Coaching Young Readers and Writers : National Writing Project

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Writing Fix - Mentor Texts of the Year 2012-13

Northern Nevada Writing Project has a fantastic writing resource website called Writing Fix. I highly recommend that you bookmark and explore this site. It is an extensive collection of information on Six Traits concepts, mentor texts, journaling, writing prompts, and so much more.

The mentor texts for the 2012-13 school year have been announced by the staff at Writing Fix. This year, the two books are The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter and illustrated by Giselle Potter (Schwartz & Wade, 2006) and Vocabulary Unplugged by Alana Morris (Discover Writing Press, 2005).

      The Boy Who Loved Words is a picture book about a boy named Selig who relishes in collecting words. It is a good text to support the trait of word choice during a mentor text lesson as part of a writing workshop session. Schotter's book can also show how to spice up your writing pieces during the revision stage of the writing process. In addition, the text can be used to exemplify how to use context clues to figure out large vocabulary words within a story.

      You can download a PDF Teacher's Guide from Random House for The Boy Who Loved Words. There is more information available about the book through the Parents' Choice Award Website as well.

Sign up here for the Writing Lesson of the Month email from the Northern Nevada Writing Project/Writing Fix. Interesting lesson ideas for teaching elements and traits of writing. (Some of the lessons deal with music, which would apply better to an older student demographic, but many lessons deal with mentor texts.)

You can also read an older post about a previous fall's WritingFix's Mentor Text of the Year by clicking here.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

National Writing Project: Supporting Teachers to Become Even Better Teachers of Writing!

Have you ever heard of the National Writing Project? The National Writing Project is a highly respected professional learning opportunity for teachers. There is a network of over 200 sites at various college and university campuses across the United States. Each respective site host a summer institute where teachers work on developing their skills as teachers of writing. Also, teachers develop their personal skills as a writer.

    It is so important for teachers to see themselves as writers who are always developing their own skills in order to continue to develop their instructional writing skills, too. I know that is how I personally feel, and I work with writing instruction for about half of any given school day. If I can model my thinking, sifting, brainstorming, drafting, editing, revising, and sharing, that modeling will lead to more risk taking and confidence building in the students. Like any other subject, students need to be explicitly shown. As we all know, writing can be intimidating! :) The more you practice, the more your voice and crafting abilities grow.  I would say that participating in the NWP was one of the top professional development activities that I have ever been a part of. I highly recommend it!

     Our local branch of NWP, the Eastern Virginia Writing Project, holds its annual course each summer at William and Mary each summer. I'm a teacher consultant of the EVWP from the summer of 2004, and this participation also makes you a fellow of the NWP. Here is the EVWP's blog link, too. The application is available at their link above, and the six graduate credits and books are paid for, as well as a $100 honorarium. What a deal!

Donalyn Miller is the author of one of the many books I enjoyed this year, which is called The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Reader in Every Child (Jossey-Bass, 2009.) This link will take you to an insightful interview she gave with the NWP. Also, she was one of the special speakers at the NWP's national convention this year. It is really worth listening to her in this YouTube posting of her speech. We all need to keep the fire and passion about why we teach, and listening to her speak is a great dose of encouragement!