How do we get students to buy into writing? How do we begin to hear their stories. Oral storytelling is a way to engage your writers in a low stakes way and create a basis for a really strong writing community.
Category: Lesson for Tomorrow
Dream Boards
In this school years last beat Abigail takes you through a writing strategy of “dream/vision boards” to cast a vision for the future with your students.
An Alternate Script for the Embarrassed Self
I’m very happy that my idea of creating Embarrassment Free Zones resonated with many teachers and students. My goal in this post is to establish that there are situations when Free Zones won’t work. Yes, that’s right.
A Conversation that Nudges Students out of Embarrassment
If you’ve ever taught a bunch of self-conscious middle schoolers, you know that adolescents are perpetually embarrassed about anything and everything. You also know that they don’t just “get over it” when they realize that embarrassment is an impediment to their learning. In that state of biological and emotional upheaval, the rational voice (even when it exists) is drowned in the fear of embarrassment.
7 Ways to Get Students Writing about the War in Ukraine
Between this post and my last, a war began. And we shouldn’t be surprised. Like the rise of Nazi Germany after WWI, the conflict in Ukraine has been building for more than twenty years. Putin and his post-Soviet ancestors have been playing a game of Hungry Hippos with the Ukraine and former Soviet satellite states […]
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.
Stop Motion Animation in 5 Steps for Beginners
This month Abigail takes you through 5 steps to start stop motion in your writing class. Jump into the wonderful world of stop motion!
Embarrassed and Alone in the Writing Workshop
When we know we’re not alone, writing (and life) can be a little less daunting.
Exploring a Place Through Writing
Abigail’s first beat of the year takes you through a lesson you could do tomorrow. Discovering the importance of place and how through observation growing a deeper understanding of why place matters in our writing.
A Systematic, Realistic, No-Worksheet Approach to Teaching Articles (a, an, the) to ELLs
This ready-to-use mini grammar unit aims to provide a framework for the student to systematically learn and use articles in their spoken and written English. Slides included.
moving writers 