Last week, in my Call for Writers, I invited you to join me on Sundays to do some creative writing. People from all over the country responded- Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Texas, and Turkey. Thank you for joining me in …
Book Response: Rethinking Grading by Cathy Vatterott
I think this book is really helpful for teachers rethinking grades. Okay. In Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning, Cathy Vatterott offers a framework for standards-based grading to reflect student progress and learning, and she provides examples from elementary, middle, and high schools. Still, …
Call for Writers: Sunday Stanzas & Stories
In the summer, I do a lot of reading and writing, but as the school year gets going, I gradually replace my personal literary work for the work of the classroom. I spend more time planning lessons, listening to students, and reading student blogs, and …
Book Review: Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
“Last week I cut my hair, bought some boys’ clothes and shoes, wrapped a large ACE bandage around my chest to flatten my fortunately-not-large breasts, and began looking for a new name.” Some reviewers on Goodreads have written that Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger is unrealistic because of …
Nel Noddings: How do teachers encourage student development?
“When we confirm someone, we identify a better self and encourage its development. To do this we must know the other reasonably well. Otherwise we cannot see what the other is really striving for, what ideal he or she may long to make real.” — …
Nel Noddings: What happens when a teacher asks a question?
How do you respond to a student’s response? What do you say that indicates you are hearing the words and the being who is before you? This came up in a higher ed course last term when we were practicing some mini-lessons. It occurred to …
Memoir: The Beautiful Problem of Remembering
When we read literature about lives that seem too distant from our own, how do we minimize our tendencies to “other” the unfamiliar? In the middle school reading classroom, I have found that if we begin with the process of telling our own stories — …
Book Review: Gabi, a Girl in Pieces
When I was in high school, I kept a diary. It was where I spoke my truth, my inner most thoughts, but also where I wrote poems to boys who didn’t even know I existed and dreams for my life beyond the dungeon of my …
Reading as a Witness to Lives Lived by Sarah J Donovan
As teachers, we bear witness to the lives of students every day, and in journals, blogs, seminars, and over lunch, we read the lives of students as well. Because of teachers, students’ stories endure. We are a witness to their lives.