I will be back in the next few days with posts about how I organize my schedule to integrate traditional language arts and math instruction with the content areas, and some organizational goodies as well. For now, here's a freebie that I put together for a recent class. I was fortunate to participate in the Ohio Writing Project and spent four weeks really dissecting the way that I teach writing, how I select my mini-lessons, and how to run effective conferences and strategy groups. As a final research project, I pulled together quotes by well-known creative thinkers - everyone from Einstein to the creator of Mario - and used their thoughts as jumping-off points for reading and writing mini-lessons. The freebie includes a chart of quotes and suggested mini lessons (and mentor texts), as well as posters featuring each creative thinker and his/her quote. I plan to hang the posters in my classroom library area, but they could also be used as a prompt in a writing center, or as a morning warm up!
Click here to grab them!