A tough start to the school year combined with the launch of a new unit created the perfect storm to force me to put into writing 3 beliefs that drive me as an educator.
Recently …
Mentor Text Wednesday: Reflecting On the Year’s End
Mentor Text: The Quietus Albums of The Year 2016 Writing Techniques: Writing an Introduction Reflective Writing Background: I sat to write this week’s post with an idea in mind. Alas, it seems impossible for me to operate a browser that has but one tab open, so I opened a couple of websites, and took a […]
On the Power of Choice (Plus a Writing Center Update!)
As you may have noticed from some previous posts, Rebekah’s “What’s the Worst That Could Happen?” has been fueling a number of experiments in my classes this year. Another risk I decided to take was to replace a long-running historical narrative project with a new study of informational texts. The results of this experiment have […]
Video Essays for More Authentic Literary Analysis
Today’s guest post comes from a California teacher that we met at the Southland Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference in October! Noël Ingram currently teaches English 10, Cinematic Arts, and Yearbook at Da Vinci Communications in Hawthorne, CA. She conducted her undergraduate studies in English and Psychology at the University of California, Davis, […]
The Important Thing I Remembered This Week
The last few weeks have been insane. I had the usual chaos of report card time. My wife is an early years teacher, with reports due a week after mine. There were the meetings, marking, planning, teaching and normal joyful chaos of our work. We also have two wonderful children, that add so much to […]
Writers Pay It Forward
Students are great coaches when given the opportunity to mentor younger writers.
Mentor Text Wednesday: Building Eloquence (Using Patrick Henry)
Today’s guest post is from teacher Melissa Surber. Melissa teaches 11th grade College Prep English 1, 12th grade College Prep English 2, and AP Literature and Composition at Troy Buchanan High School in Troy, Missouri, an hour north of St. Louis. She is in her 18th year of teaching and just recently became National Board […]
Metacognition: 3 Questions That Matter
How to use three questions to prompt metacognition
Mentor Text Wednesday: A Transcendent Review
Mentor Text: TV Review – The Walking Dead S05E09: What’s Happening and What’s Going On by Regina Lizik Writing Techniques: Writing Reviews Background: Sometimes, a mentor text sits in your files for a long time. You wait for a need for it, or a reason to pull it out. Sometimes, you’ve saved it knowing that […]
“Teachable Alternatives” to the 5-Paragraph Essay
On Friday morning at the NCTE Annual Convention, I sat in a session that featured Tom Romano, Mariana Romano, and Linda Rief. My hands failed me that session. I simply could not get all the ideas down in my notebook fast enough. One after another, each teacher spoke to the importance of giving kids the […]
