All writers are vulnerable, but our multilingual writers carry especially vulnerable learning identities that can be complex and enriching. As our school has grown its ELD program, we have had to adjust our instructional tools to best fit these thinkers and writers. It can sometimes feel like we are all novices: teachers and students alike. […]
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Personal Narrative Webinar TONIGHT!
It’s not too late to register to join me TONIGHT (Wednesday, 10/25) at 7:30 pmEST to chat personal narrative writing. We’ll think about differentiation within your department or grade level team AND within your classroom. There will be time for Q&A, and you’ll walk away with an 18-page guide to teaching personal narrative writing filled […]
AI and I…and My Young Researchers
A few weeks ago, just days after I gave my AP Research students a stern but cautious speech about engaging with ChatGPT, College Board released a much-needed statement of guidance regarding the new variable of AI in the world of research and student writing. The tl;dr is this: Instead of ignoring it or forbidding it, […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: The Sea Glass Collector
Mentor Text: The Sea Glass Collector by Lawrence Maxwell Techniques: Background – As we move further into the post-pandemic reality of education, a lot of things are going back to normal. For some of us, that means we’re returning to government mandated assessments. (Ugh. That sounds awful – I was trying to find a way to […]
A Writing Teacher’s Guide to Personal Narrative Writing
You guys. I am so excited about this. More excited than I’ve been about a project in a long time. I’m currently teaching It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime for the first time. And, to save time and energy and maximize learning, I’m using it as the foundation of my personal essay unit. Which made […]
Hacking Teaching with ChatGPT
Every English teacher wants to talk about ChatGPT right now. When I thought about how I wanted to tackle this at Moving Writers, this first person who came to mind is today’s guest writer, my colleague, Philip Tickle. Philip wows and amuses me every day with his ability to use ChatGPT to make his teaching […]
Quick Lesson: What is a Writing Conference?
My students came to me from a context where conferences were the times in class when the teacher would give 1-1 feedback to them, i.e., the teacher would list a bunch of things that needed to change by the next conference. I found that they spent most of their Independent Writing Time waiting for a […]
It’s complicated… but does it have to be?
How The American Teenager project got my students talking and helped me get to know them better. Source About this time eight years ago I was searching for help. I had entered the world of education with a parade, waving a banner saying, “Look out students, this teacher is going to change your life!” It […]
Sparking Writing with Photography
This post is all out using students photography to generate writing juices in the classroom
Instant Mini Lessons: Using Student Writing Samples in Revision
Don’t you love it when, as a teacher, you can make yourself obsolete? That’s exactly what I intended to do in my first writing project of the year. In conjunction with The New York Times Coming of Age in 2023 contest, I wanted my students to write a scene about their lives where the reader […]
