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 …
“So the speaker is saying that she wishes her mother would have left her courage behind instead of her brooch.Can you relate this poem to another poem or story?” says Jonathan. “Yes, Andy*?” “This reminds me of a movie, Guardians of the Galaxy.” “What makes …
Most days in my junior high and college writing classes we begin with a quick write. I call them “Compose for 7’s” because we write for seven minutes, and our intention is to use that time to compose something that we can get into, explore, …
You carefully modeled complex sentences. You even organized this great activity where you cut large strips of text with subordinating conjunctions and independent clauses. You asked a student to color in 4-inch periods and commas during homeroom. Using their bodies, students created complex sentences with …
Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover and Booked have been popular in my junior high classroom the past couple of years, which got me reading more verse novels and searching for others to recommended to students. This school year, I decided we would uncover just what is …
“So the speaker is saying that she wishes her mother would have left her courage behind instead of her brooch. Can you relate this poem to another poem or story?” says Jonathan. “Yes, Andy*?” “This reminds me of a movie, Guardians of the Galaxy.” “What …
I could feel the fever spiking. And my blood was simmering. It was the week before spring break, and the symptoms of cabin fever among the students were spreading. They’d submitted their final portfolios –letters to parents with hyperlinks to all their learning for the past …
“I would like to compliment Johnny on an unexpected phrase that was, actually, kind of dark. When your narrator said, ‘I had this desire to kill,’ I was like disturbed but intrigued,” said Paul. “Yeah, I know. Dark. I like exploring the dark side in …
“Hi, how are you?” I ask as a student takes a seat beside me. “Fine. You?” he says averting my eyes and looking at his biography narrative lit brightly on my computer screen. We’re sitting in a dark corner of the classroom to discuss the …
Innovation Summit Participants, This post walks you through the process of implementing a story exchange and biographical narrative writing in your classroom, but we are going to actually go through the process together in our workshop, so save this website for later and just click …