Have you considered the benefits of having a class paper?
Since reading Little Women, my students were really excited about the opportunity to create a class paper. Collectively, the students decided that the first submission would be optional as many students are not fond of creative writing and coming up with their own ideas. I agreed with their decision as I believe it promotes student choice, and why shouldn’t they have an opt-in?
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Print and go!
Recently, a student went on an overseas family holiday during the school term and subsequently missed lots of learning.
In an attempt to keep this student connected and engaged in learning, I created a personalised travel journal for her to take on her trip. I decided to keep it simple, adding some question prompts as well as space for writing or drawing.
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Have you ever asked your students to write a chapter summary or maybe who their favourite character was in a text? The question we should be asking is whether these questions challenge students to be critical thinkers or simply recall facts.
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I’ve been encouraging my students to think more about their book choices and if they would recommend their reading to their peers.
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NAPLAN returned this year, what a joy! The two main text types covered are narrative writing and persuasive writing and this year, we were blessed with a narrative prompt. We have been working on persuasive texts and this post will share some useful resources I have found to support this unit.
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A blackout poem is a piece of poetry where the text and text form a sort of visual poem. I was drawn in to blackout poetry by one image and decided to explore the concept and learn more about it. I was intrigued by how it was displayed and the creativity involved.
I have some fantastic writers in my class and I wanted to explore poetry with them, but do it in a way they had never experienced. My class were unfamiliar with blackout poetry and so I took the opportunity to experience something that was both new to me and my students.
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Writing allows students to express themselves creatively and to make their thinking visible to others. For that student who is always finished their writing first and promises that they have checked it from top to bottom and are completely happy with it, a checklist is a wonderful way to encourage self editing and self assessment.
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There is nothing like choice when it comes to home learning and my students have really enjoyed choosing their own activities from my newly created spelling activity grid.
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International Day of Friendship was proclaimed by the United Nations in 2011 and this year, is celebrated on the 30th of July. Whether you are in the classroom or teaching online like me, there is is reason to miss the opportunity to celebrate friendship.
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