Margin Notes

When I find an author that I love, I will often follow them on social media. This gives me the opportunity to find out about upcoming book releases and gives me a glimpse into their life and thoughts.

I was checking out K A Holt’s Twitter/X the other day, and noticed a link in her bio to her author’s website. K A Holt is the author of middle grade fiction and picture books. (She has written some of my favourite books in verse, like House Arrest and Rhyme Schemer.)

On her website she has a “For Kids” page.

And I was delighted to see:

FIVE FAST FACTS ABOUT KA HOLT

1. Kari Anne was born in Atlanta, Georgia on September 10th, 19somethingsomething.
2. When she was 13, Kari Anne accidentally stomped through a gerbil cage, resulting in five stitches on her calf. You can still see the zigzag scar.
3. When she was young, her favorite author was Paula Danziger, followed closely by Lois Lowry.
4. Kari Anne’s favorite food is almost always a taco, but there are times when a cheeseburger wins.
5. She has synesthesia, which means she sees letters and numbers as colors, and she sometimes mixes up other senses, too. (Examples: the letter C is orange, the number one is icy white)

I instantly thought – what a great way for students to share facts about themselves…or about any topic, really. This would make a great quickwrite, or a way for students to organize their About the Author pages for their writing. Try this tomorrow!

In their newly released professional resource, How to Become a Better Writing Teacher, authors Matt Glover and Carl Anderson generously provide a wealth of insights, sharing 50 actionable strategies to elevate both engagement and achievement among student writers. Drawing from their collective 70 years of teaching experience, this resource is one that teachers across all levels of experience will benefit from. Much like their previous contributions, the core principle driving this guide is the unwavering conviction that, with proper support and instruction, every student can achieve as a writer. As such, the actions shared will equip and empower teachers to grow the writing of all students.

One action, of the 50,  is a valuable tool for teachers meeting with students who are hesitant as to what to discuss during writing conferences. This approach bridges the ongoing conversations in our district regarding the crucial role of vocabulary and background knowledge in comprehension achievement. It emphasizes the need for students to acquire the necessary vocabulary not only for comprehending texts but also for understanding and effectively engaging with writing instruction.

Action: Supporting Students’ Use of Writing Vocabulary

Teachers are encouraged to use the following conversational moves to “…help students develop the writing vocabulary they need to talk in conferences…”:

• Bring a chart to your conferences that lists what you’ve taught in recent minilessons, and have students look at it to help them think about what to say to you (Laman 2013). [Adding to this point, a co-constructed class anchor chart, or, for a craft unit, a whole class text study chart (found in the amazing online resource contents that comes with this resource) could also be used to scaffold the use of precise language in conferences.]
• List several things the student might be doing. You could say, “Hmm…are you trying to add dialogue, or character thinking, or character actions to this part of your story?’
• Take a tour of the student’s writing, and describe what you see them doing: “I see that you’ve got a subheading for this chapter…and you’re describing what penguins look like by writing descriptive facts and what penguins do by writing action facts…Do you want to talk about one of these things today?” Hearing you connect writing language to their writing helps students understand these terms, and soon they’ll be able to use them on their own. (Anderson, Carl, and Glover, Matt. How to Become a Better Writing Teacher. Heinemann, 2023.)

If you’re looking for a scaffold to support precise vocabulary in  writing conferences, try this tomorrow!

Teachers, are you looking to enhance depth and detail in your students’ writing ? If so, you might want to head to TikTok!  Kate Roberts, literacy coach, has been doing a series on TikTok about teaching writing. In a recent video, she describes a great strategy for narrative writing: “I ADD”.

•  I – Inner Thinking
• A- Action
• D- Dialogue
• D- Description

Kate describes the strategy this way: “When you are stretching out a moment in a narrative, what you want to do is go line by line and sort of switch it up.” She then goes on to model an example in the video, showing how she incorporates the different parts of “I ADD”. 

I just thought this was a brilliant, yet simple, strategy that students could try immediately. Her other videos have more ideas for elevating student writing.

Kate Roberts is one half of kateandmaggie.com. Kate and Maggie Roberts are literacy consultants and coaches. Their latest book is DIY Literacy. You can follow them on Instagram @kate_and_maggie and on Tiktok @kateandmaggie.

When Taylor Swift announced her forthcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department, swifties around the world celebrated. At the same time, ELA teachers sent up a cheer because their mini-lesson for the next day had been written.

We all know that learning about grammar happens best in the context of authentic writing, and I loved every minute of following the social media debates over apostrophe usage. (Taylor, if you’re reading this, please incorporate a semicolon in your next album title.)

Literary Hub quickly posted the explainer, Is the phrase The Tortured Poets Department grammatically correct? This is a fantastic explanatory mentor text that can be used specifically as a model for students to write their own grammar explainer or more generally as an example of explaining something using an “if this, then this” structure.

Here are a few other options you might add to build an inquiry unit about explainers:

Quanta Magazine has an archive of Explainers that combine videos and articles to explain detailed scientific and mathematical concepts and phenomena. These can be shared as complete texts or you can pull out specific passages to demonstrate craft moves like word choice, use of context clues, and examples to support readers’ understanding of technical language.

Life Kit from NPR is a podcast that offers” how-to” advice from experts. Most episodes are shorter than 30 minutes and cover a wide range of topics, including 5 Simple Ways to Minimize Stress, How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Caffeine, and Popular Myths About Sleep Debunked. Life Kit episodes blend relatable examples and anecdotes with research presented in an accessible way and most of them conclude with a helpful recap.

Randall Munroe has created a playlist of short videos based on his books, What If? I and What If? II. The videos are under 5 minutes and combine words and images to answer such questions as “What if Earth suddenly stopped spinning?” and “What if NASCAR had no rules?”.

7 Mighty Moves: Research-Backed, Classroom-Tested Strategies for K-to-3 Reading Success by Lindsay Kemeny, is a treasure trove of actionable strategies educators can try tomorrow. While Kemeny’s focus is on critical foundational reading skills for K-3, many of these strategies extend beyond grade 3. 7 Mighty Moves helps educators to think about how they can effectively address all the strands in the reading rope across the day. Kemeny shares her ongoing learning journey, revealing the adaptations she has made and the practices she has abandoned in a clear and engaging manner.

Within Move 6: Focus on Meaningful Fluency Practice, many of Kemeny’s strategies are adaptable for adolescent readers. She challenges educators to incorporate the practice of repeated oral readings combined with listening to fluent reading. Notably, Kemeny emphasizes the impact of reading a passage four times, stressing it has a greater impact than reading it only once, twice, or thrice. Techniques like echo reading, choral reading, and partner reading are highlighted as engaging methods that afford readers ample opportunities to both listen to and practice fluent reading. Kemeny emphasizes steering clear of ineffective practices such as round robin or popcorn reading, underscoring the importance of respecting readers’ emotional experiences while reading aloud.

I love that Kemeny included one of the most authentic oral rereading strategies that all readers may enjoy, regardless of age, the performance of a text for an audience. Various types of text can be adapted for Readers Theater: poems, dramatic dialogues, short stories, fables, folklore, and humorous texts with multiple voices, graphic novels, and comics, etc., as these are all great opportunities for repeated reading practice. Picture books and children’s literature featuring engaging dialogue are also recommended, provided they serve the readers’ individual needs.

Check out this group of adolescent readers performing The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs as well as this great collection of Readers Theatre scripts: RTscripts – Dr. Chase Young (thebestclass.org).

Kemeny challenges educators to implement different ways readers can engage in reading aloud in safe reading environments. What meaningful fluency practice strategies are you currently implementing in your classroom?

Kemeny, L., & Archer, A. L. (2023). 7 mighty moves: Research-backed, classroom-tested strategies to ensure K-to-3 reading success. Scholastic.