Mentor Texts: ‘How To Play Night Baseball’ by Jonathan Holden Techniques: Imagery Writing Poetry Adding Flavour Background – So, often, I use this column as a chance to plan a lesson. Sometimes, I’m planning a lesson using a mentor text I know I’ll be using somewhere down the road, and other times, I’ve found a […]
In last month’s post on Moving Writers, I shared how some simple poetry writing helped students tease out a theme in their reading. Crafting poetry can also help students dig deeper into details they later incorporate in the heart of their writing. Prewriting with poetry can give literary analysis essays a pulse. While waiting in line […]
Publishing is a big part of writing workshop — whether students publish in Teen Ink or through a writing contest or simply by sitting in the “author’s chair” (something middle and high school students still love, surprisingly) and reading their favorite line. But often the school community, administrators, and parents miss these big moments. They just […]
This series is called “Just Like Starting Over” because there are points throughout the semester (breaks, starting new units, abandoning disaster situations, etc.) in which we are given the opportunity to start over. In this series I’ll be asking a few important questions of myself, and in turn, of you, dear reader: what if you […]
We are back with another buddy post! The more we talk about what building authentic relationships with our writers looks like in our classrooms, the more we realize we have similar strategies that work with our different populations. This month we’re tackling low stakes writing and how we use it to create a culture of […]
A question I hear again and again is that while writing workshop seems great for eager writers and high-achieving students, but can it really work for students who aren’t natural writers? When I get this question, I emphatically say, “YES! Writing workshop helps every writer take their work to the next level because it is […]
How many essays have you written for academic purposes? It is likely that if you are reading this, you have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Let’s say that while earning said bachelor’s degree, you took an average of 5 classes in the fall semester and 5 classes in the spring semester for 4 years. […]
This post is a reminder for those of us who have students who, whether overt or not, speak English as a second or third language… First of all…what the heck does “quockerwodger” mean? It is one of those English words that we don’t use in the everyday sort of way…crapulous, buss, and zafty (anyone?) Quockerwodger […]
Like many high school students, I made my college decision during the spring of my senior year, but I think I reached 90% certainty about which college I would attend at least one year before then, when I attended at shadow day at my future alma mater, St. Norbert College. I followed a sophomore around […]
Something that makes me proud of Moving Writers is that every idea we bring to you is tested in our own classroom. Just like you, we spend our days with kids, and because our boots are on the ground, we never share with you an idea that hasn’t worked for us first. Still, it’s always […]
Allison & I are working (feverishly) on a new book — have we mentioned it? And we desperately want your voice to be in it! So, we’re hosting a little writing activity this month. It’s a great way to get your feet wet with mentor texts yourself, it’s a useful way to reflect mid-year about […]
When I started blogging for Moving Writers, I wrote mostly about my practice in the classroom. Since my role has shifted away from the classroom and toward supporting teachers, I spend a lot more time working on my own practice for adult learning. So most of what I blog about lately is about professional learning […]
January is a tough time of year for me. The holidays are over, the weather is just meh in Michigan, and the craziness of midterms and starting a new semester makes my room feel like chaos. I spent all fall writing my Moving Writers posts about balance in the ELA classroom and, at this point, […]
Today’s Mentor Text Wednesday post is a guest post from Kristie Keener, a 9-12 teacher at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York! The lesson she shares today comes from a combined 11th and 12th grade course called Psychology in Literature. (How cool!) Do you have a mentor text that has worked well for […]
Stephen is our teacher-writer on the street, this year, focusing his posts on helping US develop OUR writing lives, which Penny Kittle calls “essential to your work as a teacher of writing” (Write Beside Them, 8). If you missed his first installment, check it out and then jump back in here! My friend, Chris, is […]
Today’s guest writer Emily Sommer walks us through a mentor text by one of our favorite pop culture writers, showing how it makes for a truly instructive piece for students learning the art of rhetorical analysis. Emily teaches AP English Language and Composition, AP Seminar, and Mythology at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, Michigan. […]
Mentor Texts: ‘How To Play Night Baseball’ by Jonathan Holden Techniques: Imagery Writing Poetry Adding Flavour Background – So, often, I use this column as a chance to plan a lesson. Sometimes, I’m planning a lesson using a mentor text I know I’ll be using somewhere down the road, and other times, I’ve found a […]
In last month’s post on Moving Writers, I shared how some simple poetry writing helped students tease out a theme in their reading. Crafting poetry can also help students dig deeper into details they later incorporate in the heart of their writing. Prewriting with poetry can give literary analysis essays a pulse. While waiting in line […]
Publishing is a big part of writing workshop — whether students publish in Teen Ink or through a writing contest or simply by sitting in the “author’s chair” (something middle and high school students still love, surprisingly) and reading their favorite line. But often the school community, administrators, and parents miss these big moments. They just […]
This series is called “Just Like Starting Over” because there are points throughout the semester (breaks, starting new units, abandoning disaster situations, etc.) in which we are given the opportunity to start over. In this series I’ll be asking a few important questions of myself, and in turn, of you, dear reader: what if you […]
We are back with another buddy post! The more we talk about what building authentic relationships with our writers looks like in our classrooms, the more we realize we have similar strategies that work with our different populations. This month we’re tackling low stakes writing and how we use it to create a culture of […]
A question I hear again and again is that while writing workshop seems great for eager writers and high-achieving students, but can it really work for students who aren’t natural writers? When I get this question, I emphatically say, “YES! Writing workshop helps every writer take their work to the next level because it is […]
How many essays have you written for academic purposes? It is likely that if you are reading this, you have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Let’s say that while earning said bachelor’s degree, you took an average of 5 classes in the fall semester and 5 classes in the spring semester for 4 years. […]
This post is a reminder for those of us who have students who, whether overt or not, speak English as a second or third language… First of all…what the heck does “quockerwodger” mean? It is one of those English words that we don’t use in the everyday sort of way…crapulous, buss, and zafty (anyone?) Quockerwodger […]
Like many high school students, I made my college decision during the spring of my senior year, but I think I reached 90% certainty about which college I would attend at least one year before then, when I attended at shadow day at my future alma mater, St. Norbert College. I followed a sophomore around […]
Mentor Texts: “All of the Little Things That Made the Original ‘Lion King’ so Great” by Shea Serrano “The effanineeffable, deep and inscrutable, singular Cats” by Alissa Wilkinson Techniques: Developing an argument Pre-writing Writing Introductions Writing Listicles Background – I’ve been thinking, for a long time, about the listicle form. We all know that it’s a […]
