A note about pronouns: “As the editors of the recent editions of the Chicago Manual of Style (2017), the Associated Press Stylebook (2018), and other style guides affirm, the pronoun they is appropriate to use in writing when referring to singular antecedents, including when writing for publication. Unless the gender of …
Today’s blog post serves as an introduction to a new book written for students pursuing a career in education. As a teacher, teacher educator, and writer in education, I found A Student’s Guide to Academic and Professional Writing in Education to be a practical resource …
A six-foot-ish seventh grade student sits with knees pressing the desk nearly off the floor, hunched over his device scrolling up and down to solve the mathematics equations of the new-not-new state test. The once blanket of snow beyond the window over his shoulder is …
How many times have you been frustrated with the writing your students produce? You ask your students to respond to a question, and all you get are sentence fragments or an informal, sometimes a passive retort stating the obvious. Have you ever been disappointed by …
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 …
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 …
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 …