Fabulous Finds Friday {September 6, 2013}

It's Fabulous Finds Friday, and we have a couple finds to share!

Animal Staplers

I found some fun staplers at Old Navy, of all places! I will be putting these cute little staplers in my writing center area.  Priced right at $2 each!

Putting the Practices Into Action

This summer I blogged about how I was revisiting some of my professional resource books for math, and I shared a Now I Get It by Susan O'Connell. At the time, I had just discovered a brand-new resource---Putting the Practices Into Action: Implementing the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice (K-8) by Susan O'Connell and John SanGiovanni.  I had just ordered the resources from Heinemann, but I had not yet received it...  Well, it was a fabulous find! 

About the Book: It's important when thinking about the Common Core Standards that there are two important parts--the CCSS Content Standards and the eight CCSS Standards for Mathematical Practice.  There is a huge difference between the two.  The content standards provide just that, content--they are not intended to tell a teacher HOW to teach.  On the other hand, the practice standards are intended to guide a teacher in developing ways of teaching that take students far beyond proficiency in a particular content area but rather help them develop as thinkers. Each of the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice are thoroughly and thoughtfully addressed in a way that helps the reader first understand the standard.  Then the authors help the reader understand "how they can get there" by providing ideas/strategies as well as student samples.  

This professional resource does not disappoint!  Take a peek by visiting Heinemann's website.

Thanks for flying on over! Link up your fabulous finds by grabbing our button above and linking up below... :0)

Traits Tuesday - Must Have Trait Resources

It's week two of Traits Tuesday---Must Have Traits Resources!

A few years ago I started researching some resources to use in my classroom to help me teach the 6 traits of writing during Writer's Workshop. I came across some great ones that I would like to share with you:)

6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide For Primary Grades by Ruth Culham does an amazing job of helping teachers implement the traits. Included in this book are mentor texts you can use when teaching each trait, and scoring guides that are kid-friendly.

www.writingfix.com

This website is full of resources, lessons, and mentor texts that teachers can use when teaching the traits. I love this site. It does a lot of the "thinking work" for me. I just look for the trait I am teaching, find some lessons, and, boom, done!  

 

A couple of years ago I made the switch from fifth to second grade.  I had a lot of experience teaching Writer's Workshop infusing the traits with older students---SO this year I set a goal to begin focusing on traits in the the Writer's Workshop setting with my second graders.

One resource that was extremely helpful when I taught fifth grade was Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi's Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8, so I recently began to look at this resource again--specifically the K-2 section.  This is a MUST HAVE for any teacher of writing. To learn about the second edition of Craft Lessons, visit Ralph Fletcher's website. For a substantial peek into this resource, click the cover below.

The "traits" of writing are not specific to one program.  An author's writing is strengthened through word choice and sentence fluency.  An author's voice "speaks" to us.  Organization is always important as a writer conveys his/her ideas, and so on. SO please feel free to share the resources you use to help develop/strengthen any of these areas--ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, voice, and presentation.

We look forward to learning about the writing resources you are using! Simply save our button and use it to link back to us in your post.

Have a wonderful week!