I have bent under the weight
of it all and
I am yet
unbroken.
Category: Uncategorized
The Conference That Will Change Their Life*
Conferring with writers about their next English class is as important as those writing conferences you love having with them–here’s some ideas for how to make them effective.
A 3D Model for Voice
One of my favorite things about being part of a community of English teachers both in my building and online (Hi Teacher Twitter Buddies!) is that every once in a while this really fun thing happens where a piece of writing gets published somewhere with really powerful voice or a really fun structure and all […]
This Is Letting Go, and This Is Good: A Lesson from Minute Maid (And Megan Kortlandt!)
One of the joys of a rainy Saturday afternoon when all the work is caught up and the laundry rumbles around in the washer or dryer is stretching out on my couch for a little channel surfing. Usually, a commercial break means it’s time to change the channel, but last Saturday, the break began with […]
Of Tweets and Teens
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed by now that I’m as likely to retweet something that entertains me as I am to retweet good educational practices when I see them (I’d argue both are important–one for reasons of my sanity and…actually I guess both of them for that.). Which means, for me, […]
Making Student Voice “Pop”
As English teachers, we often fancy ourselves not just teachers of reading and writing, but keepers of a sacred flame: Culture. For better and worse, we’ve hitched our wagon to both the humanities and the arts and made it our role to help make students both literate and “worldly”. It’s an interesting time to […]
SY 2017-2018 Top Ten: OUR #1 POST LAST YEAR!
Y’all, it wasn’t even close. Doubling the number of views gained by our other most-popular posts is our #1 post from Hattie (@TeacherHattie): “Why This / Not That: A Thinking Routine to Move Kids from Identification to Analysis”. Enjoy! ____________________________________________________________________________________________ One of the biggest challenges in teaching rhetorical analysis is teaching kids to move beyond identification […]
SY 2017-2018 Top Ten: Information Writing That’s Not “The Research Paper”
I think my colleagues have learned not to bring up “the research paper” with me lest I start on a tear about how research is in every kind of writing, and researching is important but research papers aren’t, etc. I really feel strongly about it, though! All writers need to know how to gather and use research, […]
SY 2017-2018 Top Ten: 6 Halloween-Infused Writing Ideas
Halloween in July, anyone? Last October, Allison treated us to six ideas for spooky writing. Make a note in your planner now to pull these out next October — spread them throughout the month! Or, really, use them anytime. Because all the adolescents I know love to be scared! ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Lately my son’s favorite activity […]
SY 2017-2018 Top Ten: In Pursuit of Meaningful Feedback
Last summer, Moving Writers did an Ask Moving Writers series. A question we got again and again dealt with giving hundreds of students meaningful feedback while still teaching. And sleeping. In our 4th most popular post of 2017-2018, Tricia Ebarvia tackles this question! ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Hi, Elizabeth! First, thank you for asking this important question! We […]
moving writers 