Stop Calling It a Story: Clarity in Nonfiction Writing
Sometimes, the words we use are confusing. As a northerner who moved to the south as an adult, it took me a while to figure out that in the south,…
3 Writing Revolution Activities to Apply Immediately
We hear a whole lot about our nation’s reading scores, and there is definitely a discussion to be had there. But what we never seem to hear about are the…
Teaching Kids How to Write a Summary for Nonfiction
In a previous post, I shared one of the easiest, most effective strategies for simplifying narrative summary writing for kids. If you haven’t read that post yet, please take a…
Peer Feedback Made Easy: Boost Writing Quality and Lighten Your Load
Conferring with students during writing is a critical piece of strong writing instruction. As Susan Brookhart says in her book How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students, “Feedback can…
Step Back to Improve Independent Writing
There are so many reasons our kids don’t want to write. At the foundational level, when handwriting and spelling skills are weak, kids’ ability and confidence in writing will be…