Today, I’ll get back to a series of posts I started in December, sharing how we revisited and remixed the study of memoir in our Grade 12 courses. When we sat and discussed what we felt we wanted to “get” out of studying a memoir, my awesome teaching homie Rachelle was emphatic that we wanted […]
Category: Planning
The SAT Essay: Preparing Students for the Test & Tips for Sealing the Deal
There aren’t any cheat sheets or formulas to help students do well on the SAT essay. But as it turns out, that might actually be a good thing.
Planning a Course With a Looming Writing Test
As this post goes live, my Grade 12 students will be finishing their final assessment in their course, a Provincial Assessment. They will have written a process exam for the past four days. Based around a single theme, which they learn on the first day, they were expected to read, respond and write. The first […]
3 Moves Toward Better Teaching Tone and Voice
If our voice in writing is made up of a combination of our personality, our experiences, and our culture, we must let it inform our tone as we approach a subject.
Memoir Study Remix: Lessons Learned
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, my team and I decided we needed to revisit and remix our memoir study. In that post, I talked about what we did in regards to the lowest moment experienced by the subject of the memoir. This week, I’ll share what we did with the lessons learned […]
A Teaching Lesson from the Dance Studio: Crash and Learn
If you read the #NCTE17 recap, you know that the Moving Writers team has busting a move on the brain, especially me, since I am currently taking a second round of swing dancing lessons (so maybe it’s more like I’m “cutting a rug”?). This dance class crosses a long-existing item off of my bucket list, […]
Beyond Notebook Time: The Journal Explode Essay
With thanks to guest contributors Kevin Mooney, rumored to be the inspiration for the teacher John Keating replaced, he is a lead teacher at North Hagerstown High School in Washington County, Maryland and is in his 22nd year in education. Liz Matheny, AP Language and Composition teacher in Frederick County, Maryland. (Check out a great […]
Required Reading: On Mandated Texts
If you’re a regular visitor to Moving Writers, you’ve seen the Behind The Scenes series of posts throughout September related to organizing the year. Earlier, throughout August, the Ask Moving Writers series had this team sharing answers to readers’ questions. I have an obvious bias, but what a wonderful thing to have a community of […]
Organizing Instructional Time
When it comes to instructional time, what matters most is that we organize our plans around a purpose.
Behind The Scenes: Considering The Big Picture
On Monday, Allison wrote about the nightmare of the blank planner. I started this week with that nightmare as a reality for one of my classes. I knew exactly where I’d be starting with my Grade 11s and my Grade 12s, but I was kind of blanking on what my Grade 9s would be starting […]
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