Writer's Workshop: Those Who Raise Us Poetry

"Those Who Raise Us" poetry has a narrative focus but also allows for deep reflection as students are growing older and beginning to make connections between love, sacrifice, boundaries, and ultimately gratitude to those who contributed to raising us. This writer’s workshop would be ideal around Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day as a gift to those who raised us. Connecting with families in this way would be so special and appreciated. If you are trying writer's workshop for the first time, you'll want to read this overview post, but if you have done it before, read on.

Writer's Workshop: Can't Buy Me Happiness Narratives

The narrative genre is an excellent choice for working through a writing workshop. As adolescents, the meaning of love and trust is forming in an undeniable way. Our students are developing the meaning of mutual respect and authentic connection. Diving into the genre of “Can’t Buy Me Happiness” is a fulfilling way to write narratives, but also explore deep emotions and valuable lessons along the way proving that material items do not buy happiness. If you haven't run a writer's workshop before, you'll want to read this overview post, but if you already have experience with it, read on.

Writer's Workshop: Coming of Age Poetry

A successful writing workshop unit is writing coming of age poetry. Not only does this allow for authentic voices, but it is also highly motivating for students, and there are many powerful mentor texts to build thinking around coming of age writing. Middle and high school students are living this daily, and encouraging them to use their writing voice to share their successes and struggles is beyond powerful. If writer's workshop is new to you, you'll want to read this overview post, but if you are an old hat, read on.

Writer's Workshop for Middle & High School Students

I first learned about the writer's workshop model during a summer institute with my local chapter of The National Writing Project. We engaged in lessons from Linda Christensen's books Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-Imagining the Language Arts Classroom and Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word, which I was able to transfer directly into my high school classroom the following school year.

I loved the use of relevant mentor texts to draw out students' own stories plus the emphasis on revision. In sharing their work with their peers, students received direct feedback but also learned from seeing and hearing each others' writing "moves." If you are interested in a more engageing writing process for your middle or high school students, this post is for you.

Collaborative Writing Responses: A Structure For Writing Paragraphs As A Group

Some of my best ideas come from other teachers on Instagram. After seeing a post from an elementary teacher about using a collaborative process for solving word problems as a group in math class, I was inspired to create a structure for writing paragraphs as a group in my English language arts class.

I use this collaborative group framework to allow students to practice selecting relevant text evidence, engage students in structured academic conversation, and increase the amount of writing students do in my class.

A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 3 Polishing

As I wrote in part 1 and part 2 of this blog series on a less painful essay process, after class after class, and year after year of teaching students about text dependent analysis writing (you might call it a literary analysis essay), I feel confident in the process I have designed for myself and my students.  

I know where students will struggle and I have developed the supports that students will need to avoid or correct those struggles. From start to finish, the essay writing process has become a much less painful one.

In the first blog post in this series, I discussed the steps I follow during the pre-writing process, and in the second blog post in this series, I focused on how I guide students through the drafting process. In this final blog post in this series, I am sharing what the revision and editing process looks like for my students.

A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 2 Drafting

As I wrote in part 1 of this blog series on a less painful essay process, after five years of teaching students to write a literary analysis essay, also known as text dependent analysis writing in my neck of the woods, I’ve gotten the hang of how to make the best of it for me and my students.

Writing an essay isn’t easy and neither is teaching students how to write one. Over time I have fine-tuned the supports, structures, and examples I provide my students during the essay writing process.

While the first blog post in this series outlined steps I take during the pre-writing process for a less painful essay process, this blog post focuses on what I do during the drafting stage to make the essay process smoother for myself and my students.

A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 1 Pre-writing

This is my fifth year teaching text dependent analysis writing to sixth graders, otherwise known as a literary analysis essay, and I’ve gotten to the point where it is a pretty painless process. 

It wasn’t aways that way. Students struggled with brainstorming examples and identifying text evidence. I struggled to teach writing skills as explicitly as students needed them to be taught. As a former high school teacher moving down to middle school, I didn’t always have accurate expectations of students’ writing capabilities. Students needed more support, more structure, more examples.

Much of making the essay process less painful is getting off to a good start. Here are a few things I do during the prewriting stage to make the essay process smoother for myself and my students.

Tackling the Text Dependent Analysis Essay

Text-dependent analysis writing is when students are given an essay prompt that asks them to provide specific evidence from a literary or informational text while demonstrating the ability to interpret the meaning behind the evidence they provide. When my students come into sixth grade this is not a type of writing they are comfortable with.

The first few times students respond to a text dependent analysis essay, I balance modeling with gradually releasing the students to write independently. We start with a whole class writing of the introduction. Then I assign just one body paragraph. Then next time we tackle a prompt, we may again work through the introduction as a whole class and then I’ll assign two body paragraphs. Gradually we build up to writing a full five paragraph (or more) essay.

Two Sentence Horror Stories: Build Students' Writing Skills Even on Halloween

This year I am pushing my students to write and rewrite, to look at their word choice and choose stronger verbs and more specific nouns, to add sensory details. This Halloween will be no different.

I like to do a writing activity on Halloween because although I teach sixth grade, I think older kids should get to enjoy some holiday fun just like the little ones. Last year I had my students write two sentence horror stories and I'll be doing it again this year. To set the mood, I picked out some spooky music from YouTube. There's a ton of choices out there, but this year I have a bunch of Harry Potter fans so I may use this playlist from the films.

I start out introducing two sentence scary stories by showing students just a few examples. I show them one that uses dialogue, one that is fairly short, and one that has more description. I don't like to show them too many because then they'll struggle to come up with their own ideas. For that same reason, the examples I show are not the the spookiest either. If you are looking for more examples, there's some spine tingling ones here.

After looking at examples, students brainstorm a plot for their two sentence story, responding to a series of questions covering the who, what, when, where, and why? Then students write a first draft.

Next up is peer revisions. Students swap papers with a peer who identifies places to add sensory details, possibilities for stronger verbs, and nouns that could be more specific. After getting a peer's feedback, students write a second draft which must be approved by me before they can write out and decorate a final copy. I put in this approval step mostly to just make sure nothing inappropriate is written, but mostly last year I had to keep telling students their story wasn't actually spooky.

If you'd like to use this lesson, you can find the instructions here and the handout here. Happy writing!

Writing Transformed: Meaningful Revision & Editing Activities

This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about the revising and editing stages of the writing process. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed how this instruction happens in their classrooms. Teachers also shared helpful rubrics and checklists to accomplish these tasks.

Scroll down to read through the chat. You'll get ideas about the role teachers play in revising and editing process. You'll also find ways to incorporate peers activities and technology.

Hope you'll join us next week for another chat. We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group (even if you aren't on Twitter). 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

Writing Transformed: Meaningful Revision & Editing Activities

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat on Sunday 10/6: Revising and Editing Student Writing

Brynn Allison,  The Literary Maven, & Lisa Spangler, Mrs. Spangler in the Middle, host #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Sunday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST. #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Friday, we post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Sunday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last year and we hope that you will join us again.

We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group, even if you aren't on Twitter. 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, resource links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

On Sunday, October 6, our #2ndaryELA chat will be about revising and editing student writing.

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Sunday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “Latest.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @spanglermiddle) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged as well as using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

You can also check out a quick video tutorial in this blog post.

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Sunday evening and in our 2ndaryELA Facebook group!

Get caught up on past chats here:

Using the Jigsaw Strategy to Practice Summarizing

The jigsaw strategy was my number one technique this past year for turning the chattiness of my class into purposeful, academic conversations.

If you've never used the jigsaw strategy, here's the typical process:

Step 1: Create groups of 4-6 students.
Step 2: Divide the material into 4-6 parts, and assign one student in each group to be responsible for a different part.
Step 3: Give students time read and analyze their assigned part independently.
Step 4: Put students who completed the same part together into an “expert group” to talk about it.
Step 5: Have students return to their original “jigsaw” groups and take turns sharing the parts they’ve become experts on.
Step 6: Have students complete a task or a quiz that relies on them having understood the material from the contributions of all their group members.

I use a fairly similar, but slightly different process. With 24 students in my class, I start with three students in a "focus group" (expert group) and then each of those students reports out to a "discussion group" (jigsaw group) made up of eight students. Having more "expert groups" allows me to break the text we are reading into smaller chunks. 

I make my groups of 3s on 8 sticky notes so I can be sure to balance talkative versus quiet, high level and lower level readers, etc. Then I number off the names on each sticky note to form my larger groups of 8, again paying close attention to the balance of the groups.

Here are the steps I followed with the objective of having students practice summarizing. It's a skill I practice over and over with my students and practicing it in combination with the jigsaw strategy does wonders for comprehension of challenging texts.

Step 1: After a whole class reading, divide the text into 8 chunks and assign each student a chunk
Step 2: Give students a set amount of time to reread their chunk and annotate it. I usually aim for three types of annotations. For this reading, students circled details about setting, underlined characters' names, and put a box around important events.
Step 3: Have students write a one sentence summary of their chunk on an index card.
Step 4: Students meet with the other students assigned the same chunk, share their one sentence summaries, and revise to come up with a "best summary sentence."
Step 5: Each small group divides and becomes part of a larger group. Each student in the group shares his/her revised sentence. The group puts the sentences in order and connects them with transitions to write a full summary of the text.

The biggest difference between my process and the typical one is that students have a concrete task to complete not just at the end of a jigsaw, but when they work independently and with their focus (expert) group. I find that it is critical for preparing students for the work that they will do with their discussion (jigsaw) group.

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat on Tuesday 1/22 Topic: Teaching Essay Writing

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven, & Lisa Spangler, Mrs. Spangler in the Middle, host #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST. #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.

We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group, even if you aren't on Twitter. 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, resource links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

On Tuesday, January 22, our #2ndaryELA chat will be about teaching essay writing.

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “Latest.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

You can also check out a quick video tutorial in this blog post.

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening and in our 2ndaryELA Facebook group!

Get caught up on past chats here:

Using Blogging to Showcase Student Writing

This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about blogging in the classroom. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed introducing blogging and safe online behaviors to students. Teachers also shared ways blogging can be used to promote student voice and choice.

Read through the chat below to find out .how teachers make their classrooms safe spaces for students to share their writing. You'll get ideas about how to incorporating blogging into what you already are doing. You'll also find out how to find audiences to connect with your students' blogs.

Hope you'll join us next week for another chat. We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group (even if you aren't on Twitter). 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

Using Blogging to Showcase Student Writing

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat on Tuesday 8/28 Topic: Blogging in the ELA Classroom

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven, & Lisa Spangler, Mrs. Spangler in the Middle, host #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST. #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.

We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group, even if you aren't on Twitter. 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, resource links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

On Tuesday, August 28, our #2ndaryELA chat will be about blogging in the ELA classroom.

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “Latest.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

You can also check out a quick video tutorial in this blog post.

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening and in our 2ndaryELA Facebook group!

Get caught up on past chats here:

Inspiring Student Writing with Mentor Texts & Sentences

This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about using mentor texts and sentences to inspire student writing. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed the purposes of using mentor texts and sentences as models for student writing. Teachers also shared where and how they find mentor texts and sentences to engage their students. Read through the chat below to also find out how to connect what students learn from mentor sentences to larger writing assignments.

Hope you'll join us next week for another chat. We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group (even if you aren't on Twitter). 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

Inspiring Student Writing with Mentor Texts & Sentences

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat on Tuesday 4/10 Topic: Mentor Texts & Sentences

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog host #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST. #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.

We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group, even if you aren't on Twitter. 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, resource links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

On Tuesday, April 10, our #2ndaryELA chat will be about using mentor texts and sentences.

The Format:
8:00 – What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: Do you use mentor texts as models for writing in your classroom? For what purposes? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: Where/how do you find mentor texts that will engage and inspire your students? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: Do you use mentor sentences as models for writing in your classroom? For what purposes? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: Where/how do you find mentor sentences that will engage and inspire your students? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: How do you connect what students learn from working with mentor sentences with larger writing assignments? #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “Latest.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

You can also check out a quick video tutorial in this blog post.

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening and in our 2ndaryELA Facebook group!

Get caught up on past chats here:

Supporting Struggling Readers & Writers

This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about supporting struggling readers and writers. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed strategies to use with students who need remediation in reading and writing. Teachers also shared favorite high interest titles and writing lessons as well as tips and resources for supporting struggling students.

Hope you'll join us next week for another chat. We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group (even if you aren't on Twitter). 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

Supporting Struggling Readers & Writers

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat on Tuesday 3/13 Topic: Struggling Readers & Writers

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog host #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST. #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.

We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group, even if you aren't on Twitter. 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, resource links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

On Tuesday, March 13, our #2ndaryELA chat will be about supporting struggling readers and writers.

The Format:
8:00 – What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: What strategies do you use to support struggling readers? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: What books you have found most engaging for struggling readers? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: What strategies do you use to support struggling writers? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: What writing lessons have you found most engaging for struggling writers? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share any tips, ideas or resources you have for assisting struggling readers and writers. #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “Latest.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

You can also check out a quick video tutorial in this blog post.

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening and in our 2ndaryELA Facebook group!

Get caught up on past chats here: