Demonstration Workshops

What I learned...

I learned that journaling and using writer's notebooks can be an important way to help kids get their thoughts written down. They can use these notebooks or journals for keeping great writing leads or endings, story ideas or memories, quick writes or prompts.

I learned that there are many strategies for helping young writers get started with poetry. Using fruit or another tactile object can urge them to use their senses and write about what they see, touch, smell, taste, or hear.

I learned that using music in the classroom can be very powerful. Students can help to re-write simple nursery rhymes or write words/pictures after listening to a piece of music.

I learned that helping students with asperger's with their writing can be helped if you use simple strategies outlined in the curriculum "Handwriting with Tears." I also learned that sometimes it is OK to let a child with special needs choose the topic they are interested in for writing, even if the topic is the same every day. If this helps them to write, and writing is the goal, then we have just helped them to be successful in achieving a goal.

I learned that using a simple text, like "Molly's Pilgrim," can lend itself to exploring a whole unit on immegration, Thanksgiving, ancestry, or dozens of other topics. Picture books can open doors to enriching our student's narrow thinking and expanding their understanding of the world.