Last week, I hosted my second Writing Clinic for Center’s teachers. This clinic was about pre-writing with a focus on talking and making. The making was inspired by Angela Stockman’s work. Since you can refer to the brain dump I did on a lot of her make writing ideas in Literacy Link – Volume 48, I’ll introduce the talking as pre-writing ideas now. When I worked in a kindergarten room to help launch Writers’ Workshop in September, we made sure to introduce writing partners as part of the pre-writing process to give students a chance to orally rehearse their writing before drafting. Since then, the teacher has turned to writing partners again and again, sometimes giving students several days to orally rehearse. Their output has been incredible. What a difference talking makes before drafting!

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

• Protecting the environment text sets for K-2 – Perfect for Center’s Green Club!
• “Best Books for Kids” from the New York Public Library
• “Poetry Every Day in 5 Minutes or Less” – from Two Writing Teachers
• SO MANY ideas and resources at Playful Learning, a learning studio in NY. This place sounds right up my alley, and I’d LOVE to visit!
• Powerful Play guidance from Kristine Mraz
• Mental health break: A cappella Star Wars theme (I. Can’t. Wait.)