When was the last time you took a multiple-choice test? For me, the last time I took a multiple choice test to demonstrate mastery was during our beginning of the year compliance training courses (you know, those courses we have to take every year). Here is the real question though: Did it show my mastery […]
Playlists are constantly playing in my classroom and house. But what are the playlist of our lives? In this piece Abigail takes you through the moves of using writing playlists to create meaningful narratives.
“..most long term plans address curriculum, a few good ones address pedagogy; but, most don’t address the single most important data point: what we know and don’t know about ourselves and our students.”
I tell them that just as a good standup comedian can read out of the phone book and make it funny, a good writer can take a dull topic and make it interesting.
Mentor Text: Song of My Speech Impediment by Dawn Macdonald Techniques: Multimedia Text Exploring Metaphor Background -It’s the last week of poetry month for 2021. Like many of us, I read a fair amount of poetry. I subscribe to two different daily poem a day newsletters, so I often wind up reading a poem first […]
“The river’s rhythm runs through my veins. Runs through my people’s veins.” My student unmutes herself in our video conference, identifying these two lines as her favorite in Carole Lindstrom’s We Are Water Protectors. The day before, I had read the book aloud to my students, enjoying the novelty of holding the pages close to […]
Image via Pixabay In my first post of 2021, I introduced the “Teens Take Action” project, my attempt to make research more meaningful and applicable to my students. The goal of the project is for students to examine a social justice issue of their choosing through both a scholarly, academic lens (research) and a human […]
It’s true: six years ago, we wrote another book on mentor texts. So, you might be wondering: what’s new in A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts? How is it different? What will you find there? The answer? SO, so very much. I made a quick little video tour to show you some of our favorite […]
This is a follow-up conversation with Jordan Moog, the AP US History & Grade 9 Global Studies teacher from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. In a previous conversation with Jordan, we focused on the following topics: (1) writing beside her students, (2) time for revision, and (3) how hybrid learning has affected her […]
Recently, my eleventh grade writers have been drafting their own Opinion-Editorials – a student (and teacher) favorite. Writers are tasked to select a topic of recency for an immediate and practical audience: peers, friends, teachers, parents, and/or the local community. Students have a lot of fun and put a great deal heart into this piece, […]
moving writers 