Dialogue. It’s something we wish students would use purposefully inside of a piece of writing. Too often, when our students do write with dialogue, it sounds like this: “Hi,” I said. “Hi,” my sister said. “What do you want to do today?” I...

These words are speaking to my soul tonight.  I’m planning to use them in a workshop I’m leading tomorrow. Students such as these walk into your classrooms in every size, shape, and color.  You can’t know their histories because their only control is...

Happy Election Day!  Whether you’re teaching today, attending professional development (I’m personally leading a session on conferring, so I’ll be posting my Slice later today.), or have the day off, please remember to get out and vote!

At the Basic Workshop Training there is always time for Adult Writing.  Yesterday, I shared one way to help get students writing is to read aloud a well-written text (a poem, picture book, or novel excerpt) and then allow the words “to hang in the...

This past Monday I heard Kwame Alexander, who is a poet (He trained with Nikki Giovanni at Virgina Tech!), author, and founder of Book-in-a-Day, speak at the KSRA Conference in Hershey, PA.  My handwritten notes from his talk about engaging students...