Committing to giving my students chances to move everyday has helped me rethink how my writers develop their ideas.
Category: Uncategorized
Mentor Text Wednesday: A surprising essay collection that helps students get at the “root” of the matter
Today’s post comes from our Twitter friend Brett Vogelsinger. When he is not digging in the garden, Brett teaches ninth grade English at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA. You can connect with him on Twitter @thevogelman. Mentor Text: The Roots of My Obsession: Thirty Gardeners Reveal Why They Garden Writing Techniques: Powerful syntax and diction […]
Titan Talk: Pen Pal Letters and Social Health
Aiming to bridge the social gap by creating authentic opportunities to read and write
3 Tips for Using Literature as Mentor Texts
Teaching is often a balancing act. We’re constantly balancing, sometimes battling, the seemingly opposing forces of lesson planning vs. grading, eating the cake in the workroom vs. not eating the cake in the workroom, literature study vs. writing study. But why can’t we have our cake and eat it, too? And by cake, I mean writing. […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: You Don’t Know Me, But…
Mentor Texts: Excerpts from Nathan Rabin’s You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me Writing Techniques: Writing Memoir Taking Risks Humour Background: Early in the school year, my Grade 12 classes are traditionally neck deep in memoir. Each student is reading one, and we are writing a variety of memoir based pieces. I get […]
3 Simple Exercises to Help Your Students Read Like Writers
Imagine you’re eating at your favorite go-to restaurant, that small table for two in the back corner by the window. You place an order for dinner without the menu. You have been here more times than you care to count. You don’t need a menu! Now imagine that the head chef at this restaurant has […]
Making Writing with Mentor Texts
When writers use what they learn from mentor texts to create tools that invite experimentation, they’re making writing with mentor texts.
The FrankenEssay
I’ve spent the last few years of my career as an English teacher working on reclaiming the word essay. Students, for many reasons, react badly to that word. It’s not just because our assigning of it means they have to do some work, there’s something there. My theory is that a lot of teachers have […]
Breaking Rules Like a Pro
Last week I participated in a Twitter chat hosted by @TalksWTeachers and this blog’s creators: @AllisonMarchett and @RebekahODell1. It was a fast-paced flurry of awesome ideas and thought-provoking questions, but one question in particular kept me thinking the next day. Allison posed the following question: What do you struggle to teach and how might mentor […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: The Snowy Lambeau
Mentor Texts: Snowy Lambeau – a poem by Gord Downie Writing Techniques: Writing Poetry Reflecting on Craft Background: The preamble is a bit of a tale this week. If you’re a Canadian reader, then you understand what Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip mean. If not, Downie is the singer of The Hip, a band […]
moving writers 