Thursday, February 19, 2009

Round Up

There are no good excuses for having abandoned my blog writing for nearly a month but since I am taking a "staycation" this week and have finally caught up - I thought I would share some of what has caught my eye as it relates to the writing/reading world.

My friend and colleague Angela put a question out to Twitter recently about alternatives to the traditional book report and as a result, has created two amazing blog posts related to the answers. Not only are these some great things to think about to make learning more authentic - they show the incredible power of Twitter. Read - and share - these resources!!

Readers of this blog know my affinity for mentor texts. Just found these two great resources as mentor text for persuasive writing and student publication: Should There Be Zoos? and Should We Have Pets? I have traditionally used I Wanna Iguana when teaching about persuasive writing but I like the addition of real student work from these examples. With the advent of new and free Web 2.0 tools to allow for easy publication of work, these books are a nice addition to my collection. Thanks to A Year of Reading for the tip!

I've been spending a great deal of time reading and thinking about what the Web 2.0 tools that are available to us mean to writing - and in particular how we can write collaboratively. I love this idea shared at the Intrepid Teacher Blog for collaborative poems. Some nice use of tools featured here.

Finally, two of my favorite places to go on the web!! The Picnic Basket blog offers reader review copies of new books that are out there - a great way to increase your classroom library but also to learn about the new reads. And all you have to do is post your review of the book on the blog!! And the new English Companion Ning is a wonderful resource for English teachers. I am a big fan of Jim Burke's work and try to incorporate it into what I do - and now everyone can share their questions, lessons, and resources on this social networking site!!