On any day last week, a quick sweep of my three senior classes offered the same scene: gaunt, gray faces; foreheads on tables; backpacks exploding with papers; hair teased and tangled by frustrated fingers. It’s the October crunch, and my seniors are feeling the pressure of first quarter assessments, college applications, and fall SAT testing. […]
My students are at that time of year where they need to be constantly entertained. They like the satire unit we’re in the midst of (some of them have even said so out loud!), but their attention spans are starting to resemble that of my eight year old this afternoon as the rain poured down […]
Mentor Texts: Another Nightmare in America – Cory Branan (listen here) American Tune – AJJ (listen here) Writing Techniques: Voice Adopting a persona Writing a protest piece Background – I’m a music fan. I use music in many ways in my classroom. It matters in my life so it features in my work. As I […]
An instructional writing model that allows for authenticity and self-directed learning.
Mentor Texts: “In praise of Joanne Rowling’s Hermione Granger series” – Sady Doyle Writing Techniques: Character analysis Applying a critical lens Voice Background: I am re-reading the Harry Potter series with my oldest daughter. We’re reading the gorgeous illustrated editions. This means that we are now on our second go-round with Chamber of Secrets, as […]
How adopting a mentor text approach to writing instruction is actually helping me teach reading comprehension
My last post mentioned Pippin, and now I’m quoting Rodgers & Hammerstein; I had musical theater on my mind this summer because I knew my break would end with a “bucket list” vacation to Broadway, the four-plays-in-four-days kind of trip my Tony Awards-watching teenage self had always dreamed about. The trip was an absolute treat, […]
A challenging, fun, and engaging activity using Hamilton as a mentor text for character and theme analysis.
Creating maps allows students to turn their prewriting into a visual representation of their ideas.
It seemed too good to be true when I first happened upon it: a database with hundreds of free Hollywood movie scripts, ready to download and dig in to for writing studies! I had landed upon The Internet Movie Script Database (not to be confused with the International Movie Database) — an amazing resource for writing workshop. I […]
moving writers 