Writing

We're trying something new. My all time favorite teaching textbook is In the Middle by Nancy Atwell. She focused on students reading and writing in community, thus encouraging each other. One classroom I taught in had a seventh grader who tested post high school in everything and a student who was on a third grade level. It still worked beautifully. It's one of the few fantastic things I did as a teacher....well, maybe the only thing. :(
Since the older kids are still reading out loud to me we have that covered. The writing we're going to try doing at the same time. I'm getting kind of tired of the my-favorite-whatever-and-why style of writing. Although I'm already seeing some ways to revamp this current idea to make it more effective.