“Why are the socs so mean to the greasers?” one student asks. We just finished chapter two of The Outsiders. This is the required whole-class text for seventh grade at our school. We listened to chapter one together to hear the southern voice of Ponyboy, to listen …
I try to keep Fridays a low-tech, relaxed, community day in our class. In reading, that means time to get into groups to discuss books. It’s our third week together, and I want to know how students think, talk, and behave in small groups. I …
Why do I read a book a day? I didn’t become a teacher because I played school as a kid though there were enough kids in our home growing up to do so (eleven of us). I didn’t want to be in charge of anything, …
“And that’s our ‘Read for 15.’ Find a good place to stop and mark your page with a sticky. Make any notes you need to help you pick it up at home,” I say in a low voice, hesitating to interrupt their reading because it’s …
Nameplates help teachers learn the names of students efficiently. Lesley Roessing posted an enhanced version of the nameplate strategy on Ethical ELA last year, which incorporated interest-imagery and art (see example on the right). This year, I opted for flipping the nameplate activity in order to …
Take a good look at this pic. Your eyes do not deceive you. Indeed, that round red tag says “I’m a stroller strap” (and in French, too). But don’t get too excited, I will not be buying a stroller anytime soon. It’s just that, as …
This post is a supplemental resource for a presentation at CCSD15’s Innovation Summit 2017. A. Gathering Activity: In the comment section below, write the title of a book/movie you appreciated/found interesting this summer; the author/director’s name (if you know); and choose one or more of …
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 …
If you are like many teachers on Facebook and Twitter this summer, you are reading a lot of great PD books about collaboration and technology and new methods and the “best” strategies. Maybe you’ve spent your own money on materials for your classroom library (e.g., color-coded …
I grew up in the 80s surrounded by images like Cindy Crawford and Pretty in Pink, which made figuring out what sort of girl I was “supposed” to be rather complicated. On top of that, I grew up with seven sisters ranging in size, shape, interest, and certainly attitude and three brothers who had their own ideas about what a girl “should” be. And as a middle school teacher for over a decade, I see teenage girls and boys navigating a world of gender “shoulds” and trying on a spectrum of gender markers, which is beautiful and painful (at times) to witness. None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio is about an 18 year old girl with AIS (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome), when one’s chromosome make-up does not match the gender to which one identifies or intersex. She questions how she (and her whole school) understand what it means to be a girl.