Do students in your school write a personal essay of some kind every single year? They do in the three schools I’ve taught in. In fact, narrative writing — especially nonfiction, personal narratives — are perhaps the most ubiquitous piece of writing taught in every school I’ve ever visited. How can we differentiate that — […]
Tag: high school
Get 40% Our New Book + Join Our Book Club!
Our newest book, A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts, 6-12, comes out in just two weeks! For a limited time, you can get 40% off the list price by pre-ordering and entering the code MENTOR at checkout! And if you pre-order, we’d love to have you join our book club! Just email us your payment […]
Discovering Language: Field Guide Entries that Explore the Language That Means the Most
Here’s my first post in this series that will give you some background on Language Field Guides as well the foundation of choice word field guide entries. Language field guides are a place where readers + writers make discoveries about the language they explore. It’s how I approach vocabulary instruction in a way that’s meaningful, […]
First Day of School: Six Word Stories with a Twist
Today’s guest post is from one of Rebekah & Allison’s colleagues, Maria Bartz. Maria is an English teacher at Trinity Episcopal School in Richmond, VA. She loves a clean white board for spontaneous think tank sessions with her inspiring colleagues, a fully charged laptop to explore the ever-growing world of educational technology, and big circle […]
Making Time for Vocabulary Instruction that Matters
Years and years ago, before I had been bitten by the writing workshop bug, I became obsessed with vocabulary instruction. My school used a series of vocabulary workbooks at each grade level, and I had witnessed how that approach didn’t worked. Not for real. Not for the long term. Some students would dutifully memorize the […]
