I find many of of my students have seldom, if ever, been allowed to choose and focus their own topics. They have been, as I often say, “prompted to death.” Yet the work of choosing and focusing a topic are essential writing moves – perhaps the most important writing moves of all, because they involve […]
Everyone is obsessed with true crime lately. True crime podcasts, true crime TV shows, true crime movies, true crime documentaries. I feel like every time I turn around, I see another preview for another true crime series on Netflix. And, here’s the thing, I’m totally down for it. My podcasts, my list on Netflix – […]
My greatest hope is that amid this newness, the “I-feel-like-a-first-year-teacher-again” of it all, we can all learn some things about teaching writing that we may never have otherwise explored.
At this point in time, I’d be surprised if a teacher told me they haven’t gotten “the call” yet. And by “the call,” I mean when an administrator reaches out to teachers to inform them what the school and/or state would be doing in response to COVID19. I live in Illinois, so “the call” came […]
Mentor Texts: ‘How To Play Night Baseball’ by Jonathan Holden Techniques: Imagery Writing Poetry Adding Flavour Background – So, often, I use this column as a chance to plan a lesson. Sometimes, I’m planning a lesson using a mentor text I know I’ll be using somewhere down the road, and other times, I’ve found a […]
Mentor Texts: “All of the Little Things That Made the Original ‘Lion King’ so Great” by Shea Serrano “The effanineeffable, deep and inscrutable, singular Cats” by Alissa Wilkinson Techniques: Developing an argument Pre-writing Writing Introductions Writing Listicles Background – I’ve been thinking, for a long time, about the listicle form. We all know that it’s a […]
We are so very happy to introduce you to our newest contributing writer, Brett Vogelsinger. Brett teaches high school English in Pennsylvania, but might already know him from the brilliance he shares all day every day on Twitter (@theVogelman). We’ve been borrowing good ideas from him for awhile, and we are so happy that he […]
For those who’ve been following the ongoing adventures (exploits? misadventures?) of my focus student, Troy, and me this year, be aware that I’m taking a blog off from that beat. Troy and I are kind of in a holding pattern right now, and we’re also in between writing assignments as a whole class, so as […]
This year at Moving Writers, I’ll be dedicating some of my posts to exploring the ways I try to help two of my students, who I’ve nicknamed Troy and Abed. I’ve chosen them as a focus for the year partially because I already know them from their freshman and sophomore years, having worked closely […]
The beginning of a new year–a year where I’ll focus my MW attention on two particular students in need of some writing inspiration.
moving writers 