This week, I gave my ninth graders this definition: Analysis: breaking something into its parts and pieces so that we can closely examine it and, ultimately, come to a better understanding of the whole. Literary analysis: when we do this with a piece of literature. In the traditional high school English classroom, literary analysis has […]
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If you’re in town on April 30…
On Thursday, April 30, Rebekah and I are presenting at the Central Virginia Writing Project’s Spring Writing Mini-Conference at the University of Virginia. We will be talking about using mentor texts (surprise!) and also about our experience of turning our teaching ideas into a blog and eventually a book. If you attend one of our […]
#engchat: March 16
In an age of standards, how can teachers bring the creativity and vitality of a writing workshop into the secondary classroom? How can teachers devote meaningful, consistent time to writing instruction while balancing the demands of literature study, independent reading, test preparation, and a standardized curriculum? For the #engchat conversation on 3/16/15 (at 7 PM EST), […]
Two Writing Workshop Calls to Action
Hi, friends. We’re back. Our little project is safely in the hands of our publisher, and we are so happy to turn our attention back to the blog. Ever since NCTE, I have been thinking about the challenging realities so many teachers face in their classroom. Not only poverty, not only discipline issues, not only lack […]
Be right back…
This scene is lovely and peaceful and not very similar to what we are feeling right now in our very last two weeks of finishing our first book. So, friends, we are on a little break from writing on the blog so that we can finish writing the book. We will be back with all […]
What am I doing now? How might I do it better?
My dominant emotion during the holiday season is gratitude with a lot of reflection mixed in. As I wrap gifts, bake treats for neighbors, stand in line at the the post office, assemble holiday cards, vacuum the fallen needles under the tree, my mind wanders from family to school to the new year. What am […]
NCTE14 Preview: Do Your Student Writers Need Technique Study?
Where does writing workshop go next? Traditionally, writing workshop is organized around genres. We write editorials, learning about the conventions of that genre, incorporating it into pieces of student writing, and then move on to narrative. Then literary analysis. Then, perhaps, a This I Believe essay. And this is great. Genre is important. Students must understand […]
Whole-Class Writing Studies vs. Individual Writing Studies
Every year I write on my syllabus that students will produce a new piece of work every four weeks. And while I do create units of study that typically span four weeks, students aren’t necessarily finishing a new piece every month. It often takes us longer than planned to move through a study. Holidays and […]
Note-taking Possibilities in Writer’s Workshop
I think most of us will agree that we’d like our students to keep a record of the lessons we teach in workshop each day. They need something tangible to look back at as they progress through each study. And in a perfect world, they’d want something to take with them at the end of […]
Writing Instruction When You Aren’t There
I am not at school and won’t be for the next couple of months. Instead, I’m home snuggled up with this: Because of my impending maternity leave, much of my summer planning time was spent pondering a tough question: how do I maintain intentional, quality writing instruction when I’m not there to instruct? This is […]
moving writers 