Mentor Text: the series of poems about turning different ages from Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renee Watson Techniques: Background – This post almost didn’t happen. Between different events, field trips and weather closures, I’m in one of those times where as a teacher you feel absolutely overwhelmed and ineffective. I’m pretty flexible, but we’re […]
When I read nonfiction, I usually read through two lenses: a reader interested in the topic and a writer interested in the craft. I’m pretty much always on the hunt for those little gems that give both student and teacher writers a glimpse at what writing for authentic audiences and purposes can look like. The […]
Standards and pacing guides dictate the modes of writing students need to do in a given school year: informational writing, persuasive writing, argumentative writing, narrative writing. But these documents aren’t as good at sharing what that should actually look like. That — what modes of writing look like in the wild — is genre. The […]
Mentor Text: Tuning In by Rick Rubin Techniques: Background – When you’re talking to friends, and that old hypothetical classic, “What would you do if could have any career in the world?” comes up, I’m pretty boring. There’s not much I think I want to do except what I do. I know it’s cliched to call […]
Lately, I’ve been interested in what educators do to invite playfulness in the classroom. When we create conditions for playful experimentation, we can lower the stakes for communicating about a serious topic. In fact, we may lower an entire drawbridge, allowing students to enter into an imaginative space previously regarded as a formidable realm, where […]
Source If you teach a tested subject like me, February seems to be the month that everyone starts becoming “invested” in what you are doing in the classroom and how it is preparing our students to pass their TEST. This time of year students are taking “field tests” and “benchmark tests” in addition to […]
Questioning strategies are a passion of mine. I’ve been doing some research into what academics call dialogic talk and what teachers call questioning for the better part of 25 years. Thinking about your classroom, I want you to consider the layered and nuanced dimensions purposeful questioning can take in your classroom. First-Write Them Down Do […]
Mentor Text: Things to do Around Winnipeg when you’re Black by Michael Fraser Techniques: Background – I’m drafting this at the end of the second day of the second semester. That means I’ve survived the madness of the end of the first semester, exam week, marking everything and getting the report cards done. And, I’ll be […]
At the beginning of December, a local high school reached out and asked to come into our school to shadow our writing center and ask questions. They were interested in beginning their own center. It was a career-long dream of their English department chair, much like it was for my own department coordinator when we […]
Mentor Text: Emile Nelligan by Carmine Starnino Techniques: Background – Whenever I’m near a magazine rack that carries it, I grab a copy of The Feathertale Review. Though I grabbed my first issue because the cover illustration featuring a monkey was silly, I’ve come to love the offbeat approach to being a literary magazine that it […]
moving writers 