Syntax Study for Earth Day

Placing Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones” and Craig Santos Perez’s “Good Fossil Fuels” side by side can elicit a wide-ranging classroom conversation about the ways the climate crisis is downplayed.  Through describing points of convergence and divergence, students can ponder how the “recycled” aspects of Smith’s syntax and prosody appearing in Perez’s poem challenge their thinking […]

Bios, Threads, & Retweets: Moving Writers with Twitter Simulations

We know that writing strategies are everywhere. And, I am amazed at the amount of writing skills and strategies that are embedded into social media platforms. Although the student writer may not actually notice the author’s craft and intention that goes into well-crafted tweets, they are there in abundance, and I realized recently that these […]

Getting some perspective: Choice and Authenticity in the Learning Process

When I think of increasing student choice and voice this leads me to think about increasing student motivation and happiness. And when these ideas coalesce I can’t help but think of Malcolm Gladwell’s Ted Talk (I realize this is a strange connection to make, but hear me out). Gladwell discusses how Prego, back in the ’70s, took over […]

I Get Wise with a Little Pop From My Friends

I want my students to be continually thinking about context–cultural, historical, and otherwise.  For many of my students, the boundaries of their writing AND reading are constricted by their narrow contextual pools of knowledge.  Helping them to see why the narratives of their history classes or the view through the microscope in biology are actually […]

YA Sentence Study Snapshot: We Were Liars

Text:  We Were Liars by E. Lockhart       Audience: Later middle school – high school (Perhaps 7-12?) Book Talk: Every summer, members of the incredibly wealthy Sinclair family gather on a private island. Everything appears to be perfect — perfect children, perfect relationships, plenty of money. But, of course, you know that things are […]