It’s June. I know that some of you are already done for the year. I know that many, like myself, are in the homestretch. Next week is our last week of classes, followed by exams. So, naturally, I’ve been discussing with my students the nature of their final. My team and I have had a […]
Author: Jay
Mentor Text Wednesday: A New Text for an Old Idea
Mentor Text: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo Writing Techniques: Writing biography Focusing presentation of research Background: It’s almost June! That means the last couple weeks of school for me, and in Grade 10, it means we’re launching into the Rebel Project. It’s one of my favorite projects […]
Upon Reflection…
This time of the year is a maddeningly reflective time of year. Though I have just over a month left before I dial up Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s Out’ and tear out of the parking lot, I feel deep in reflection mode. I’ve already met with my principal about my year-end reflection. My team and I […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: Say Something Nice
Mentor Texts: The Say Something Nice series at Birth.Movies.Death Writing Techniques: Criticism Counterargument Tone and Voice Background – Our students consume a fair amount of pop culture. They’re able to budget their time in such a way that they’re consuming media at an insane pace, binge watching like mad, and watching everything Netflix has to […]
O Captain, My Captain
I love showing Dead Poets Society to Grade 12 students. There’s something special about that movie and that group. They’re not much longer for my building, and will soon be sallying forth to “Carpe diem.” But, if I must be honest, I’ve always applied the Stink of English class to it by attaching an academic […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: Songs In A Discordant Voice
Mentor Texts: Another Nightmare in America – Cory Branan (listen here) American Tune – AJJ (listen here) Writing Techniques: Voice Adopting a persona Writing a protest piece Background – I’m a music fan. I use music in many ways in my classroom. It matters in my life so it features in my work. As I […]
Snake Man & The Nature of Time
When I was at Teachers College, we had a professor, Rick MacDonald. He was the chair of the high school program, as well as the Social Studies department. Everybody wound up in his courses at one point or another. Ours was a small teachers college, made progressively smaller by the fact that I was a […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: BuzzFeed Poetics
Mentor Text:Which Famous Musician Who Died at the Age of 27 are you? A BuzzFeed Quiz by Eirean Bradley Writing Techniques: Poetic form Theme Social commentary Presenting research Background: I decided to use popular culture as the anchor for the Lit course I’m currently teaching. It’s been going quite well. In my prep work for […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: “so much depends…”
Mentor Text: “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams Writing Techniques: Poetic form Focusing on main idea Brevity Background: Last year, I made a conscious decision to dedicate April’s Mentor Text Wednesday posts to poetry, in honor of it being National Poetry Month. I plan to continue that tradition. This week, I want to share […]
Talkin’ ‘Bout Some Organization
In the stack of marking that I took home, promising myself I’d do before Spring Break ended, sits a stack of Of Mice and Men literary analysis essays. As we worked on them, we had a fair number of conversations about what we were doing, and why. We talked about how, often, exercises like lit […]
moving writers 