There are units you enjoy teaching, and then there are units you really enjoy because you have a personal attachment or connection with the content. And the best part is when it comes seemingly out of nowhere— like the unit just finds you. In the midst of everything that is going wrong in 2020, I […]
In my last post, I introduced my goal for the school year: to be more deliberate about having students engage in meaningful reflection throughout every step of the writing process. As I have been working toward this goal, I have found that encouraging the type of deep reflection that we want students to do requires […]
If you were to get inside my head on my way home from school on a given day, you might hear an internal dialogue that goes something like this… 5th hour was a total mess today. I could just feel a vibe from my students that they were not understanding the argumentative writing technique I […]
At this point in time, I’d be surprised if a teacher told me they haven’t gotten “the call” yet. And by “the call,” I mean when an administrator reaches out to teachers to inform them what the school and/or state would be doing in response to COVID19. I live in Illinois, so “the call” came […]
At this point in time, I’d be surprised if a teacher told me they haven’t gotten “the call” yet. And by “the call,” I mean when an administrator reaches out to teachers to inform them what the school and/or state would be doing in response to COVID19. I live in Illinois, so “the call” came […]
How many essays have you written for academic purposes? It is likely that if you are reading this, you have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Let’s say that while earning said bachelor’s degree, you took an average of 5 classes in the fall semester and 5 classes in the spring semester for 4 years. […]
Image via pixabay.com. Scaffolding. This is exactly what I had on my mind on the eve of a busy day this semester. I had spent the first quarter of the school year working intensely to give my senior honors students as much commentary on their writing as possible. Along with conferring with them verbally during […]
Think about how much thought goes into the creation of a rubric. There is so much to consider: How many criteria should it have? What are the appropriate criteria? How should each criteria be weighted? How should this rubric be set up? Should it have boxes, a checklist, or something else? These are big decisions […]
moving writers 