Hello!
As a former teacher (31 years!) I love to connect with students and teachers, and I spend a lot of time doing just that via classroom visits and teachers’ conventions, as well as through this website. On this page you will find a number of resources you can use with your students, including a free novel study unit. Also, I’m currently offering free Skype visits* to anyone who does Space Cadets as a read-aloud with their students. If you’re interested, just contact me via the form at the bottom of the page. (In general, I am mindful of tight school budgets, and keep school visits very affordable, even if you’re not doing a read-aloud).
This site is fairly new, but I hope to expand this section over time. I’ll be adding to Writing With Robin (Ideas and Tips for Young Writers), which your students can access directly, or may give you some ideas you can implement in your writing lessons. You can also access the various short stories in the Cool Stuff section and build reading lessons around those. And, coming soon, I’ll have a YouTube channel will all kinds of short videos for kids relating to reading and writing.
*or Facetime, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, etc.
Free Downloads
Space Cadets Novel Study
Includes chapter summaries, discussion questions for each chapter, themes and a bank of activity/lesson ideas.
What's Your Story?
Teachers’ Convention Presentation
Space Cadets Novel Study (printable)
Includes chapter summaries, discussion questions for each chapter, themes and a bank of activity/lesson ideas.
How to Get Your Students Writing
Teachers’ Convention Presentation
What Could Go Wrong?
This writing unit will help students generate and develop story ideas in a way that will aid their understanding of basic story structure.
Plot Structure Graphic
Shows and describes the basic parts of a story.
Story Organizer
For use with “What Could Go Wrong?” writing unit
Writing With Robin
Ideas and Tips for Young Writers
Writing With Robin, #3: Defeating Writer’s Block
Upload workshop slides for Defeating Writer's Block. Have you ever sat down to write, but just couldn’t think of a good idea? It’s called writer’s block, and it’s an ugly beast that every writer has had to battle at one time or another. There are many ways to...
read moreWriting With Robin, #2: “The Adventures of Baby Edwin”, and the Importance of Feedback
If you haven’t read The Adventures of Baby Edwin #1: The Great Escape, this post will probably make more sense if you do that first. So I got this idea for a series of stories about a toddler who escapes his crib at naptime and has ridiculous adventures. Funny,...
read moreWriting With Robin, #1: How I Got the Idea for “The Three Little Pigs”
I often had my students create stories based on three random objects. In this case, I asked my class to give me: a type of animal (They came up with a bunch. I thought an alligator would be interesting, so I went with that.) a setting (any interesting...
read more