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Category: Writing Workshop
Author Study: A Way for Students to Reflect at the End of the Year
Source The end of the school year is here and I could not be more excited. I am not sure how you have been feeling this year, but this has not been my banner year. In fact, Taylor Swift’s Anti-hero – “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me”- has definitely felt like the era […]
The Value of Water: A Real-World Research Project
If you’ve read any of my articles before or know me as a teacher, you know I try to provide authentic, real-world experiences in my classroom whenever I can. I love when I have the opportunity to make some cross-curricular connections between ELA and other content areas, especially if the topic is applicable to life […]
Build Your Bookshelf: Young Adults Literature and Their Maps
Kelly E. Tumy is a consultant in Texas, former president of TCTELA, one of five editors of the journal English in Texas. She was a 20-year high school English teacher, 8-year district coordinator, and a 6-year county-wide curriculum director. You can find out more about Kelly here or connect with her on Instagram @kellyreads_tx What draws your attention […]
A Peek into this Summer’s Camp Rewrite
Nearly eight years ago, I heard Rebekah O’Dell speak at a conference here in Los Angeles, and I was immediately struck by something. She didn’t sound like most keynote speakers. Instead of staging some sort of expertise, she was sharing her enthusiasm. As she talked about the possibilities that could be found with bursts of […]
A New Tilt on Art Can Spark Earth Day Conversations
Planning for Earth Day conversations can give educators pause. In the attempt to create a sense of urgency for climate action, we might decide to subject our students to a parade of dire statistics. This onslaught of information can have the opposite effect: instead of moving students from inaction to action, we can inadvertently move […]
Writing into the Eclipse
There are so many wonderful eclipse resources out there but this month I wanted to put a resource in your hands of some pretty beautiful writing that you can invite in your own classroom. Being that it is April, what a time to celebrate our beautiful nature with poetry. And while nature is doing […]
Getting Sneaky With Research: Zines as an Essay Alternative
When we think of research writing, we often think of the laborious, quarter-long essay projects that often scare our students. And while there is value in teaching our students to use research that culminates in an academic essay, the truth is that not all research writing looks that way. My students have been doing infographics […]
A Guide to Informational Writing Genres
Standards and pacing guides dictate the modes of writing students need to do in a given school year: informational writing, persuasive writing, argumentative writing, narrative writing. But these documents aren’t as good at sharing what that should actually look like. That — what modes of writing look like in the wild — is genre. The […]
Borrowed Forms, Borrowed Shells: The Hermit Crab Essay
Lately, I’ve been interested in what educators do to invite playfulness in the classroom. When we create conditions for playful experimentation, we can lower the stakes for communicating about a serious topic. In fact, we may lower an entire drawbridge, allowing students to enter into an imaginative space previously regarded as a formidable realm, where […]
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