In our work with teachers around the country over the past few months, a few themes have emerged: 1) This is the hardest teaching you’ve ever done in your whole life. 2) This is the hardest learning students have ever done in their whole lives. 3) Students seem particularly uninspired. Sitting behind a screen all […]
If finding the words that seem to be stuck in your throat is not finding your voice, then what is?
Everyone is obsessed with true crime lately. True crime podcasts, true crime TV shows, true crime movies, true crime documentaries. I feel like every time I turn around, I see another preview for another true crime series on Netflix. And, here’s the thing, I’m totally down for it. My podcasts, my list on Netflix – […]
(Above is a recording of the following article) If I had a quarter for everytime someone told me that we don’t have time to write in subjects other than ELA I think I might be a millionaire. Writing is such an integral part of every subject area and I am on a mission to make […]
A few weeks ago, I attended a webinar from Matt Glover and Carl Anderson on Writing Workshop. At the end of the webinar, Carl held a live conference with an amazing middle grade student. She wanted some help with her poem about her family’s annual trip to the beach, this summer during the pandemic. “How […]
I’ve received many emails over the past few weeks about my 2014 post on The American Teenager Project, a book by Robin Bowman that showcases hundreds of interviews and photographs of teenagers around the world. In this post, I share how I’ve used this project to kick off writing workshop at the beginning of the […]
Image via Davide Restivo on http://commons.wikimedia.org While designing a short story unit for my AP English literature students this past August, I was eager to identify stories that acknowledged the environmental challenges that we are currently facing. I’ve always had faith in literature’s ability to help us enter into an imaginative awareness of what others […]
Mentor Text: The Connect podcast featuring Jason Concepcion and Shea Serrano Techniques: Summary Introduction Highlighting Resonant Elements of a Text Criticism of a Text Exploring Connections Brainstorming Peer Conferencing Background – Like many of us, spring brought about a shift to remote learning. A regular habit of mine became looking for the silver lining in […]
If you were to get inside my head on my way home from school on a given day, you might hear an internal dialogue that goes something like this… 5th hour was a total mess today. I could just feel a vibe from my students that they were not understanding the argumentative writing technique I […]
I’m finding that meaningful, unpolished support still looks awfully familiar to some of the same things I valued back when the world was normal.
