mentor texts – moving writers

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021Abigail Lund

The Enneagram Meets the ELA Classroom

Ever heard of the Enneagram? How could implementing personality types into ELA help your students better analyze characters and create authentic characters? I take you through some moves in this MW piece

March 30, 2021March 29, 2021megankortlandt

Poetry and Picture Books (for big kids – and grownups, too!)

My beat this year is about taking care of the grownups, and well, this year that’s turning out to be even more of a monumental task than I could have imagined it would be. It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot that I can say about professional learning that would even scratch the surface of […]

March 24, 2021March 23, 2021Jay

Mentor Text Wednesday: Dystopian Short Stories

Mentor Text: Various dystopian short stories Techniques: Social commentary Short story Background – I think I’ve shared this here before, but I teach all my core English courses thematically. There are many reasons for this, but at the heart of it, I love that it gives us a focus for our looks at literature. Each course […]

March 4, 2021March 1, 2021Abigail Lund

You’re a Poet.. Didn’t You Know It?

Have you heard of the Important Book? Margaret Wise takes us through a mentor text that will help your students engage in a rich vocabulary centered writing lesson and ask themselves.. what is the most important thing? [Perfect lesson to take writing out of the ELA classroom and into math]

February 24, 2021February 23, 2021Jay

Mentor Text Wednesday: From a Certain Point of View

Mentor Text: ‘Vergence’ by Tracy Deonn From From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back Techniques: Point of View Fan fiction as storytelling Background – In our house, it is a Christmas tradition that everyone gets new jammies and a new book on Christmas Eve. This year, as requested, I unwrapped the Empire Strikes […]

February 22, 2021February 22, 2021Xochitl Bentley

Voice Over, Camera Shots, and Conservationist Storytelling

Watching Faith E. Briggs navigate the ruts, inclines, and down hills as she runs through three national monuments – public lands protected under the Antiquities Act – makes for a vivid and immersive viewing experience. Her exploration of what it means to be a conservationist amid the threat of rolled back protections for public lands […]

January 29, 2021January 30, 2021Brett Vogelsinger

Designing With Grammar

Teaching grammar is my instructional nemesis. I’m sure I am not alone in feeling this way. For nearly twenty years now, I have worked at teaching grammar in the context of writing, without skill-and-drill worksheets, and every year I tweak my approach, often some variation of Harry Noden’s creative Image Grammar approach. But it’s still […]

January 27, 2021January 26, 2021Jay

Mentor Text Wednesday: Why Dolly Parton Doesn’t a Nashville Statue – Yet

Mentor Text: Why Dolly Parton Doesn’t Deserve a Nashville Statue — Yet by Marcus K. Dowling Techniques: Expressing Opinion Using Evidence to Reinforce Opinion Critical Thinking Background – In this house, we believe in Dolly Parton. Her records are regularly spun, and we believe in her messages of kindness and compassion. If our daughters manage to […]

January 25, 2021January 24, 2021Xochitl Bentley

The Braided Essay

The image of the braid is powerfully suggestive of attempts to reconcile threads that are sometimes difficult to reconcile. In this way, the braided essay can be a helpful teacher: an exercise in creative nonfiction that encourages non-linear storytelling. Three narratives are brought together by connecting words or images that puts the threads into conversation […]

January 22, 2021January 22, 2021Michael Ziegler

Guided by (too many) Voices

It’s funny how a few things in school remain mostly normal despite everything else feeling so strange this year. Like the annual arrival of National Honors Society nominations– it was a nice reminder of “normal” when a student in my Zoom last week asked if we could set up a breakout room so he could […]