Welcome to WritingFix
interactive prompts, lessons, and resources designed for teachers, students, and--most importantly--lifelong writers
Happy New Year from WritingFix!
Hundreds of teachers regularly check in with us each day, thousands weekly. After seven years on the Internet, more and more educators keep discovering that WritingFix is offering--at no cost to anyone--creative and effective resources that generate excitement about the teaching of writing. As Cathy Spieth, an Oregon teacher shared with us, "Your lessons have given me a new spark to helping kids develop as writers in this world. It is thrilling to be thrilled again!"
We keep growing, through exploring one other's classrooms, and posting ideas we think will be helpful to our colleagues. 2008 saw the development of our iPod Prompt Homepage, our Comparison & Contrast Homepage, our Writing Traits in the Primary Classroom Homepage, our Constructed Response Homepage, our Summarizing (instead of plagiarizing), and, of course, our first sister site--HistoryFix.
During 2009, inspired by the work of Northern Nevada educators, we will be developing--to name just a few--homepages on the following topics: Narrative and Memoir Writing, Non-Linguistic Representations, Persuasive Writing, Note-taking and Note-making, Writers Workshop, and our second sister site, ScienceFix.
We're glad you're here. We know you're glad we're a free site. If you have a moment, let the Northern Nevada Writing Project know how much you appreciate their sponsorship of the WritingFix website.
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January 2009
This Month at WritingFix...Eight Features to Definitely Check out! |
Meet Jodie Black, our Northern Nevada Writing Project Teacher Consultant who serves as "page host" for our new collection of lessons, resources, and prompts for primary teachers who are using traits as classroom language during writing instruction. Click here to access Jodie's growing page of teacher-made resources on this very important topic.
Fueled by Vicki Spandel's book, Creating Young Writers, Jodie continues to inspire Nevada teachers to develop new trait-inspired writing lessons that are appropriate for our youngest writers. Jodie and her colleagues' work have found a permanent home at WritingFix's Writing Traits in the Primary Classroom Homepage. |
2) Our Featured Lesson and Prompt of the Month:
The following lesson and prompt were e-mailed on January 5 to members of the Writing Lesson of the Month Network:
Lesson of the month: An Onomatopoetic Field Trip
Mentor Text: Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root
 Focus Trait: Word Choice
Support Trait: Idea Development
(Click on the book cover or lesson title to access the entire lesson.)
 Prompt of the Month: Start & Stop Poetry
Focus Trait: Organization & Word Choice
Inspired by: Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher and Don't Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
(Click on the picture of the book or the title to access this prompt.) |
See how other teachers use this book by clicking here.
For the 2008-2009 school year, WritingFix is supporting an on-line network inspired by Roni Schotter's excellent picture book Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street. We are still surprised at how many upper elementary and middle school teachers we meet who still don't own a classroom copy of this quality classroom "mentor text." When we share it aloud with teachers at our workshops, posing the question, "So how would you use this text as a classroom tool to inspire better writing?", we always receive incredible and original answers. Visit our Mentor Text of the Year Homepage to access shared ideas from teachers who are using this book to inspire better writing from their students. |
To celebrate Barry Lane's return to Northern Nevada this February, we're recommending his newest book: But How Do You Teach Writing? A Simple Guide for All Teachers. NNWP Consultants--Corbett Harrison and Rob Stone--thoroughly enjoyed Barry's November NCTE presentation in San Antonio, Texas, and they're sure talking up Barry's imminent return to Nevada to do what he does best: inspire teachers to be the best writing teachers they can be.
Barry's return visits over the years to Northern Nevada have inspired the creation of many pages here at WritingFix. Teachers who attend his sessions get so jazzed to invent new techniques and lessons, and we give those teachers credit if they agree to let us post their innovations at WritingFix. Our Summarization Homepage was built after Barry's 2006 visit, and our under-development Revision Homepage came about after his 2007 visit. |
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After years of being asked by our local teachers and librarians, we've finally created a bibliography page that features all of the mentor texts featured here at the WritingFix website. Click here (or on the picture above) to access this great new resource. Hover over the titles to shop for best deals on these books at Amazon this holiday season
Our bibliography page features three sections: 1) a listing of every picture book that has a lesson or prompt based on it at WritingFix; 2) a listing of every chapter book that has a lesson or prompt based on it at WritingFix; 3) a listing of every mentor text cited in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's awesome 196-page workbook for teachers: The Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Guide. |
 WritingFix was built by a group of teachers who love to share ideas with other teachers. Each month, we post a new-to-us mentor text title, hoping to find the teacher out there who is willing to write up a proposal for a lesson or prompt inspired by this month's new-to-us text.
Teaching voice? Here's a mentor text you need to display and share in your classroom! Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne shares an afternoon's events at a park from four unique perspectives. No plot or theme or main idea to distract your students...just a fascinating way to examine the trait of voice. WritingFix gives this new-to-us picture book five stars!
We're looking for a creative teacher to propose an idea for using this book as a lesson's mentor text. Contact us at webmaster@writingfix.com if you are interested in proposing a lesson on this book. |
7) An Award We're Proud of:
In 2008, we were very pleased to have been nominated and then chosen as one of Writer's Digest's Best Creative Sites for Writers.
It's no secret that we're hoping to be selected again in 2009, but we need our users to nominate us again.
If you believe we're offering a great service to teachers and students writers, consider nominating us by sending an e-mail to:
writersdig@fwpubs.com
Thanks for your continued support of our free-to-use website!
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8) Hidden Treasure of the Month:
As we monitor which WritingFix resources remain or become popular, we can't help but notice that some awesome classroom ideas still remain mostly undiscovered at our website.
Below the treasure chest is a link to an undiscovered WritingFix resource that you should know about:
PowerPoint Life-Span Diaries (from our ScienceFix website)
Mentor Text: Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Focus Trait: Idea Development
Focus Skill: Translating research into one's own words
(Click on the name of the resource or on the treasure chest to access the resource.) |
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Old Lessons with New Student Samples: |
2009: The Year of Student Samples at WritingFix
We have a goal for 2009 that involves publishing many more student samples at this website. Presently about 35% of our featured lessons come with one or two student samples; these samples are included with the hope that they'll be used as part of the learning process or as an inspiration to excite your own writers should you use any of our lessons. Most of the student samples come from Nevada classrooms, but in 2008, we began receiving samples from nine other states and one Canadian region.
During 2009, we want student samples inspired by WritingFix's lessons and prompts from more places around the planet. We want our website's voice to go global in 2009. Help us make this happen by teaching our lessons and sending us samples from your students.
We have a new information page on Publishing Student Samples. Take a look at it. Holler at us if you still have any questions or if you have samples to share.
And take a moment to locate and enjoy the newly-posted students samples at these popular WritingFix lessons: |
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Lesson with new student samples:
School Song Parodies
Lesson's Mentor Text:
Take Me Out of the Bathtub
by Alan Katz |
Lesson with new student samples:
Make 'Em Laugh or Cry or...
Lesson's Mentor Text:
Where the Red Fern Grows
by Wilson Rawls |
Lesson with new student samples:
Antonyms and Commas Splices
Lesson's Mentor Text:
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens |
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The WritingFix "Top Ten" List: What's Was Most Popular Among our Teacher Users in 2008? |
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Our Chapter Book-Inspired Lesson Collection was built with funding from the 2006 AT&T Grant. This growing page features over 30 free-to-use lessons inspired by teachers. Each spring in Northern Nevada, the NNWP hosts an inservice workshop that focuses on this page, and almost a dozen new lessons are posted annually!
Teachers: Share a two- or three-sentence blurb about how you use this resource with your students, and we'll send you a free resource, if we post your idea here! Send blurbs to us at webmaster@writingfix.com |
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Each spring, the Northern Nevada Writing Project hosts its Piñon Poetry Festival, where elementary and middle school teachers attend with two or three of their best students. Together, they write poetry in workshops presented by NNWP Teacher Consultants. Every lesson ever presented at the festival (as well as dozens of others) is featured at our Poetry Prompt and Lesson Collection at WritingFix.
What are teachers saying about this resource: "I couldn't believe how informative it was for me to write poetry alongside my students. For the first time ever, I understood how their minds worked when faced with the challenge of being poetic. When we returned to school, I had my students help me teach the lesson to the rest of my class. Thank you!"
--Gail Stevens, Nevada teacher
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In 2002, we launched our collection of Left-Brained Writing Prompts to balance our right-brained prompts' growing popularity. If you have writers who prefer logic and structure when planning a piece of original writing, then this collection of prompts might be right up their alleys.
Teachers: Share a two- or three-sentence blurb about how you use this resource with your students, and we'll send you a free resource, if we post your idea here! Send blurbs to us at webmaster@writingfix.com
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In 2001, when we launched WritingFix, our collection of 21 Right-Brained Writing Prompts is what made our website unique beyond all other websites for writers. Today, other websites have tried to imitate these prompts, but we think our still-growing collection of serendipitous writing prompt generators is still the best one out there!
What are teachers saying about this resource: "I have never seen my students have more FUN when completing a writing assignment! Your serendipity prompts are so engaging and delightful. My kids think writing is the best time of day, and that has never happened before."
--Carol Ferris, Delaware teacher
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Each year, the Northern Nevada Writing Project hosts its Constructed Response Summit, where K-12 teachers from three Nevada Counties explore new techniques and resources for helping students construct answers to passages they've read or math problems they're asked to solve. Every resource shared at this summit can be found at our Constructed Response Homepage at WritingFix.
What are teachers saying about this resource: "Resistant at first, I now see how even primary students--given adequate instruction, a precise format and time to practice--can do Constructed Response. Using CR has improved my students' writing and their comprehension skills as well."
--Audrey Tolotti, Nevada teacher
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Inspired by three of the NNWP's awesome print guides--The 2005 Writing Across the Curriculum Guide, The 2006 Reading in the Content Areas Guide, and The 2008 Going Deep with Compare and Contrast Thinking Guide--the Summarizing (instead of Plagiarizing) Homepage share resources to help students translate research and notes into their own words.
Teachers: Share a two- or three-sentence blurb about how you use this resource with your students, and we'll send you a free resource, if we post your idea here! Send blurbs to us at webmaster@writingfix.com |
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Each year, the Northern Nevada Writing Project hosts dozens of local 6-trait workshops and teacher inservice classes for both novices to and experts on the 6 writing traits. WritingFix's 6-Traits Homepage is the on-line resource we've built for these classes and workshops, containing handouts and links that we use as we explore traits together.
What are teachers saying about this resource: "This is a thoughtful and logical series of lessons which help classroom teachers integrate the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing into their teaching of writing and thinking. Kudos to the NNWP for funding and promoting this resource."
--Robin Russell, Maryland teacher
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Our WritingFix For Kids Prompts were built to inspire K-5th grade writers, but they are used by teachers of all grade levels. Students build their own writing prompts by clicking the interactive buttons!
Teachers: Share a two- or three-sentence blurb about how you use this resource with your students, and we'll send you a free resource, if we post your idea here! Send blurbs to us at webmaster@writingfix.com
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Our Picture Book-Inspired Lesson Collection was built with funding from the 2005 SBC Grant. This page features over 60 free-to-use lessons inspired by teachers.
What are teachers saying about this resource: "The lesson plans from your website are wonderful! A dream come true for a teacher who is struggling to teach writing. I went to a workshop on the 6 Traits of Writing and have been following the book. Your lessons bring it all to life!"
--Lena Weatherford, Florida teacher
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Our Random Daily Prompt Generator for Journals or Writer's Notebooks is the prompt that started WritingFix in 2001, and it remains the most popular destination at our website.
Teachers: Share a two- or three-sentence blurb about how you use this resource with your students, and we'll send you a free resource, if we post your idea here! Send blurbs to us at webmaster@writingfix.com
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Copyright 2009 - WritingFix and the Northern Nevada Writing Project- All Rights Reserved
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