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 …
Un-Seating Charts in the Writers’ Workshop
“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 …
ALONE TOGETHER, hardcover, only $15
Please complete the form below to purchase a copy of Alone Together in hardcover for just $15, which is $6 less than Amazon. This price includes shipping in the United States and an autograph. If the book is a gift, please let me know to whom you’d …
Argument Research Projects: Halloween Costumes and Social Justice in 7th Grade
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 …
Writers Need Feedback (well, this one does)
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 …
Rhetoric in Spoken Word: Analysis, Response, Writing, and Speaking for Change
Our seventh grade class began the final quarter of our year together with a closer look at rhetoric, specifically how a speaker earns the audience’s attention and trust (ethos), how a speaker moves an audience to feel (pathos), and how the speaker persuades and teaches the audience with jargon, facts, examples in the hopes that those who listen will consider the issue in a new way or be moved to act (logos).
Let Your Students Teach the Class
“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 …
Almost 100 Quick Writes
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, …
Sticky Revisions
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 …
“Gifted” by Sue Weinstein
A few evenings ago, I posted the following message on my Facebook page: Educators: Stop filling “gifted” students’ heads with biases against “regular” students. The problem is yours, and you’re infecting children with it. Comments immediately popped up. One woman wrote that this had happened …