Source Friends, we made it!! Shocktober is in the rearview mirror and Thanksgiving break can be seen on the horizon. There is nothing I love more than the week leading up to a break for two reasons: 1. Umm… it’s THE break (no cap) and 2. It’s a week full of students coming and going […]
We are ALL too busy and have too much to teach for any classroom routine to only serve one function. Independent reading is a tentpole in many of our classrooms, working to build reading passion and stamina simultaneously. But what if that same independent reading time could do even more? What if it could teach […]
Like most English teachers, my AP Literature and Composition students have a special kind of scorn for AI writing. And it makes sense: They are some of the most skilled writers in the school, and likely they feel threatened by technology that claims to replicate the skill that helped propel them to academic success, often […]
Revision is the vegetable of the writing process. And, as such, we have to build capacity for revision — like building capacity for eating broccoli — by finding ways to sneak it in. I’ve been doing this in quick 10-minute bursts this year that I call Reflection + Revision. Here’s how it works: Here are […]
All writers are vulnerable, but our multilingual writers carry especially vulnerable learning identities that can be complex and enriching. As our school has grown its ELD program, we have had to adjust our instructional tools to best fit these thinkers and writers. It can sometimes feel like we are all novices: teachers and students alike. […]
A few weeks ago, just days after I gave my AP Research students a stern but cautious speech about engaging with ChatGPT, College Board released a much-needed statement of guidance regarding the new variable of AI in the world of research and student writing. The tl;dr is this: Instead of ignoring it or forbidding it, […]
You guys. I am so excited about this. More excited than I’ve been about a project in a long time. I’m currently teaching It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime for the first time. And, to save time and energy and maximize learning, I’m using it as the foundation of my personal essay unit. Which made […]
Every English teacher wants to talk about ChatGPT right now. When I thought about how I wanted to tackle this at Moving Writers, this first person who came to mind is today’s guest writer, my colleague, Philip Tickle. Philip wows and amuses me every day with his ability to use ChatGPT to make his teaching […]
My students came to me from a context where conferences were the times in class when the teacher would give 1-1 feedback to them, i.e., the teacher would list a bunch of things that needed to change by the next conference. I found that they spent most of their Independent Writing Time waiting for a […]
How The American Teenager project got my students talking and helped me get to know them better. Source About this time eight years ago I was searching for help. I had entered the world of education with a parade, waving a banner saying, “Look out students, this teacher is going to change your life!” It […]
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