Writing Tip of the Week When To Use Quotation Marks 1. Use quotation marks before and after the spoken words. "Can Justin and I come over?" "Uh, huh. Maybe you can help me figure out how to get Sam to notice me," Maddie said. "Hasn't he already talked to you?" "Yeah, but that was only because he was in my group in History and when Shamika—you know she doesn't shut up for a second—decided to take a breath or something, Sam didn't want to miss his chance to speak." She laughe

Looking for a #goodread #YAbook for Black History Month? Check out Jazz! Jazz hates her life! She and her dad have moved around a lot, but this time they've gone too far. They've just moved to the middle of nowhere, and their house is old and full of creepy noises. When she complains that it's haunted, her dad pokes fun at her. To make matters worse, practically everyone at school treats her as if she's got a contagious disease. Bailey, the most popular girl of all, is the w

First on my list of new year's resolutions is to read 100 Preteen/Teen novels by Canadian authors before the end of 2018. Some of these authors are well-known in classrooms across the country—the globe, in some cases—but others are much less so, but they have talent none-the-less. Today I #am reading Douglas Davey's M is for Mary, a girl haunted from within by mysterious dark shadows. This secret has cut M off from the world around her, yet it is a secret she must keep at an

Running from one reading group to another in a special-needs classroom, I found myself repeating the same information and not fostering much independent thought. To that end, the students and I came up with a quick reference tool—a Reading Strategies Bulletin Board. Consequently, I did less talking (which made everybody happy!) and helped students tap into their inner resources when they were struggling to identify unfamiliar words. To support memory issues, the colour-coding

First on my list of new year's resolutions is to read 100 Preteen/Teen novels by Canadian authors before the end of 2018. Some of these authors are well-known in classrooms across the country—the globe, in some cases, such as Robert Munsch—but others are much less so, but they have talent none-the-less. Today I #am reading Lindy: A Fantasy by Jeremy Luke Hill, an author from my home town, Guelph, Ontario, who has been hiding his light under the proverbial bushel. Lindy is a