Welcome back to the Writing Round-Up, a collection of some of our favorite finds about teaching writing and being a teacher who writes.
We hope are ready to dive into some new learning because we've got some good things to share this week. Let's get started!
For Teachers of Writers
Who Are Your Students Writing For?:
As a writer, keeping my audience in the forefront of my mind shapes the writing I do and motivates me to do my best work. Do students have this same opportunity? When students write for an authentic audience (someone other than just YOU), writing engagement soars. Read more here.
Fire Up the Presses - Publishing a Classroom Newspaper:
Speaking of writing for an authentic audience, here is a great plan from ReadWriteThink to get you started with publishing a classroom newspaper.
Short Mentor Texts for How-To Writing:
If you teach your students to write How-To papers, you will want to share some of the mentor texts available from the NY Times. There are a wide variety of topics appropriate for many age levels. Who knows, you might even learn a thing or two like I did!
Looking for a Writing Challenge?:
Do you have students who are looking for a special push to challenge themselves in their writing? Check out the Young Writers Program from NaNoWriMo for details on how students can write a novel in 30 days. There are amazing resources available on their website that can help make this happen.
Alternatives to the Five Paragraph Essay:
We've all written them. We've all assigned them. But, there is a better, more authentic way to teach students how to write to share their thoughts. This post from Edutopia and Brian Sztabnik will tell you how.
For Teachers Who Write
I came across the Seekerville website this past summer and have been in love with it ever since. Every day, they publish writing tips that really get you thinking. In this post, ten published authors share the best writing advice they've ever received. Pure inspiration!
November is National Novel Writing Month -- a chance to power through and write your novel in 30 days. Are you participating this year? Here are some pep talks to get you started and keep you going. (Even if you're not participating, these are fun to read!)
Why do you write? Grant Faulkner shares 100 Reasons why he writes in this National Writing Project post on Medium. I wish I could share which ones I agree with, but there are too many to list here. Do you have a favorite?
Every Sunday, the Writing Round-Up shares a few of our favorite finds about teaching writing and other topics of interest to writing teachers.
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Thanks for reading this week's Writing Round-Up! Have a great writing week and see you next Sunday.
#WritingTips #BestPractices #Audience #WritingInspiration #ClassroomWriting