Beginning the Action Plan: Using YA Literature to Ignite Student Passion for Research

Image via Pixabay In my last post, I discussed a new approach I am taking to research writing this year.  Instead of the traditional essay, I opted to go with a semester-long exploration of a social justice issue through multiple angles, with a research component being one of those angles.  To review, Hope Kasten, my […]

Genius Hour + Writing Workshop: Do-Overs and Take-Aways

This semester I’ve been chronicling my first-ever experiment with Genius Hour and its intersection with the regular machinations of our writing workshop. You can catch up on the other posts in this series before diving into this wrap up!  ________________________________________________________________________________________ Genius Hour, and the school year, are almost over. My students are writing their final […]

Genius Hour + Writing Workshop: Broadening the Definition of “Research”

This semester I’m sharing my experiment with bringing Genius Hour into my writing workshop. You can catch up on the rest of the series here. I don’t have many crystal-clear high school English class memories, believe it or not, but one of them is sitting in the library with my 11th grade class, a stack […]