Inspired by Rebekah’s decision to quit grading earlier this year, I have been trying to take more risks with assessment in my own classroom. I haven’t gone grade-free quite yet, but I’m looking for more opportunities to involve my students in the assessment process. Since it is end-of-term time for many schools, I thought […]
Mentor Text: The Power of Rey by Nicole Sperling What Rey Means to Me by Gabrielle Bondi What is a Mary Sue, and does Star Wars: The Force Awakens have one? by Caroline Framke Writing Techniques: Character analysis Pop culture analysis Using a feminist lens to critique character and pop culture Background: I got two […]
This year, I quit grading almost entirely. While I still give quarterly grades (because my students have to have them!), I do not grade individual assignments. I’ve given up traditional grading for many reasons that I explain in my first post on this topic, but the biggest of the reasons is this: I don’t think […]
Today, we are thrilled to bring back an old friend, Mentor Text Wednesday, and a new friend, Jay Nickerson. Jay is something of a mentor text Jedi — magically and mysteriously finding amazing, current, engaging mentor texts and pairing them with oodles of ideas for uses in lots of different classroom contexts. We are […]
On Monday, Stefanie shared the inspiration for her podcasting study and how she helped students identify the moves that podcasters make as they craft an episode of a podcast. As an added bonus, Stefanie used this podcasting study as a way for her IB students to dive deeper into Heart of Darkness. Today, in part two, Stefanie […]
What a happy, exciting day it is here at Moving Writers! We’d like to introduce you to our friend and newest regular writer, Stefanie Jochman. Like so many great relationships of our day, we met Stefanie on Twitter. The connection was immediate. She’s a gifted writing teacher, an experimenter, an innovator, and we are thrilled to have […]
Have you read Donald Murray? In my career, I had read a lot about Donald Murray. Tons that was inspired by Donald Murray. Oodles that has flowed out of the legacy of Donald Murray, but I’m ashamed to say that until the last month, I had never read the man himself. Until Penny Kittle told […]
Today’s post is from a guest, Kelly Pace. Kelly teaches 9th, 11th, and 12th grade English and Theory of Knowledge to students at my former school home in Hanover County, Virginia. And aren’t they lucky to have her? Kelly has been regularly emailing me the mentor texts she is using with her students, and this […]
When do English teachers get so lucky as to have a major NBA star validate what we do by announcing his retirement in the form of a poem? This week, Kobe Bryant did just that — he wrote a poem entitled “Dear Basketball” and released it to the media as an announcement of his retirement. […]
Near the very top of the Things That Disheartens English Teachers list are the comments we leave on students’ papers that aren’t considered, aren’t heeded, and — if we’re honest — often aren’t even read. I hear it from secondary teachers constantly; even in the best case scenario, it seems that students work hard on […]
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