Hi, everyone! Here are the SlideShare links for my presentations at the October 2013 Washington West Supervisory Union Staff Development Day.
And here are all the links and resources I mentioned in my presentations as well as a bunch of others that I think might help you encourage authentic problem solving, reading, writing, revision, and the use of mentor authors and mentor texts in your classrooms. I hope you’ll find them helpful, and you should feel free to share this page with friends and colleagues who might have missed the actual staff development day. (I’d ask that you not copy & paste material to other websites & blogs, though. Mary Lee Hahn has an excellent post on Digital Citizenship that explains why, and I’ve also written about this in the Teachers Write community here.)
So…speaking of Teachers Write, here’s what it’s all about… We’d love to have you join us this coming summer!
REAL REVISION: AUTHORS’ STRATEGIES TO SHARE WITH STUDENT WRITERS from Stenhouse (link includes an online preview)
Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs – Kate’s list of 100+ authors & illustrators who offer free 20-minute Q and A sessions with groups that have read one of their books.
“Met Any Good Authors Lately?” and “An Author in Every Classroom” are Kate’s SLJ features on Skype virtual author visits and how they can be used to provide students with published authors as mentors for their own writing after reading an author’s books.
“Pleased to Tweet You” is Kate’s SLJ feature on educators using Twitter as a teaching tool to connect students with authors and promote literacy.
“Sometimes on a Mountain in April” by Kate Messner – Poem to use as model for students’ descriptive place poems
65 Off-Draft Writing Prompts to Kick-Start Revision
“Real Authors Don’t Plan…Or Do They? An Open Letter to Tyler” Blog post that shows planning/outlining/idea-webbing process for CAPTURE THE FLAG.
Turn Off the Spell Check – Thoughts on saving the copy editing for later to free up students for bigger-picture revisions (and directions for how to turn off the spell-check in Word!)
Writing with Vivid Details: Using Photos for Inspiration to make settings more vivid
Google Maps Street View – How it works (great for when you can’t visit a setting in person!)
“How to Critique Writing” – Kate’s guest post for the Stenhouse Summer Blogstitute 2011 has seven tips to share with students.
Kate’s Pinterest boards (including discussion & resource guides for her kids’ books, REAL REVISION resources, and a handful of recipes that she’ll be too busy writing to make)
“Very Pinteresting” Kate’s SLJ Feature on Pinterest and how librarians and teachers are using it to promote literacy & learning.
Scrivener home page, where you can read more about this digital writing/outlining tool and download a free demo.
“When a Book Title Goes Back to the Drawing Board” Kate’s blog post on brainstorming titles
“Revolution for the Tested” – Kate’s poem on the real reasons to read & write
Kid-Sourcing.com – Great opportunities for kids to be engaged in real-world problem solving