate, during the spring semester demonstrated that she is enlarging her fund of knowledge and understands how to connect dots. One of her projects included diving into the works of Shakespeare. She learned about his life and touched the surface of his work.

To begin, she did a close reading of  one of his well known sonnets, considering both its content and form. After creating the beautiful final project above to showcase the sonnet—a slowly copied work—she read a beautifully illustrated version of Romeo and Juliet. Now she was ready to dive into the world of Shakespeare’s play.

What is tremendous is the connections she made as she enlarged her fund of knowledge and connected the dots in her culminating essay.

 

Romeo and Juliet are Everywhere

Was any of it worth it? Shakespeare’s nearly 500-year-old play portrays two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who tragically fall in love despite the deep, destructive resentment between their families. The language tricks, film adaptations across different time periods, and devastating consequences make this play an important work of art.

Shakespeare uses language tricks to add ironic humor to this tragedy. Romeo’s fickle love, ended his love towards Rosaline enabling him to suddenly fall in love with Juliet, setting the tragedy into motion. After Benvolio insists Romeo abandon his obsessive crush on Rosaline, Romeo responds hyperbolically: “Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here’s much to do with hate but more with love. Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate!” (Folger lines 160-168a). It’s silly how Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline changed so quickly, turning into an obsession over Juliet. It’s wild that Romeo is compared to an attractive book holding a bad story, illustrating the complexity of what lies below the surface. Juliet compares Romeo to a beautifully bound book containing a dark heart after he kills Tybalt: “Was ever a book containing such vile matter so fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace” (Folger lines 83-85a). Juliet’s statement is both amusing and disturbing regarding her obsessive passion. Shakespeare’s use here of complicated and tricky word play is effective.

Franco Zefrelli, Baz Luhrmann, Rogers and Hammerstein, and even Michael Jackson have reshaped Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet,” for film. Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film brought the story of Romeo and Juliet to life for me with of the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio, the modern setting, and the ’90s styling. While Robert Ebert loved Franco Zefarelli’s 1968 film, “I believe Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet is the most exciting film of Shakespeare ever made,” I don’t agree. I found the film dull. The 1968 film was theater-like, traditional, and Romeo dies first! Nobody can criticize Leonard Bernstein’s music or Stephen Sandhein’s lyrics, which was created for the theater, toured worldwide, and later became the famous 1961 film. This clever adaptation is set in New York’s Upper West Side, where, like The Outsiders, gangs are feuding (the Sharks and the Jets). I found the connections of West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet, and The Outsiders interesting, especially where all three stories encountered complicated relationships, conflict, and overwhelming emotions. And then there is Michael Jackson’s 1982 music video, “Beat It,” yet another adaptation where hostility increases quickly between rivals. Here Michael Jackson steps in, advocating for peace, using music and choreography to communicate powerfully. I wonder how Shakespeare might view all these adaptations?

Let’s talk tragedy. To begin, the fact that the Montagues and Capulets keep their feud going on and on and on to a point in time that no one actually remembers how it started is foolish, destructive, and clear evidence of how pride definitely comes before a fall! It’s frustrating and isolating for Romeo and Juliet, who could not share the fact that they were actually married with their loved ones. In the end, it took the tragedy of death to bring the feud to an end and to bring these families to their senses. How can anyone not connect to Romeo’s and Juliet’s obsessive love for each other and their heartbreaking death? Family conflict, love, and unfortunate spontaneous decisions do not always end well. Tragedy is real and happens every single day. Beware of holding onto grudges!

From 1597 to 2026, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has informed and influenced millions upon millions of us humans, but the idea was inspired by an earlier work by an English poet, Robert Brooke, who was inspired by an Italian poet named Matteo Bandeblo. There is nothing new under the sun, but Shakespeare made this tragic tale his own inspired by artist who came before him. Retelling Shakespeare’s classic redefines the timeless tragedy for every new generation. I wonder who will come next.

Work Cited

Jackson, Michael. “Beat It.” 1983. YouTube, Michael Jackson – Beat It (Official 4K Video)

Romeo and Juliet, Directed by Baz Luhnmann, 1996.

Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet.” Folger Shakespeare Library, https//folger.edu/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-juliet/.

Shakespeare, William and Zwerger, Lisbeth. Romeo and Juliet. Michael Neugebauer Publishing, 1996.

West Side Story. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 1961.

 

~Kimberly






DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!


Summer Bingo!

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An Alive and Kicking Section 5 Project

The word essay has its roots in the old English  word “assay” tied to science in the 1400s. Think metallurgy. In the lab, scientists hypothesize and try ideas out.

As a writer, I am often saddened by what has become of the essay. Quoting “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins, I have to say, I agree:

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
Swap the word “essay” for the word “poem” and we are understanding what has happened to this rich form. We need to land at Form Follows Function—ideas must always lead. Form will follow.
The true purpose of the essay is for the writer to bring shape to an idea in a particular scaffolded form. With the literary essay, we begin in a story. Imagine the reading like meandering down the shore of a lazy river gathering tumbled stones and other treasures. At the end of the reading, the writer examines what was collected and writes about a significant discovery. This discovery is shaped the essay, Yesterday I shared one such essay tied to S.E. Hinton’s seminal novel, The Outsiders.
Today I want to share another way that readers “assay” ideas gleaned from great stories—Art. Every one of our Integrated Literature and Writing units includes a culminating 5th week of study, what we call the Section 5 Project.  Here Kate, the essay writer from yesterday’s post, has created a beautiful Lexicon of Outsiders. Her assemblage gathers and immortalizes words and symbols from the book in a brand new, creative way. She supports her choices by providing actual quotations.

Powerful (and lovely).

Am I right?

~Kimberly






DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!


Summer Bingo!

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Alive and Kicking

Over the course of five weeks, in the Level 4 Integrated Literature and Writing units, high school students are led on a journey through an exceptional work. Not only will they journey through, but they will document the journey, creating a weekly journal that explores, characters, themes, symbols, motifs, and vocabulary. The journal will also include a synopsis of the week’s reading and a weekly personal reflection. All of this, to prepare for the crafting of a culminating essay. 

Back in the 60s, fifteen-year-old S.E. Hinton—Susan Eloise—began writing The Outsiders. The book was published when she was 18 and has been in print ever since. Back in the 90s it was surprisingly ranked #38 on the American Library Association’s Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books. But in 2019, the BBC listed the book as one of the top hundred most influential.

Now I love it when an idiom is used in a fresh way. So it tickles me that Kate, a current 9th grade student working through Honors English, was able to incorporate one of my favorites into her essay—alive and kicking. This one was, once upon a time, a sales pitch used by fishermen. Think 1800s. Think nets filled with flopping fish pulled onto a pier to sell. This is an alive and kicking offering, for sure!  Fresh, indeed!

The idiom in Kate’s Thesis Statement was a teaching moment during the edit stage of the writing process. Kate first wrote: “The theme of loyalty, the symbolic switchblades, and the shrinking of differences to similarity keep this story relevant.” When she and her teacher were working through the editorial process, the idiom felt like a very natural improvement. This is REAL writing. This is the space where the mentor and the apprentice read and discuss and edit. All real writers learn through mentorship. Never is “imagination” or “originality” or “voice” the result of a consumable worksheet.  Authentic essays spring from the heart that is drawn into a process—brainstorm, draft, re-read, conference with a mentor, polish. And here, you will read the result of a student who engaged in such a process. 

Thank you, Kate, for reminding us that S.E. Hinton’s BIG idea is still alive and kicking!

 

The Gold Below the Surface

Have you ever been judged before someone really got to know you? In The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, the Socs and the Greasers are separated by wealth and reputation. The theme of loyalty, the symbolic switchblades, and the transforming of differences to similarity, keep this story alive and kicking.

For the Greasers to survive, they must rely on loyalty to one another. Every day, the streets are dangerous for the Greasers. S.E. Hinton uses the ongoing conflict between the Greasers and the Socs to demonstrate this danger, “Greasers can’t walk along too much, or they’ll get jumped” (2). The Greasers rely on each other for protection.  Being loyal means sometimes having to sacrifice. Johnny protects Ponyboy at the church fire, “We put it out before you got burned. That jacket saved you from a bad burning, maybe saved your life” (94). Johnny courageously sacrifices his life because of his loyalty to his friend Ponyboy. Johnny rescuing Ponyboy not only demonstrates the loyalty of a true friend, but the true devotion of the Greasers toward one another.

Switchblades are weapons that symbolize both violence and protection. The Greasers live in a tough environment. They rely on violent switchblades for power, “Ya kill’em with switchblades, too, ya, kid” (83). Daily life is filled with rivalry, where the switchblades represented hostility. Getting the news that Johnny will be dying, breaks Ponyboy. But Johnny’s last words stick with him forever like a switchblade to the heart, “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold…”(148). In the last seconds of his life, Johnny, protecting his friend, instructs Ponyboy how to live life. Receiving his last words of guidance, Ponyboy can move forward.

Despite all of the differences between the Greasers and the Socs, they are amazingly alike. After all, having differences doesn’t mean we humans aren’t similar. Despite the Greasers and the Socs differences, both groups are more alike than meets the eye, “It seems funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one” (1). Seeing the same sunset demonstrates similarity. Not knowing what Johnny’s future is going to look like, or if he even will have a future, is very scary. Worrying about what might happen to Johnny in the near future, Ponyboy comes face to face with mortality, “The blood was draining from my face and Darry put an arm across my shoulder and squeezed hard…even if he lived, he’d be crippled for the rest of his life” (102). All these thoughts are running through his mind. Sunsets and death lead readers into understanding that the Greasers and the Socs have much in common.

Throughout The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton, uses the simple theme of loyalty, symbols like switchblades and staying gold, and striking motifs of sunsets and death, to create a hauntingly realistic tale that is relevant here in the 21st century. Ultimately, judging someone before getting to know them creates walls that divide. Getting to know someone before judging enables us to discover someone as a whole, and this will always surprise the heart.

 

Works Cited

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. Viking Press, 1967.

 

~Kimberly

DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!


Summer Bingo!

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Let’s Puzzle Some More

Once again, hop on over to Red Hen Toys and pick up the Binomial Square puzzle. Of course, this Montessori / Froebel inspired material is designed to prepare students for more complex math instruction down the line—proportional reasoning, base 4 numeration, polynomials and more.

But for this summer activity, the goal is to integrate the activity into the art of writing. Begin by presenting your student with a blank journal, a pencil and some colored pencils. Here is a little nugget to spark curiosity:

Did you know all multiplication problems can be represented by a rectangle?

Copy this sentence and move on to create original questions in the journal.

Encourage students to freely explore, beginning with questions, questions they will write in a journal:

How many blue pieces are needed to make a square? or How colors  does it take to make a square?

Keep exploring and composing questions along the way. From here move on to statements like:

There are sixteen pieces in the Binomial Square puzzle.

Finally, begin to build shapes and craft instructions—imperative sentences. From the image above, a first sentence might read:

Pick up the bright yellow rectangle and place it vertically on the right on the table in front of you.

Next, place the light green rectangle horizontally flush right at the bottom of the bright yellow rectangle, creating a 90 degree angle.

Keep going from here! This activity engages your students in active learning—reflection and problem solving instead of passive direct instruction. Students who enter into the activity of journalling and puzzling, will be setting the stage for more advanced math learning, but more importantly for advanced writing. Slowing down and observing relationships between the puzzle pieces, will strengthen observational skills. The process of communicating observations with words on paper will develop skills and strategies that will help your writers write well.

DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!


Summer Bingo!

 

~Kimberly

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A Writer’s Magnum Opus

As the school year has only just ended, now is the perfect time to ask a beautiful question or two! As a writer, what has my student gleaned? What is the best lesson I passed on? What is my student’s magnum opus? And, as a teacher, what is mine?

So what exactly is a magnum opus? E.B. White demonstrates this beautifully. Charlotte’s Web begins with the tension of an ax. Life on the farm causes Fern to face life and death, “‘I don’t see why he needs an ax,’ continued Fern, who was only eight. ‘Well,” said her mother, ‘one of the pigs is a runt. It’s very small and weak, and it will never amount to anything. So your father has decided to do away with it.'” Of course, we know how the story goes. Fern rescues the runt and sets the action into motion.

But, let’s get back to the matter at hand, the concept of magnum opus. Toward the end of the story, in chapter 19, Charlotte refers to her egg sac as her magnum opus. But when Wilber thinks the peach colored cotton-candy like thing is a toy, Charlotte sets him straight. And in the process of setting Wilbur straight, Charlotte unpacks the term for us, “It is my egg sac, my magnum opus. Latin for great work. This egg sac is my great work—the finest thing I have ever made.” Charlotte’s sac, containing 514 eggs becomes a powerful representation of her legacy.

 

Later, in Chapter 22, almost at the very end of the book, E.B. White crafts a sentence so perfect, that I would deem it a magnum opus:

“It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.” ~E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

Our Blackbird & Company students are continually constructing ideas—words to phrases, to sentences, to paragraphs, to essays. Now is the perfect time as summer saunters in, to look back on your student’s body of writing from the past year in search of a magnum opus! I’m certain you will be  able to pull a singular sentence from your student’s body of writing. One sentence that stand’s above the rest. Post the sentence up on the refrigerator, read it often. In so doing you are encouraging the student’s important work, but you are also reminding yourself that a significant part of being a teacher is inspiring, applauding, marveling in the work of the student!

 

~Kimberly