Things are a little stressful in Texas, where I live. We just survived a snow-pocalypse the likes we’ve not seen in a century. Many of us had power outages, no internet, no water, or busted pipes, and this was just during the week of SNOVID! That doesn’t include all of the trials of the aftermath. […]
Category: revision
Revision as Shokunin
One of my favorite reads in the last year has been Bob Iger’s The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. In his book, Iger dives into the magic behind running a company like Disney, his wisdom on leadership and collaboration, and the type of grit […]
Did They Really Love That Lesson as Much as You Think?
In my first semester beat, I’m exploring the life-saving power of routines–but not just any routines. I’m talking about routines that make life easier, more efficient, and more familiar–even in the most daunting of times (cough, 2020, cough). I’m talking about routines that allow students to thrive whether you are teaching in person, virtually, hybrid, […]
Tools Over Rules: Writing as Choice-Making, not Compliance
In fact, students often think of writing as an act of compliance – follow the teacher’s instruction, receive a passing grade.
Talking to Teachers: “Writing Beside Them” and the Power of Revision
In this edition of T2T, I am speaking with yet another recent colleague from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi (see my previous post where I talked to Matt Foss an IB Language and Literature teacher). Jordan Moog is a grade 9 Global Studies and AP US History teacher and you will gain a […]
Diagnostic Writing: The Springboard for Relearning, Reflecting, and Revising
Earlier this month, the Moving Writers Team collaborated on a post titled “12 Writing Experiences for Processing the Election.” Within the post, I shared an idea where writers use the following prompt to build an argument surrounding the concept of compulsory voting. With my beat this school year being about revision, I saw this post […]
Two Ways to Bring Students’ Voices into the Writing Classroom
“Don’t forget to cast your ballot!” “Vote!” We just passed the most important time of this year: election day. According to the New York Times, this year’s election and candidates led to heavy, and record-breaking, voter turnout, and there were many measures in place to ensure ballots were counted in time. We’ve had crazy high […]
Fostering Risk-Taking During the Revision Process
We all take risks when we need to. In essence, risks allow us to squash the “what ifs,” to feed our curiosity, to discover what’s possible. And of course, they offer us the chance – through trial and error – to strike gold. While there is a time to play it safe and trust what […]
Top 5 Tools for Digital Revision Work
When writers revise in our classrooms, it is vital that they have the guidance and the tools to empower them to do so. Between last spring and this school year, writing teachers have especially turned to a variety of digital tools to find ways to keep the revision process authentic, valuable, and productive. In a […]
Poetry as An Act of Revision
One key idea threads through my series this year about poetry as part of the writing process for other genres: poetry sharpens our diction. Frequent practice in reading and writing poetry tunes our eyes and ears to what works and does not work in our choice of words, the same way practicing guitar helps train […]