I have not always identified as a writer. As a child, I was an aspiring writer for sure–I was going to be the next Ann M. Martin….but make it historical. Maybe Babysitters in Bonnets? I’ll admit it needed workshopping. Somewhere in high school, though, I shifted and I became an incredibly efficient student of writing–not […]
In sixteen years of teaching, I have only had less than one handful of students who truly, thoughtfully attended to word choice. It’s gritty and granular — the work of scrutinizing each and every word, turning it over in your mind, considering every other possibility, and landing on the very best word. Few middle or […]
Dear (overly tested subject) teacher, How are you? February in Texas was a rough ride. And, I’ve been thinking about how to support you. I’ve been thinking about the most meaningful thing to write about this month every day to add to the writing resources and ideas for supporting teachers of writing and writers themselves. […]
Things are a little stressful in Texas, where I live. We just survived a snow-pocalypse the likes we’ve not seen in a century. Many of us had power outages, no internet, no water, or busted pipes, and this was just during the week of SNOVID! That doesn’t include all of the trials of the aftermath. […]
Have you heard of the Important Book? Margaret Wise takes us through a mentor text that will help your students engage in a rich vocabulary centered writing lesson and ask themselves.. what is the most important thing? [Perfect lesson to take writing out of the ELA classroom and into math]
As I endeavored to practice what I learned, I found that conferences with a few of my students were more difficult than the most difficult examples in the books. I was stumped by blank stares and students who said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying,” or “Ok, but what should I do now?”
It’s good for us as writing teachers to try our hand at some form of writing on a regular basis. It can teach you a lot. I think we English teachers sometimes have an urge to make our student writers perfect writers… RIGHT NOW. We sometimes feel that too many errors mean they can’t write. […]
Image via Pixabay If you found yourself clicking on this article, you probably don’t need a lecture on why the traditional “research paper” is problematic and downright painful to teach. My biggest reason for wanting to ditch it? The lack of passion. The lack of passion students have about writing it, the lack of passion […]
Mentor Text: ‘Vergence’ by Tracy Deonn From From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back Techniques: Point of View Fan fiction as storytelling Background – In our house, it is a Christmas tradition that everyone gets new jammies and a new book on Christmas Eve. This year, as requested, I unwrapped the Empire Strikes […]
A little while back, a dad took to social media to pat himself on the back about the lesson he’d taught his daughter when she wanted to open a can of beans but didn’t know how to use the can opener and the Twitterverse collectively cringed. In case you were lucky enough to miss it, […]
