Non-Fiction and Reader's Handbook

I am shaking my fist at Outlook and Blogger right now since I have no way to send or upload large files. Here is my attempt around the obstacles.

http://jfranzen.edublogs.org/teachers/non-fiction-preview-2/

Hopefully this works. Click on the link and then click on Non-fiction Preview and it should download.

I have taken transparencies from the Reader's Handbook and scanned them into a SmartNotebook format. This allows you to use the Smartboard and write on the pages and it will automatically save your work. (very similar to an overhead but it's on the computer and I think it is a bit easier to work on and revisit) The scanned transparencies can be a little blurry depending on the size of the projection so it is helpful to have a hard copy available for anything that you might not be able to read.

I have also taken a few lessons from Fletcher and Portalupi and scanned them into SmartNotebook as well if anyone is interested.

Lurking?

There are now many teachers who are members of this blog site, yet most are playing the Lurch role! You always have permission to lurk, but we need to interact too! So, I'm going to get things rolling with a question, and I hope you will decide to contribute a thought, idea or resource to keep the conversation going. All you have to do is click the "comment" link at the bottom-right area below this post. Here we go....

What would you identify as one of your strongest "professional learning moments"? This may have happened in-school, or out-of-school. Please take a moment and write a short comment to share your story.

One moment that comes to mind for me was reading the metaphor of the digital immigrant and digital native set forth by author Marc Prensky. It helped me realize how wide the gap between school and life has become for our students, and heightened my sense of urgency to bridge this gap.

Having a Vision for my Writing

I've been thinking a lot about vision and what it means for teaching writing to our students. Katie Wood Ray says " the immersion phase of inquiry helps them (students) to develop a vision for the writing they are going to do." (pg. 36 Study Driven) Hmmm, but don't they already know what narrative writing looks like?
When I sit to write something, I often spend a lot of time reading something like what I want to write. If I want to write a piece that is narrative in nature I will read numerous narratives to understand what the authors do so I can craft well. "...for drafting and revision to lead to good writing, writers have to have a clear vision of the good writing they want to do." (pg. 36)
I'm wondering what you are doing to create that vision for your students? What books are you taking TIME to study and really KNOW so they can write a well crafted narrative? How are you helping your students read like writers?
"Intention without vision leads them nowhere. They still love the topic, but they don't love the writing." (Study Driven, pg. 47)