Jennifer Sniadecki is a middle school librarian, teacher, professional development facilitator, and writer, focusing on topics in literacy education.
With 21 years of teaching experience, Jennifer still wonders, researches, and reflects on the best ways to share her knowledge with others. Her goal is to passionately share best practices in reading and writing with you.
Reading Teacher Writes 
February 19, 2015 at 7:53 PM
Hi Jennifer,
I saw on TWT you posted you’d be happy to help anyone new to SOLC. I am going to do the March challenge for me (maybe 2nd graders next year-they do write everyday, but not sure I can get their work posted this year) and wondered if we have specific prompts or do we just write our small moments and post away? Thanks for your help! I’m excited about the challenge! Kim in Maine
February 20, 2015 at 8:43 AM
Hi Kim! I’m so excited you’ll be joining us at SOLSC (slice of life story challenge). It’s fun, and keeps you writing every day! You can write whatever you want to share: a memorable time on vacation, most embarrassing moment, poems you are trying as a new genre, etc. Last year I even tried a photo essay! There will be prompts from Tara and the other hosts to give you some inspiration, but mostly it’s you! Have fun!
February 20, 2015 at 11:20 PM
Hi Kim! I’m so excited you’ll be joining us at SOLSC (slice of life story challenge). It’s fun, and keeps you writing every day! You can write whatever you want to share: a memorable time on vacation, most embarrassing moment, poems you are trying as a new genre, etc. Last year I even tried a photo essay! There will be prompts from Tara and the other hosts to give you some inspiration, but mostly it’s you! Have fun!
July 13, 2016 at 8:07 AM
HI Jennifer, I have something that I think can help get reluctant readers to read and fearful readers to write.
I’m Mark Cheverton, a New York Times Bestselling author of Minecraft Novels. I’ve written 15 novels so far. They’ve been published in 23 countries, translated into 14 languages, and there are over a million copies in print. I can easily be found on Amazon or google.
One of the interesting outcomes from writing all of these novels is that they have encouraged reluctant readers to read, and fearful readers to write. As a past educator, I want to take advantage of this by getting more kids to read and write. I’ve put together some materials for elementary and middle school teachers, describing some of the things I’ve learned after publishing all these books, but distilling the learnings down bite sized pieces for kids.
For reading – I’ve written three short stories, set in the world of Minecraft, for kids. These are free PDF, but can also be found on smashwords.com, lulu.com. kobo.com, iTunes.com, barnesandnobel.com, not Amazon (they don’t like things that are free).These stories can also be downloaded from my website, http://markcheverton.com/resources-for-teachers/.
For Writing – I’ve also put video tutorials here: http://markcheverton.com/resources-for-teachers/, that explain different elements of a story, like character development, plot construction, setting, . . . I’ll be adding more soon. There is a set of worksheets for students, so they can create an outline for their own story, and over the past few years, I’ve received hundreds of stories from kids. You can see them here: http://markcheverton.com/blog/. I’ve even had a couple of kids self-publish their own stories . . . what a victory!
All of this is free for teachers to use, in hope that we can encourage more kids to write, and maybe we can inspire a new generation of writers.
If you think these materials are valuable, I would love your help disseminating this through the educational community. I’ve been out of the classroom for about 15 years, and have just left my job as a research physicist to be a full time author. I really want to see students’ writing to flourish and would love any help you can offer.
I’d be happy to send you bookmarks for all your students, showing the covers of my novels; they are a prized possession in the Minecraft community.
Mark Cheverton
July 15, 2016 at 11:59 AM
Hi there,
Thanks for the note and information. I had a few boys last year who read Minecraft stories!