Speaking as a teacher of 30 years experience who has, for all of those 30 years, asked students to write about their lives, I can only say I have never had a student complain about writing about their lives after the fact.
Author: mrfitzfinkle
The Benefits of Writing 2: Discovering the Power of Words
…In our classrooms, we can read for meaning, discuss meaning, and allow students to write things that mean something to them.
The Benefits of Writing 1: Know Thyself
This benefit of writing is simple: writing helps helps us know ourselves.
Closeup Writing: Things to Consider
Writing with details and stories is not only more effective, it’s also more fun.
Big Picture Writing: Things to Ponder
Thinking about our writing, big picture, helps us to think about who and how we want to be as people, and as we the people.
The Value of Ambiguity
Sometimes, there isn’t one right answer. Sometimes it’s okay to admit we don’t know.
Writing Health
What does healthy literacy look like? What does a healthy reading life look like? What does Writing Health look like?
Writing That Matters: The Emotional Emergency Kit
Letting students journal freely about their lives, their feelings, may be the best emotional learning we can possibly give them.
The Fiction-Fix for Bad Endings: Incident-Irony
I thought, There must be a key to good endings. It must be a skill – a teachable, practice-able skill.
The answer: Irony.
The Un-Rubric: An Experiment in Feedback
Rubrics tend to be about compliance, not thinking…
moving writers 