<p>Welcome monsters and ghouls to my spooky new series of Writing into the Day. This series will feature texts that certainly go bump in the night and you may want to keep your lights on for some of these spine-chilling reads! Today’s Spooktober podcast will be featuring a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar.</p>
<p>As I read this poem, I want you to think about the subject of this poem. Why is the speaker so focused on the tree? What tone does the speaker’s description of the tree evoke? Why is there such an emphasis on the haunting of the oak tree? Keep these ideas in mind as I read.</p>

Spooktober Edition: Episode 4

In this series, I will be reading mentors texts and providing you and your students some quickwriting and/or discussion-based writing ideas. Writing can seem very challenging, especially to students who haven’t had a ton of practice. So, providing short, consistent and relatively low-risk opportunities to write can make all the difference in eliminating the intimidation factor that often comes with on-demand writing. I usually like my students to start our sessions by beginning with a quickwrite or, what I like to call, Writing into the Day.