Exploring Learning

In conjunction with my Learners' Reading Challenge , I have also decided to start the year with a writing challenge. Inspired by a student's blog post, shared by  @intrepidteacher , about noticing the sunset and the importance of paying attention to our surroundings, I decided it was time to cajole my learners into noticing more about their world. Everything I read about writing starts with a) reading and b) observing. I think we have the reading part covered, so I want to get my learners to begin to be more present. Writers all say that we must take note of everything around us - to fuel our characters, plot, dialogue etc. But I am not sure how present my learners are. We have made a great start in writing, and spend time every lesson working on our Spilling Ink journals (see Christmas , Halloween , Inspiring a Writing Community  and Spilling Ink Journal agreements ). This year, I am also going to include some mentor texts in Spilling Ink time, to develop close ...

Writing Journals I started reading an awesome book today. ' Spilling Ink' is aimed at children and encourages them all to become writers. I got about half way through by the pool this morning. I tend to fold down pages where there are great ideas I want to return to (I know this is will irk some people, but this is my method). As you can see, I folded down almost every page. It has so many great and workable ideas I can use in the classroom that I know will help them find who they want to be as a writer. I am so excited about sharing them with my learners and to see their progress. We start our journals next week - this weekend, learners are buying their own or decorating the one I gave them ready to be filled with their scribbles and musings. Learner Agreement As I launch, I will provide a writers agreement. This is a combination of ideas from both the Spilling Ink book and another book I read recently, ' Notebook Know How '. It consists of a learner agree...