So much of our communication is brief or in passing. Think about quick text messages, Snapchats deleted in seconds, messages limited to characters. While such digital communication is a part of “twenty-first century learning,” so, too, is collaboration within classrooms, in open-concept-cubicle-land offices spaces, over …
This week, I had an idea. It happens sometimes. I am not arrogant enough to think this is an original idea nor have I done the research to be sure it is not already going on somewhere, but I do know that it is not …
Indeed, you read that article correctly. I wrote a “the” and not an “an.” After fifteen years of teaching ELA in junior high and earning a doctorate in English focusing on literature, specifically genocide literature, I think I have found “the” answer. I practice this …
A big aha moment for me as a teacher and human being (we are both) was when I realized that I was the best writing teacher for my students — not graphic organizers or worksheets or packets or textbooks (certainly not anything someone else created).
It’s Friday morning. I am standing on a chair with Christmas lights in one hand and a magnetic clip in the other when a substitute teacher walks in the classroom. “Oh, do you share this room with Mrs. B.? I am her sub.” Startled, I …
“Good morning, everyone. Before we begin our Compose for 7, we are going to spend just a little time reflecting on how we are developing as a writing community,” I say. Students open their writing journals and write the date in the upper right corner …
Please complete the form below to purchase a copy of Alone Together in hardcover for just $15, which is $6 less than Amazon. This price includes shipping in the United States and an autograph. If the book is a gift, please let me know to whom you’d …
Part of teaching for social justice is noticing the “social” in the lives of our students and giving them opportunities to explore the “justice” in those experiences and encounters. In anticipation of Halloween and potential concerns with costume choices, I facilitated lessons on argument writing …
Originally published December 17, 2017. “Hello? Has someone joined the call? Welcome,” my sister says after the musical tone (indicating someone new is on the line) sounds. I giggle and say, “It’s me. Sarah.” “The author!” says my other sister who was already on the …
Our seventh grade class began the final quarter of our year together with a closer look at rhetoric, specifically how a speaker earns the audience’s attention and trust (ethos), how a speaker moves an audience to feel (pathos), and how the speaker persuades and teaches the audience with jargon, facts, examples in the hopes that those who listen will consider the issue in a new way or be moved to act (logos).