Writing Prompt Support - How to Get Started Video

Hi Everyone, I created this video a few years ago but thought it might be helpful for both students and teachers using writing prompts in their classroom. Happy Writing!

Publishing Time

Today we will be embarking on the first steps of publishing our writing.  After you have revised and editing your writing a final time, we will put all of our written pieces in a shared document. To do this you will need to do the following steps.

Click here to open the document

Once there, go back to your writing. Copy your writing by highlighting the entire document and right clicking.

Go back to the shared document, look for your name.  Copy and paste your document.

***Don't worry if it spread between two pages. We will fix that later.  Please be sure any pictures you have are where you want them to be. We can play around with them to ensure they don't move around on you.

To create this document, I started in Office 365 and created a new document, named it and then hit share.  Next you will change the preferences to "People in your organization" to make it at least a little bit harder for someone else to mess around with! Then you will copy the link and share it with students. This can be done through email, Notebook or your classroom website. Students access this link and then add their writing.

***This is the perfect time to talk about digital citizenship, as students have access to each others' work. It's important they always keep a copy themselves in case something was to happen.  I also take the link off once we are done.

Once all the documents are on the shared document, I print out the whole document.  We meet in groups and edit together. This also gives me time to meet with students that need extra help. I meet with kids individually to revise and edit a final time (10 more times).

After the document is perfect and beautiful, we get to the physical publishing stage. I have used two websites - https://www.lulu.com/ and https://chatbooks.com/   Lulu.com is fantastic for books with lots of text. Chatbooks is great for books made mostly with pictures.

How to Upload a Book to Lulu

Tips for Leaving a Good Comment

If you'd like to leave a comment on our blog, please check out some of the tips my students and I learned about last year regarding helpful and useful comments.  Thank you to Mrs. Yollis' Class (all the way from California!) who made an amazing video with her students to explain just how to do so.  Here it is summarized.

1) Start by complementing the writer

• mention something that you like about what the writer talks about or how they wrote it

2) Add new information

• make sure it is related to the topic
• if you know a new fact, respond with the new information

3) Ask a question

• make sure it is related to the comment above and/or the original comment
• make sure it isn't a repeat of previous comments, but rather be sure it adds new information

4) Proofread your comment!

• if you like, copy and paste it into Word just to be sure
• make sure you read it over carefully - sometimes you might spell all of your words correctly, but they may be mixed up or used incorrectly

Can we think of any other things necessary to make a good comment? Let me know! Happy commenting!

Writing Without Roadblocks

Last year I had the wonderful opportunity of having Nancy McLean, a teacher who works alongside Regie Routman for a week long residency in my classroom. It was a wonderful experience where when know looking back, I can say I learned just as much as the students did that week, if not more! We focussed on writing stories about Kindness and had them published in a beautiful book. This year I am very lucky to continue talking with Nancy as I transition into middle years. She has already been a wonderful help, directing me to some excellent articles written by Regie herself.  Here is one about how to help your students avoid writing roadblocks. I definitely plan on spending time diving into Middleweb - looks like there are tons of wonderful resources. What strategies do you use for writing with your middle years students?