The best student writing & brainstorming technique ever (thank you, Ray Bradbury)
Getting started can be the hardest thing for student writers. It's a little too easy to stare at a blank page. Luckily, there are...
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Empowering Writers
5 min read
5 ways to cut your grading time in half
(and make your students better writers in the process) Let's say you spend three minutes per essay grading 100 essays (and as English...
3,724 views5 comments
4 min read
Using Breakout Rooms to Inspire Young Writers
Mentor texts are my go-to when teaching any genre of writing. When moving to the hybrid model of learning in my classroom this year, I...
2,366 views2 comments
2 min read
Three high impact, low prep lessons for middle school ELA
If you’re like me, this school year feels extra exhausting, and now, we are entering the strange part of the school year with multiple...
2,432 views4 comments
3 min read
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Grading Papers Edition
English teachers: It is time we joined together and found a better way to grade papers. No more giving up weekends piled in papers or...
6,330 views12 comments
2 min read
Secondary ELA Writing Conferences: 4 Essential Tools
Conferencing with student writers can be magical. There is no greater feeling than seeing a student’s creativity come alive or seeing...
1,481 views1 comment
4 min read
3 Ways to Empower Student Writers with Grammar
"Grammar is the skunk at the garden party of the language arts." --NCTE Grammar has had a bad reputation for good reason: most kids don't...
8,034 views1 comment
3 min read
Argument Writing as an Olympic Sport: 4 Steps to Gold Medal Writing
My students used to struggle to find strong evidence to support their claims when writing argument essays. Some would choose the first...
2,477 views0 comments
3 min read
The Ten Minute Teacher Conference
Imagine being able to conference with all of your student writers before they hand in a paper? With revision stations, it’s possible....
2,758 views0 comments
4 min read
Learning Stations
In the past two days, I have conferenced with 89 different student writers, giving feedback on 89 very different narratives. Like all...
2,552 views2 comments
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