Go Ahead! Open That Can of Worms: A Lesson for Introducing ChatGPT

“I don’t think you should be talking about this,” a ninth grader muttered under his breath as he gritted his teeth and sank a bit lower in his chair.  No, this was not the response when I started a lesson about healthy relationships during our Catcher in the Rye study (everyone likes hearing their English […]

Brave New Words: 5 Ideas for Bringing ChatGPT into Your Writing Workshop

You can hardly get online recently without seeing an article or other hand-wringing about ChatGPT and what this means for the world. Especially the English teacher world. Thankfully, Brett Vogelsinger has done some thinking about this. Instead of fighting against it, what if we could use ChatGPT and other AI to actually benefit our writers? […]

Writing You Can See: How to Teach a Graphic Novel Writing Workshop

I’m rarely brave enough to try a terrifying new teaching idea on my own. Ask Allison. Or, these days, Sam. For years, I’ve been trying to psych myself up to teach a writing study on graphic novels or graphic essays, but because I am so woefully inept in the artistic realm, I never did it. […]

A Conversation that Nudges Students out of Embarrassment

If you’ve ever taught a bunch of self-conscious middle schoolers, you know that adolescents are perpetually embarrassed about anything and everything. You also know that they don’t just “get over it” when they realize that embarrassment is an impediment to their learning. In that state of biological and emotional upheaval, the rational voice (even when it exists) is drowned in the fear of embarrassment. 

We are BURSTING with New Synchronous Virtual Learning Opportunities!

We are adding EVEN MORE opportunities for live, virtual professional development this spring! We hope that you’ll join us for one or more of these sessions! March 5 Poetry Pauses to Rouse Your Writers Next Week Brief “poetry pauses” not only build students’ capacity for critical reading + stamina for writing, but they can also […]