Mentor Text: Up. Dir. Pete Docter. Pixar, 2009. Story is the lifeblood of all good writing. But students don’t realize its power until they are explicitly shown how it works across all genres of writing. An editorial tells the story of an issue. A memoir tells the story of a life. An analysis tells the story of […]
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A Lesson for Tomorrow: Layering Annotations for Richer Writing
As my IB seniors approach their exams — not to mention college life — I want to take these last months of teachable moments to take what they are already doing well and build on it. Push them deeper. Expel the idea that there is ever an “enough” point in their thinking and writing. In […]
Responding to the Writer, Not the Writing
Lucy Calkins’ wisdom about teaching the writer (and not the writing) continues to reverberate decades after the publication of her book The Art of Teaching Writing. Yet many of us do not teach in a way that promotes writers. I know because I was one of them. In the past, I taught writing one composition […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: An Article About Peyton Manning to Teach Supporting Evidence
Mentor Text: “Better With Age” by Chris B. Brown. Grantland.com. 30 January 2014. Writing Technique: Supporting an argument with evidence Background: Truth be told, I am not a sporty girl. Athletic metaphors in the writing classroom do not come naturally to me. Thus, whenever I see one of my favorite cultural institutions write about sports, […]
Guest Mentor Text Wednesday: The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
Today’s MTW post is from a guest, Jennifer Isgitt of Empathic Teacher, whose blog we follow and love! I originally caught this post on her blog and begged to use it for Mentor Text Wednesday. Workshop Genre: Poetry Background: I first learned about The Book of Awesome from my friend Amy, who presented about nonfiction mentor texts at the TCTELA conference […]
When Even Writing Workshop Doesn’t Work
I am almost obnoxious in my whole-hearted evangelism of writing workshop. (Just ask my colleague who has banned the phrase “mini-lesson” from our future conversations.) And still, in all my crowing about the successes of writing workshop, I have to admit something to you. Sometimes it doesn’t work. “Kevin” nods furiously during our writing conferences. […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: Editorial
Mentor Text: Sumter, Kyler. “Solutions for School Stress: Schedule the Workload Better”. The Huffington Post. 17 December 2013. Web. Workshop Genre: Editorial Background: I love using this editorial with students since it is written by a fellow member of their tribe — a sixteen-year-old high school junior. In addition to showing them a living, breathing […]
A Lesson for Tomorrow: Using Art to Teach Repetition in Writing and Reading
Students are great barometers of lesson effectiveness. At the end of each writing workshop genre study, I ask students to reflect on the lessons that had an impact on their thinking and writing. When asked which mini-lesson she found to be the least helpful in our memoir genre study, a student wrote: The mini-lesson I […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: Carol Sherman-Jones’ “A Lesson Not Learned”
Mentor Text: Sherman-Jones, Carol. “A Lesson Not Learned.” I Thought My Father Was God. Ed. Paul Auster. New York: Picador, 2001. 52-53. Print. Writing Workshop Genre: Memoir Background: When asked which mentor text had the biggest impact on their thinking and writing in our memoir genre study, most students credited “A Lesson Not Learned” by […]
A Lesson for Tomorrow: Writing a Persuasive Conclusion
“What do you need more of?” I queried. Within minutes, more than a dozen post-its on my board read: “A mini-lesson on conclusions!” “Conclusions! Please!” “Conclusions — I don’t know what to do! Help!” And these were my IB seniors, still convinced at the end of their K-12 careers that they couldn’t successfully wrap up […]
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