Audio files of students’ discussions are artifacts of evidence, evidence of thinking and making meaning that is difficult to capture in a written assignment or test.
A Letter Home about “Grades”
It is the end of my second quarter minimizing grades and focusing on feedback. Here is the letter I emailed to parents explaining what the letters mean for our reading class on the grade reports going home today. 7th Grade Reading Hello, Parents, Guardians, and …
Getting on the Bus by Donalyn Miller
“For the children we serve, we may be their only reading role models. Even when family members read, many parents rely on teachers and librarians to recommend books for their children. If we are charged with fostering children’s literate lives, it follows we should know …
Assessment in the No-Grades Writing Workshop: What did you write? What did you learn?
Write about what we’ve done in writing class since midterm and what you learned. This is the first sentence of the “final exam” in our seventh grade writing workshop this quarter. This school year, as I discussed in last week’s post about assessment in the reading …
“English not only helps us understand the world, but ourselves.”
by Fidan Malikova As a 15 year-old freshmen in high school, I have had quite an experience with writing. I write for the newspapers at my school,which is called Cutlass. It is an amazing experience in which I get to work with such wonderful people, and …
Assessment in the Reading Workshop without Grades: What did you read? What did you do with your reading? What did you learn?
Your assignment is a 2nd Quarter Summary blog post to me and your parents about what you’ve learned and how, using the standards and evidence from class. That is the first line of the “final exam” I wrote for our second quarter, seventh grade reading class. …
Review: Rage
Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler My rating: 2 of 5 stars I applaud the author in taking on cutting and representing the compulsion in such detail. I think some parts may be triggers for readers, so read with caution. I struggled with the apocalypse horsemen …
Review: One-Handed Catch
One-Handed Catch by M.J. Auch My rating: 4 of 5 stars Loved Norm and feel blessed to know so many students who have Norm’s compassion for himself and for others. It is beautiful to read about a family communicating, noticing each other’s struggles and triumphs …
Write into Your Life’s Arguments (a Personal Argument Essay)
Narrative, argument, informational. We may teach these genres as though writing can be contained in just one of these forms in part because that is how the Common Core State Standards segregate writing. I can’t imagine writing an informational piece without someone’s story to add …
Letting Literature do the Work: How I Started an Inclusive Literature Workshop
I have taught middle school ELA for over a decade. My first year, I tried Nancie Atwell’s reading workshop model. My second year, I tried it again. I struggled to implement Atwell’s model. I followed her guide from In the Middle, but there seemed to …