Amy Gordon

Conferring with students during Writing Workshop can be a very difficult task. Make life easier with this child friendly Conference Log. This log can be placed in each students Writer's Notebook. Explain to the children that a GLOW- is something you really liked in their writing and a GROW- is something you want them to work on for next time. Amy Gordon

The 6 Traits Revision Guide is a great reproducible for students to keep in their writing notebooks for when they are proofreading their writing. This guide will remind student what they need to add to their writing to make it the best it can be. Amy Gordon

Great beginning of the year activity: Instead of having students raise their hand each week and tell the teacher if they want to be the line leader or door holder, have them fill out a job application form that describes their reasoning for wanting the job. This will teach the students real-world writing lessons on how to fill out a job application in the future. I also explain to the student that just like in real life, they can loose their job if they do not follow the guidelines.

As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, teach the students all about Author's Purpose, by using the the acyonom of PIE. Persuade, Inform and Entertain. On the day before Thanksgiving break, ask the students to bring in a variety of differnt PIES to eat to help celebrate everything they have learned. Connect reading and math by having them make a PIE Chart of the students favorite PIE flavors, as well as review other math concepts that were taught this year.

Is your state Writing Test approaching soon? If so, this is a great way to get your students motivated to their best on the test. This survival bag comes with everything the child needs to ace the test and put a smile on their face. I give the students their goodie bags on a Friday and over the weekend their homework assignment is to explain to a family member, in detail, what each item in the bag represents. On Monday they will feel confident and ready to take the state test!!!

After doing a lesson on place value to the millions, I give them a homework assignment to write 1-3 paragraphs about how they would spend one million dollars and then they have to fill out a chart on how each amount adds up to $1,000,000. This is a great way for the students to connect place value, adding and subtracting money, dollar value and of course writing.

This Expository Prewriting Plan is a student friendly organized way to have kids jot their ideas down on paper before they start the next step in the Writing Process.

Start your students at an early age the importance of having and keeping a job. In this case, a classroom job with a fancy title. This list will really get the students excited about applying for a job. In the beginning of the year and/ or the beginning of a semester I make post this list on the informational bulletin board in the classroom. Once I read everyones application and "hire" the students, I post the list outside of the classroom. Before the bell rings the kids love crowding around to

Objective: What would students do if they were in charge of the world? Read Judith Viorst's poem and then let their imagination run free by creating and illustrating their own version of the poem. Writing Traits: Ideas, Organization, Word Choice Amy Gordon