Mentor Text: Every Song on ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ Ranked by Veracia Ankrah Techniques: Review Background – I have a couple of pursuits that I feel like I’m constantly developing, filing texts for future use, and stockpiling ideas. The music writing pursuit is one nearest and dearest to my heart. It’s pretty rare that students […]
Mentor Text: The Sea Glass Collector by Lawrence Maxwell Techniques: Imagery Memoir Background – As we move further into the post-pandemic reality of education, a lot of things are going back to normal. For some of us, that means we’re returning to government mandated assessments. (Ugh. That sounds awful – I was trying to find a […]
Mentor Text: Chasing Ricky Lake by Richard Wagamese Techniques: Memoir – focusing on reflection and nostalgia Background – I’m a month into my 24th year of teaching full time. I’m not sure why I feel I’m managing it the worst. It may be the demands of parenting, coupled with my goals and the needs of my […]
Mentor Text: The Ancestors by Jasmin Kaur Techniques: Facing the challenges the “Where I’m From” poem lesson presents for some students Background – We’re all into a new school year. Sometimes, in that chaos, we fall back on some tried and true lessons and texts. As we gather with new students, I know that many of […]
Mentor Text: excerpt from ‘The Red House‘ by Robert R. McCammon Techniques: Introduction Background – Over the last few years, I’ve really thrown myself back into the horror genre. It began with The Kingcast podcast becoming a fave, and drawing me back into Constant Readership, but rediscovering horror movies and beginning to explore middle years spooky […]
Mentor Text: Potato by Rebekah Rempel Techniques: Exploring a symbol Background – The last two months of school are challenging, eh? If I’m not in teacher mode planning the end of my courses, laying the groundwork for next year or marking, I’m in parent mode, shuttling everyone everywhere. As I’ve shared before, I always grab my […]
Mentor Text: Leading Us To Revelation: On Rita Dove by Jericho Brown Techniques: Analysis Introduction & Conclusion Titling Background – I’ve had a subscription to POETRY Magazine for a few years now. And I almost never finish an issue. Issues travel with me in my school bag. Issues are lugged to dance and swim practices in […]
Mentor Text: Elegies for Lost Voices – four poems by Scott Nolan. Techniques: Writing Elegies Background – Maybe this is because I spent time last night listening to Gordon Lightfoot in the wake of his passing. Maybe it’s because I need to prep a lesson plan for next week in my Lit class where we’re writing […]
Mentor Text: excerpt from Stay True by Hua Hsu Techniques: Writing an introduction Background – The week in which I’m writing this is one of those weeks we have as teachers, where we’re overwhelmed with obligations and expectations. A couple of weeks ago, when I felt like I had a bit more breathing room, I […]
Mentor Text: Fairy-tale Logic by A.E. Stallings Techniques: Using poetry as analysis Background – In my Grade 9 class right now, we’re working on our essays discussing scary stories. We do a little short film study, allowing us to practice analysis skills, and give us some fun ground to cover in an early essay this semester, […]
