Reading Literacy / Writing Literacy / Great Resources From Cathy Puett Miller

Teachers Are Sparklighters for Literacy Everyday!  http://lightthesparkofliteracy.blogspot.com/

Kids and Parents Reading Together: http://parentsandkidsreadingtogether.blogspot.com/

These blogs are written by Cathy Puett Miller. Cathy is a librarian and reading literacy consultant with a passion for reading and writing.

Until about an hour a go I'd never met Cathy, but she found my 6-Traits Resources blog and posted a thoughtful comment about a blog post generated by a former student in this class.  The article is Modeling Writing With 6-Traits + Podcasting. http://6-traits.blogspot.com/2008/12/modeling-writing-with-6-traits-podcast.html

I've been reading her work and think you will find Cathy's resources fits the needs and interests of our pre-k through elementary teachers. She has a wealth of book references we can all use.

Here's a Blog Reading Hint:   When you find a blog of interest, especially one with a lot of posts, use the search box at the top of the page to find articles to stir your interests.

One of the things that make blogs an interesting and dynamic publishing platform is the ability to comment on a writer's posts.  I just posted to Cathy Pruett Miller's article called: Combine Writer's Workshop and the 6+1 Traits for Great Results: http://lightthesparkofliteracy.blogspot.com/2009/10/combine-writers-workshop-and-61-traits.html  

Cathy shares a word choice hot potatoes game that everyone will find useful

"Play a game to emphasize avoidance of the "I don't say anything" word,
"GOT". We use it frequently in our oral language but it is such a lazy
word. Write a simple sentence with "got" as the verb and then have your
students play "hot potato", tossing a ball or other object around.
Whenever a student catches the object, they must give an active verb to
replace "got" in the sentence. Have a brief discussion about levels of
meaning (good word choice) afterwords."

Click through and skim one of Cathy's blogs.  You'll be glad you did!. ~ Dennis