Full confession: I wanted to say something profound, to share some brilliant new teaching strategy that had emerged from my classes over the past month, but as I sit down to write on one of the first sunny days of a very gray February, I’m feeling a little tapped out of great ideas. Like Hattie, […]
Whether you are interested in studying Beyond Literary Analysis on your own, with a teacher buddy, or as a department, we have written a study guide to facilitate your thinking and discussions! You can find it FOR FREE (along with a sample chapter from the book!) on Heinemann’s website!
Writing alongside our students is one of the most important instructional moves we can make – both for our students and for ourselves.
EACH MONTH ON MOVING WRITERS, I try to share something writing-related happening in my classroom that might be interesting or helpful to fellow teachers. As I sat down to write this month’s post, however, news of the Parkland school shooting was just breaking—how 17 individuals died today in yet another mass school shooting. Suddenly the […]
Mentor Text: Swim Your Own Race by Mbali Vilakazi Techniques: Form Purposeful Use of Figurative Language Exploring Clichéd Sports Metaphor Using Contrast Background: I love the Winter Olympics. I’m setting my alarm to get up in the morning before school to watch sports that I normally dismiss. The excitement is so infectious. Especially fun this […]
Around this time every year, I start channeling my inner white rabbit. As of today, I have 3 months until my kids will sit for their end-of-course exams. If you subtract a half week for mid-winter break, a week for spring break, three days for state testing, and another three for a giant field trip […]
Before I leapt into writing workshop years ago, the biggest thing holding me back was my fear of writing conferences. I was so afraid that I wouldn’t know what to say or that I couldn’t help or that a student would bring me a problem I didn’t know how to solve. Years have passed. Now, […]
A nice thing about sharing our remix of our Memoir Study here at Moving Writers has been that it’s been very much a reflective act for me. We’ve just wrapped the semester, and some elements of our memoir work came in as the semester ended. What’s funny about what I’m sharing this time is that […]
One tried and true way I choose mentor texts for my students is to strike while inspiration is hot by building assignments from engaging and effective texts that I stumble upon “in the wild.” Like Michael’s series on Teaching From My Twitter Feed, sometimes the best mentors are the ones that find you. Because it’s […]
Using narrative journalism to explore the nuance of journalistic voice will help students become more savvy news consumers.
