Mentor Text: Pants: A Note by Brian Doyle Techniques: Playing with conventions Expressing a single idea Using footnotes Background – This spring, I found myself really reflecting on the fact that I use a lot of heavy pieces in the classroom. I think we all do – they do the heavy lifting for us. They’re rich […]
Mentor Text: ‘1944’ excerpted from Gone to the Woods by Gary Paulsen Techniques: Memoir Narrator’s Voice Background – Though I have read numerous reflections and reports on Gary Paulsen’s books, particularly the Hatchet series, I had yet to read any of his work until this spring. My love of memoir and habitual checking of the recent […]
Sodium Polyacrylate In science, my 4th graders are learning about the Law of Conservation of Matter after about a week of reviewing ideas around solids, liquids, and gases. Instead of doing the classic cornstarch and water lab, I decided to try something new this time around. If you go online, you can find packets of […]
One of my biggest challenges as a teacher is getting students to feel connected to history. To them, especially at the middle school age, history might as well be the Milky Way– kids are told that it’s real and that they are a part of it, but the scope of history often has such galactical […]
Mentor Text: ‘Super Mario Kart‘ from The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green Techniques: Introduction Narrative Metaphor Review Background – How often do we set something aside, but never quite make it back to it? I tweeted, way back when I first read it, which was, admittedly, a while after it seemed like everyone else had, that […]
A few posts ago, I wrote about what Beth Rimer calls “Breather Units.” A Breather Unit is a 2-3 week mini-unit in which a teacher engages in something lighter–or perhaps does a bit of review–after a deep and intense unit of study. Inspired by a Graphic Novel Writing unit Rebekah posted to the Moving Writers […]
This month @mrsablund takes you through the mentor our students know best… social media. How can we use this in our classrooms as writers? Read to find out!
Mentor Text: Salvage by Hedgie Choi Techniques: Exploring the use of profanity Poetic form Building connections Background – I’m a recovering magazine addict. I’ve gone from snagging every magazine that slightly caught my eye, and subscribing to numerous publications to buying more selectively, and holding a single subscription. That preamble is just so I can talk […]
A Brief Podcasting Primer If you don’t already know what a podcast is, it’s basically a radio show that people can stream or download to their own devices. It’s like listening to radio a la carte in that you can pick and choose what episodes you want to listen to–and you have the power to […]
If I ask my students what makes a good introduction, they can quickly rattle off a list of “hooks” —a question! a definition! a surprising fact! I bet if you asked your students, they could do the same. Have you read your fair share of essays with these types of hooks? Merriam Webster describes a […]
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