My last post mentioned Pippin, and now I’m quoting Rodgers & Hammerstein; I had musical theater on my mind this summer because I knew my break would end with a “bucket list” vacation to Broadway, the four-plays-in-four-days kind of trip my Tony Awards-watching teenage self had always dreamed about. The trip was an absolute treat, […]
I coached and taught debate for almost ten years and, in the process, became a bit of a news junkie. So naturally, the political conventions were on 24/7 at my house this summer. And, naturally, like every other English teacher in the world who was tuned into politics this summer, I followed the Melania Trump […]
Mentor Texts: Various letters from McSweeney’s “Best Of”& website (The archive of letters on the website is huge.) Background As you may have noticed, the folks that contribute to this site have been putting together ideas dedicated to kicking the year off in your classroom. I had to decide whether I would share something related […]
One of the writing teacher’s lesser-known jobs is to calm the writing fears of our gifted and talented students.
When I start to think about a new school year, I have a tendency to mentally skip straight from buying school supplies in August to April — the place where my class is a well-oiled machine of student writers who live and breathe our workshop rhythms. In my mind’s eye, I can see them […]
A challenging, fun, and engaging activity using Hamilton as a mentor text for character and theme analysis.
Mentor Texts: An Open Letter to Taylor Swift From a Disillusioned Fan by Ashley Devine An Open Letter to a Canadian Boy by Sher Maryn LeBay An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton’s Haters by David Hershkovits An Open Letter from Chris Sale’s Jersey to Chris Sale by Joe Schiller Open Letter website Writing Techniques: The […]
Now that it’s officially August, I’m starting to feel what I suspect many teachers feel this time of year—the all too familiar mix of anxiety and anticipation. While I use this time to cross off items on my summer bucket list—beach getaways, sticky popsicles, and poolside naps—I also use summer to reflect on all the […]
Dear readers, We love you. We really do! We love imagining you reading the blog from your classrooms across the country. We love reading your comments & hearing about the new strategies you have tried. We love seeing your tweets. We love meeting you in real life, strangers who aren’t really strangers because they feel like […]
The response to this series of posts about my experiment to give up traditional grading in my senior English class showed us that teachers are searching for a better way to assess student work — a way that helps build relationships and helps students grow. Here, you’ll find links to the three parts of this […]
