Welcome to this week's edition of the Writing Round-Up! We are getting super excited to head to St. Louis for the NCTE Annual Convention next week to take in all the amazingness that is literacy. Will you be there? Tweet us at @TeachWriteEDU and let us know!
We've got a great Writing Round-Up for you this week so let's get started:
For Teachers of Writers
We've seen the annotated-list headlines everywhere: Seven Ways to Start Your Day, Ten Books Your Classroom Needs, Seven Ideas for Teaching Fractions , or even my own Five Myths About Teaching Writing. This style of writing is catchy and gets right to the point quickly. Readers like it. How can we teach our students to add this style of writing to their writing toolkits? " Your New Favorite Form of Writing, Revealed" from Shawna Coppola will show you!
Contest: Letters About Literature
The Library of Congress is sponsoring the Letters About Literature contest for students in grades 4-12. More information can be found here.
Spicing Up Expository Writing:
Are your students (and you) tired of writing essays about their favorite sports or "All About...." research reports? Would you like to mix things up a bit and get your students more invested in their expository writing? Check out "Creative Expository Writing Prompts for Uninspired Students" for inspiration. I can see how many of these could be easily adapted to a variety of grade levels.
The Power of Conferring in Writing Workshop:
Do you avoid conferring with your student writers because you just don't see the value in it? You will want to read this post from NCTE and member blogger Alden Bird. It will change your mind.
For Teachers Who Write
I am a book junkie and love reading books about writing. I was excited to see this list, "The 28 Best Books on Writing" from Signature and was interested to learn that I own 10 of the 28. How about you?
Do you have a tribe of writing people you write with? Do you want to? "How Writing Partners Help and Where to Find Them" from author Julie Cantrell and the website Writers In the Storm explains the how and why behind finding your writing tribe. (Be sure you subscribe to the Writing Round-Up or the Teach Write website--we've got some big news on this topic coming in January!)
This month's #TeachWrite chat Invite to Write's theme is HOME. What does home mean to you? What stories are hiding there? Write about it and link up your post here. Everyone who writes and links up this month will be entered into a drawing to win Elle Luna's fabulous Crossroads Between Should and Must.
Did you know that Teach Write offers coaching and professional development services to help you grow your writing habit and/or become a stronger teacher of writers?
Packages are available for both the individual teacher and entire schools, either in-person or virtually.
Contact us today for more information!
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