Best Practices in Writing Instruction Writing Like Readers, Reading Like Writers Nicole Godard · HCSS Best Practices Over the last decade, I have tried every trick in the book to help demystify the complex work of writing for my students. Graphic organizers, sentence frames, miscellaneous acronyms… I’ve tried them all. Students would dutifully attempt to give me what I asked …
If you’ve ever spent any time trying to get students to read complex texts, whether it’s a poem, a novel, a primary source document, or an informational article, you’ve probably run into the same frustrating truth: it’s not just about understanding what the text says. It’s about what the text means, and to figure that out, the students need to …
To Read Well, Students Have to Know Things: Why Prior Knowledge Matters Read More »
It’s May again, which means that in many high schools, the end of the term is rapidly approaching. At the end of every grading period, the same conversation starts making the rounds in teaching circles, on social media, in the teacher’s lounge, all sharing a similar anecdote: “So-and-so just turned in work weeks after it was due!” “So-and-so finally decided …
It’s early May, deep in the heart of testing season. Twenty-two middle school students sit at desks arranged in a half circle closed just tightly enough so they see each other and the question displayed on the board at the front of the room: “Are cell phones making people less intelligent?” A student surges to his feet behind his desk, …
Let Them Talk: Making Space for Student Conversations in the Classroom Read More »
Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop at Westfield State University all about teaching writing in the age of Artificial Intelligence. In addition to myself and Mr. Kvarnstrom, the room was filled with English Language Arts teachers from all over Western Mass, everything from second and third-grade elementary teachers to first-year composition professors, all of us …
Last year, in a writing conference conducted over Zoom, a student confessed in her college essay draft that she’s “always been afraid to tell people about where [she] lives.” She went on to reveal that she lived in a trailer park, a fact that she had managed to conceal for most of her life until the pandemic brought her classroom …
Note: The following blog post follows the design elements of Jim Burke’s ideal assignment sheets. For examples of assignment sheets written in this format, feel free to email me! The 6 Academic Writing Assignments, Jim Burke Overview Jim Burke’s most recent book focuses on reconceptualizing writing assignments from a different point of view, one that takes into account not only our …
The 6 Academic Writing Assignments – And Assignment Sheets that Make Sense Read More »
The world ended, but we’re still here. 2020 certainly felt like the end of the world as the very fabric of our lives and communities was torn apart by the coronavirus, but here we are, coming to the end of the most challenging school year of our lives. As a fragile hope begins to creep its way back into our …
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to attend an excellent keynote speech from Douglas Fisher, a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and big wig in literacy pedagogy. He introduced us to a fun strategy for engagement that has now become a staple of my online teaching. Even now, I’m searching for ways to incorporate …