Small Reads for Brighters Days
By Laura
I’m working with elementary school kids this week, and the theme is Writing with Muscle. I’m working with them on revising flabby first drafts into power-packed shorter poems. I did this lesson plan earlier this year for one day, and I’ve tweaked it a little bit, including sharing two fun online pieces: Bob Raczka’s “What […]
By Laura
OK, here’s one of the ways I fail at social media. I thought I had blogged about both the poetry suitcase variation I do and about my recent terrific school visit with some 3rd graders in Monticello, MN. Apparently, I shared about them on Facebook but have never blogged about them. Drives me crazy. So, […]
By Laura
Week before last, I spent Tuesday through Friday at Young Authors Conferences here in the Twin Cities. I’ve been doing this for four or five years now, and I always enjoy it. The 4th-8th graders are, in general, very smart, enthusiastic, and excited to be college students for the day. My poetry workshop was on […]
By Laura
On Friday, I shared just a few of the cool poems that 4th-8th graders came up with in my Young Authors Conference workshops. A few people asked about the process, so I thought I’d share the outline of what we did. Each session was only 50 minutes, which gave us 45 minutes tops for the whole […]
By Laura
I’m sharing this not because it’s some stellar presentation, but because it’s always so helpful to me when people share the activities they do at school visits. I wouldn’t copy anything exactly, but it gives me good ideas and let’s me know what’s realistic. At the Young Authors Conference, I taught 3 sessions per day, […]