Mentor Text: Just a Girl by Elizabeth Ditty Techniques: Writing memoir Organization Creative Transitioning Background- I’ve pretty openly expressed my love for Memoir Mixtapes here. As their header states, they’re “The ultimate mashup of the two things we all love to talk about: ourselves & music.” This makes them such a lovely source to mine […]
Today’s guest post is from Paige Timmerman, a high school English teacher in Salem, Illinois. She has guest written for Moving Writers before as she explored audience and the college essay! You can connect with her on Twitter at @pbrink12 or via e-mail at timmermanp@salemhigh.com. Senior English can be a beautiful and frustrating thing. For […]
In my continuing series this fall, I am examining the fundamental elements of writing workshop and providing ways for teachers to get started and ways for seasoned workshop teachers to take their practice to the next level. In the first two installments, I wrote about choice (here and here) and making time for writing (here […]
Mentor Text: ‘Start Here’ by Mari Andrew Techniques: Writing Memoir Organization Background- If you’re a regular visitor to Moving Writers, or follow any Moving Writers contributors on Twitter, then Mari Andrew needs no introduction. A wonderful creator expressing herself through image and words, she presents her thought with an openness and honesty that strikes a chord […]
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed by now that I’m as likely to retweet something that entertains me as I am to retweet good educational practices when I see them (I’d argue both are important–one for reasons of my sanity and…actually I guess both of them for that.). Which means, for me, […]
I want my students to be continually thinking about context–cultural, historical, and otherwise. For many of my students, the boundaries of their writing AND reading are constricted by their narrow contextual pools of knowledge. Helping them to see why the narratives of their history classes or the view through the microscope in biology are actually […]
Mentor Text: The Last Jedi and the 7 Basic Questions of Narrative Drama (video essay) by Sage Hyden Techniques: Using A Structure To Defend A Thesis Using Subcategories to Organize Argument Layering Evidence Addressing Counterpoint Without Losing Focus Addressing Canon While Discussing A Modern Text Literary Analysis Background – My Twitter feed actually represents my career […]
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. […]
I’ve been learning a ton on Twitter recently, like the fact that many of you are already on summer vacation. And I am not. I eventually moved past that, though, and decided to write this post anyway. After all, we’re all colleagues and once I’m finally on summer break too in a couple weeks, I’m […]
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 […]
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