Browsing Category
In my pre-teaching life, I studied journalism and did freelance work for different publications, including writing editorials. I love reading and knowing the news and I think it’s important to know about the world around us. So when I turned to teaching as a career, it was important to me to incorporate news and media …
“Needs more elaboration. Add details.” How many times have you written those words when grading student papers? Teaching students how to elaborate on their thoughts and in writing can be a challenge, but there are a few simple strategies I’ve used that can make your job easier. Elaboration in writing means to choose and add …
Writing is hard. Teaching writing is even harder. For some, it comes naturally. For others, it is quite a struggle. My favorite writing strategy is using a joint construct to help students understand what I am expecting in their writing. What is a joint construct? Let’s start from the beginning. A joint construct is when …
As we learned (and educators already knew) from the pandemic, schools play a critical role in a student’s life. They are a place of learning, socializing, and even celebrating. Celebrating the holiday season in schools has so many advantages – it allows students to connect with one another, explore different cultural traditions, and build an inclusive environment.
Over the years, my students have had some of the most imaginative and original creative writing ideas, but they often have difficulty finding the right words to express these ideas in a way that allows the reader to fully immerse themselves in their literary worlds. Incorporating activities for students to practice infusing imagery into their …
Engaging middle school students in the creative writing process can be a challenge. Often, emphasis is placed on non fiction and essay writing skills. Because of this, creative writing is often pushed to the wayside. However, providing students opportunities to practice creative writing strategies is crucially important. In Writing: Teachers and Children at Work, Donald …
If you’re looking for an engaging way to get your students writing daily while supporting your students’ Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), give daily gratitude writing a try. What is Gratitude Writing? Gratitude writing is simply the practice of spending time each day physically writing down the things we’re grateful for. Some people use bullet lists, others …
Over the years, Sami has tried to use a variety of classroom routines to help students know what is coming: taped areas on the whiteboard, paper signs at the door, verbal reminders, folders with classwork, and more to help students be more organized throughout the year. For the past few years, she has consistently been …
Icebreakers and community building activities can be fun… so fun, in fact, that it can be easy to get carried away. If you’re like me, there’s been more than a few years you’ve made it to week 3 only to realize your way behind on your pacing guide. One of my favorite ways to build …
I think we can all agree that poetry can be intimidating for students AND teachers! But I think that might be because we keep it hidden away. Students don’t see or read or study poetry often so it just isn’t familiar and therefore can’t be comfortable. So the question is how do we add poetry into …
