Remember that Family Guy bit where Stewie is begging to get Lois’s attention by doing that lovable and annoying and relentless thing children do? “Lois! Lois! Lois! Lois! Lois! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mama! Mama! Mama! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Mum! Mum! Mum! Mum! Mummy! Mummy! Mumma! Mumma! Mumma!” Of course, Lois replies, […]
Mentor Text: Barney Frank & Frederick Law Olmsted excerpts from Nick Offerman’s Gumption Writing Techniques: Integrating quotations into writing Essay Writing Voice Highlighting an Opinion or Personal Connection Background: The thing about being a teacher on the lookout for mentor texts is that you never know where that inspiration will come from. Pretty much every […]
A few weeks ago, I came across a post on the Teaching and Learning Forum on the NCTE website. The conversation centered around the usefulness—or the lack of usefulness—of the five-paragraph essay. Comments varied, with many teachers chiming in with their thoughts, both fervently for and against the form. I spent the first five years […]
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We certainly appreciate you, loyal readers, and all you do every single day to do the hardest, most noble, and most wonderful job in the world! Our friends at Heinemann are offering an amazing deal this week — use the code UTEACH to get 30% off your purchase AND free shipping! What better […]
Bring sketching into your workshop to help students visualize details and reflect on the writing process.
Mentor Text: Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska Writing Techniques: Lyrical Analysis Academic writing of analysis Looking at tone and mood Looking at voice Writing lyrical poetry Writing narrative poetry Pairing writing with other creative work Background: Recently, I found myself thinking about dream projects. Like many teachers, I have some crazy ideas rolling around the ol’ noggin. […]
Sticky notes and index cards can help overwhelmed writers take things bit by bit.
Before mentors texts became the flexible frame onto which I could hang all of my writing instruction, I had nothing to do with all of the cool articles I stumbled across. When I found a piece of writing that connected with my curriculum, I would most often say, “Hey! Cool!”, print it or clip it, […]
Mentor Text: WFM: Allergic to Pine-Sol, Am I the Only One by Melissa Barrett Writing Techniques: Poetry (specifically found poetry) Manipulating existing text for creative purposes Critical Thinking Creative response Editing The importance of a title Background: In the spirit of Poetry Month, I decided to commit the remainder of April’s columns to poetic mentor […]
Like Rebekah, Allison, and probably many of you, I am a big fan of Kelly Gallagher’s work. In fact, a colleague and I structured our freshman curriculum to mirror the writing scaffold in his book Write Like This: our first freshman writing assignments encourage students to “express and reflect” in personal narratives, assignments throughout the […]
moving writers 