Since the beginning of the school year, I’ve been writing about the different ways I try to make research relevant for my students. We have to help them build context so they can research effectively and ask nuanced questions, we have to support their reading and give them strategies for wading through these complex texts, […]
We came back from school this week and my students in AP Seminar are diving headfirst into a big research project. They’ve done some researching, started annotating sources, done a lot of thinking…so now what?
So far this year, all of my writing on Moving Writers has been dedicated to Research Writing. I’m teaching two sections of AP Seminar this year, so I spend lots of time guiding students through research. I know the traditional research paper often gets a bad rap as “boring”, but I think there are lots […]
“I don’t know what to do. My main claim just kinda blew up in my face.” The student sat in front of me–a little forlorn, a lot frustrated–her computer balanced on her lap. I was surprised by her candor. Usually, when students’ claims “blow up in their faces” they are quick to ask for […]
Years ago when I taught debate, there was nothing that frustrated me more than a student saying, “I need to switch topics. I’m researching and there’s nothing on this.” Really? There’s nothing out there about abortion (or fill in any other widely written about topic)? Of course there was, and I usually needed to […]
Every time I go to a workshop about research writing and synthesis (and I’ve been to a few since I teach both AP Language and AP Seminar), we talk about making smoothies or chocolate chip cookies or chili. In every instance–much to my disappointment– we’re not talking about eating, we’re talking about blending evidence effectively. […]
There are lots of ways to “do” research in a secondary classroom–everything from small writing pieces with just a little research to full-blown research projects that span several weeks. However you do it, though, it can get messy quickly. How do we show them all the rules of citation without overwhelming them? How do we […]
Last year on day two, my AP Language students threw me for a loop. I had asked them to do some writing as summer work and our team of teachers had decided we’d conference with the students about the pieces rather than grade them. Conferences in the first week of school seemed like the perfect […]
When Rebekah and Allison originally pitched the idea of Moving Writers developing something to help teachers promote summer writing for their students, I was already knee-deep in a discussion with my AP Lang Voxer group about writers’ notebooks and how we can make them authentic for our students. One thing we all noticed pretty […]
I used to be the proud mother of this beautiful beast: He crossed the rainbow bridge a few years ago, but I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately because I have some writers who remind me of him. Before you get offended on their behalf (She’s comparing children to a dog?!), I need to […]
