Last year, when deciding to eliminate traditional grading from my classes as much as I was allowed to, one of my big decisions was how to use our online gradebook, which I was required to keep updated throughout each quarter. I believe it was Joy Kirr who made the suggestion to use the comment/note feature… Read More How I’m Using Our Online Gradebook Even Though I’m not Grading
Week Three: We read one more that focused on revision, followed by three titles that related to things students had named the first week when creating a list in response to this question after reading We Don’t Eat Our Classmates: What do we need from each other this year in order to have the best… Read More Weeks 3-4 of Classroom Book-a-Day
I always spend a ton of time planning the first few weeks. It seems like there is way too much I want to do, and I go over my plans again and again, trying to fit everything in without overscheduling. Between introductory activities, establishing the routines of our workshop, writing lessons on process and craft,… Read More A Reflection on the First Three Weeks
This was another four-day week for us with our 7th and 8th graders off campus for our “Unity Day” activities and competitions on Friday. During the first week, each of our books led into a discussion that we were having. This week, each one went along with something that we were doing in either our… Read More Classroom Book-a-Day: Week 2
Last year, I dipped my toe into Classroom Book-a-Day, reading one picture book a week to my seventh graders. I was interested in doing it more often, but for years, we have read and discussed a poem at the start of most classes, kind of Nancie Atwell’s version of Classroom Book-a-Day, and I didn’t want… Read More Classroom Book-a-Day: Week 1
Like many teachers, I have my students fill out surveys at the start of the year in order to start getting to know them as quickly as possible. When I first started doing this, I simply copied the reading and writing surveys Nancie Atwell included in In the Middle. Since then, my surveys have changed… Read More Student Surveys
When I first started teaching, my basic strategy for communicating with parents was to do it as little as possible. I hoped that if I didn’t bother them, they wouldn’t bother me, and I could just teach my students. Obviously, this was not a great strategy. The purpose of this post is merely to share… Read More Introducing Myself and My Class to Parents
When I graduated from college thirteen years ago, I knew what I was against. I knew that many of the staples of the traditional English class didn’t work. I was much less clear, though, on what I was for. That all changed during the summer after my first year of teaching. On the recommendation of… Read More Introduction to Reading Roundtable Discussions, NerdCampMI 2019
Because of the length of this post, I almost split it into two separate ones, but I ended up putting them both together. For those of you who make it all the way to the end, I’d love to know any ideas you have on either topic. One of the many things I love most… Read More My Two Big Questions for This Summer
One of the things I have wrestled with a lot over the years is the best way to assess writing. I believe the most important thing for writers, beyond finding topics and purposes for their writing that matter to them, is that they invest in the process. I want students to put in the work… Read More Trying to Assess a Writer’s Process
