I have twenty-five to thirty favorite picture and chapter books that I turn to when I want to teach a young writer about  the craft of writing. I keep them in front of my flipchart in my grandfathers suitcase. When I choose a book to include in my mentor texts I might look to see [...]

Writing Conferences are only one part of the writing process. If properly introduced and incorporated, conferring in groups becomes a most beneficial tool to improve student writing. In the group conference, students should be positive, constructive, and specific-behaviors which middle school students do not normally practice. This group conference method does as much to develop [...]

Today the students and I took a look at different kinds of leads authors use to enter their stories. You can see the kids identified them and labeled them accordingly to how they saw E. B. White and Katherine Patterson enter their stories. The students decided that E. B. White used a question, dialogue and [...]

This is my grandfather’s suitcase from long ago. He used to teach before he decided he wanted to be a farmer. It seems to be a great place to keep those 15 to 20 books that I use day in and day out to teach the kids the craft of writing.
In memory of Granddad Leroy.