As a Curriculum and Instruction Consultant in my district, when I’m not working with students as learners, I’m working with their teachers. Over the past few years, we’ve been digging into some really hard work. I mean really hard. We’re working on moving away from teaching novels to teaching reading, away from prescribing a formula […]
Author: megankortlandt
No Happy Endings
“It doesn’t solve anything in an overly neat-and-tidy kind of way; rather, it honors the fact that sometime we are in a place where we are not okay.”
Organizing Instructional Time
When it comes to instructional time, what matters most is that we organize our plans around a purpose.
F.A.Q. (Or How to Take Ownership of Writing)
At my school district in Michigan, we’re in the home stretch. Just a few more days of instruction, and then we’ll be on our final exam schedule. So, for this post, I planned to write about creative lessons that will keep your class engaged and fresh throughout these dog days. From my past tense, […]
Beyond the Baked Goods: Appreciate Teachers by Supporting Them
Don’t get me wrong; at this time of year, a lunch or a coffee cart can seem like a godsend. But, I’d argue that more than appreciation, we need support.
Scaffolding Authentic Literary Analysis
Sometimes we need to scaffold the thinking that goes into writing more than we need to scaffold where a topic sentence goes in a paragraph. Mentor texts can help with that!
Teaching Each Instead of All
My journey (so far) with differentiating writing instruction to meet each learner’s needs.
No Unicorns Here: Demystifying the Hard Work of Reading with Mentor Texts
How adopting a mentor text approach to writing instruction is actually helping me teach reading comprehension
The Quest to Reduce Text
In August, I gave myself permission to leave walls blank to make way for instruction. Halfway through the school year, I’m checking back in on that work.
Three Things I Believe
A tough start to the school year combined with the launch of a new unit created the perfect storm to force me to put into writing 3 beliefs that drive me as an educator.
