It was 9:45 on a Thursday night with two weeks left in the school year and I was crying. My eyes welled up as I read a mash-up of Death of a Salesman and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Years after the death of their father, Biff Loman was inviting Happy to join […]
Mentor Texts: Fandom is Broken by Devin Faraci Ghostbusters, Frozen, and the strange entitlement of fan culture by Jesse Hassenger Yes, Disney Should Have A Queer Princess by Devin Faraci Fandom isn’t ‘broken’—it’s just not only for white dudes anymore by Charles Pulliam-Moore Writing Techniques: Informative or Explanatory Writing Writing Opinion Connecting texts Responding to […]
Students have a story to tell. So why not let them tell it as a way in to literature — to walk an idea around to see how far it will go and where else it might lead them.
One of my favorites things about the end of the school year—aside from summer vacation, of course—is the opportunity to reflect on another year gone by. And as I look back on this particular year, I see many bumps in the road: lessons gone awry, students I didn’t quite reach, and material I didn’t get […]
Mentor Text: An Open Letter to the Person Who Stole My iPod: Please Let Me Explain My Music Collection by Dan Ozzi (Be aware, contains some cussin’!) Writing Techniques: Reflective Writing Humour Writing about music Background: In Canada, this past weekend was a long weekend. I did my best to shut off the TeacherBrain and […]
Finding mentor texts can be hard. And time consuming. This, we know. Even after years of making mentor texts the fulcrum on which the rest of my writing instruction pivots, finding the right set of texts for the students in front of me can be a challenge. In Writing With Mentors, Allison and I share […]
Engage students in analysis of demanding texts by connecting to other genres with genre hopping.
It is six o’clock on a Saturday night, and I am sitting at my desk in my classroom. The end of the semester is definitely near! While many of you might still have weeks of instruction left on the calendar, I am down to my last week before finals and commencement. My desk is a […]
Mentor Text: Swindle magazine Icons issues The Time 100 Issues The Time: Person of the Year Issues Tributes to Merle Haggard from Rolling Stone magazine Excerpts from Brad Meltzer’s Heroes for my Son & Heroes for my Daughter Profile of Frederick Law Olmsted from Nick Offerman’s Gumption Writing Techniques: Writing biography Focusing presentation of research […]
The beauty of Jay’s Mentor Text Wednesday posts is that they give us an instant idea — something to take back into our classrooms immediately, something to tinker with and fit to our students’ needs, and something to expand the way we think about mentor texts and the possibilities for our students’ writing. It’s easy […]
moving writers 