Remember how Olaf, the snowman from Frozen, sings about how excited he is to experience summer after Arendelle’s deep freeze? Consider me his opposite. As summer (and summer writing!) approaches, I, ever the Wisconsin girl at heart, am thinking about snow. Seriously. I’m thinking specifically about a snowman-size snowball, the kind you make by rolling […]
I used to be the proud mother of this beautiful beast: He crossed the rainbow bridge a few years ago, but I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately because I have some writers who remind me of him. Before you get offended on their behalf (She’s comparing children to a dog?!), I need to […]
This is not going to be a post teaching you how to conduct a unit on podcasting. (If that’s what you’re looking for, maybe someday. But also Stefanie has written a brilliant series on this starting here.) Rather, this is a post where I will muse on what teaching podcasting has revealed about the process […]
Mentor Text: Monday, November 4, 2013 from The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater Techniques: Introduction Infusing Narrative Into Informational Writing Background: Our washer died a couple of months ago. This is relevant because it means that since we haven’t taken the time to buy a replacement, I’ve been spending time at the laundromat each weekend. And […]
If you want students to write deep analysis, try starting with a medium and “text” that’s familiar to them: The opening sequences of their favorite TV shows.
Mentor Text: forge by Leslie Anne Mcilroy Techniques: Constructing meaning Poetic form Background: This week, I’d like to share another gem of a poem that came through my Twitter feed. One that lets me bring two things that I love into my class. With a 5 year old and a 7 year old, I get […]
Usually, my Teaching From My Twitter Feed posts are about a great article or image that popped up in my feed right at the right time. This week, however, I want to focus on a different way my twitter feed has impacted my teaching–Twitter chats. If you’ve never participated in a twitter chat, this awesome […]
Today we present Part II of Sarah’s thinking on building student interest in your writing classroom by weaving in video games and video game writing. You can read her full post from Wednesday here. On Wednesday, I discussed a few small ways teachers can use to bring video games into their classrooms. Today, I want […]
I’m so excited to present today’s guest post by Sarah Jones, whom I met through the Ohio Writing Project last summer. Sarah is an avid writer, reader, and gamer and is working to incorporate the workshop approach in both her Writing Through Video Games and Spanish classes. You can connect with her via email at […]
I have two full weeks of classes with my seniors before their IB and AP exams begin, and after a semester of preparing students for those exams using methods I described in January, one of the biggest questions on my mind is this: how can I help students write as sensitively, authentically, wisely, and sophisticatedly […]
moving writers 