I love a lot of things about books, obviously. But one thing I especially love is the way a novel can provide an accessible, relatively safe entry point into a difficult topic. This year, I added Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s acclaimed novel All American Boys to the eighth grade English curriculum at my school…. Read more »
Posts Categorized: Resources for Teachers
Read Alouds: Fall 2015
This past week, a service day and some standardized test taking interrupted our regular school schedule, so I didn’t get to teach my normal classes for a couple of days. When the schedule got back to normal, I wasn’t at all surprised by the question that many of my students asked: “Are we doing read… Read more »
Takeaways from Last Year’s Author Events
Now that school is about to start up again, I’m reflecting on the author events we did last year and what I learned from new things we tried. We had some exciting virtual and in-person visits, and my main takeaways from our events may be helpful for others, too, so here’s what I came up with. Preparing and… Read more »
Relating to a book vs. liking it: A(nother) case against “girl books” and “boy books”
At the end of lunch a couple of weeks ago, a group of seventh grade students called me over to their table to tell me that they’d been talking about our read-aloud novel, Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead, which will come out this August, and they had a suggestion. On double period days, we should… Read more »
Why Teach Analytical Writing?
Welcome back for the final installment of my series on teaching analytical writing. If you’re new to the series, you can check out my series introduction, which provides some context, and the next three posts in which I explained how I break down the essay writing process to teach analytical paragraphs, thesis statements and topic sentences,… Read more »
Teaching Analytical Writing: Introductions and Conclusions
Now that I’ve described the way I teach students to write the core of an essay (by constructing an essay skeleton and crafting TIQA paragraphs), I’m ready to discuss the last two essay elements: the introduction and conclusion. Yes, the introduction comes first, and when I write my own essays, I usually start with it…. Read more »
Teaching Analytical Writing: Essay Skeletons
Hi there! I’m back with the third installment of my series on teaching analytical writing. Last time, I explained the TIQA paragraph, which I see as the building block of an analytical essay, and described how I give students a lot of practice writing analytical paragraphs before moving onto essays. When it’s time to move… Read more »
Teaching Analytical Writing: The TIQA Paragraph
Welcome back to my series on teaching analytical writing! Before I assign an analytical essay, I give students plenty of practice with the main building block of an analytical essay: the analytical body paragraph. I’ve tried a few different acronyms for the analytical paragraph format, such as PIE (point, illustration, explanation) or TEE + T… Read more »
Teaching Analytical Writing Series
Ah, the analytical essay. Whether it’s five paragraphs or not, whether it’s called an essay or a paper or even a “theme,” it’s pretty much the default major assignment in high school and even college English classes. Because I teach middle school, and because I work at an independent school, I have quite a bit… Read more »
Reading Aloud in a Middle School English Classroom
The other day, I read Joe McGee’s powerful blog post about being the kind of hero who doesn’t need a cape: the kind of understated hero who reads books aloud to kids. I recommend reading the post in its entirety, but in one part of it, Joe describes reading to one of his three sons: “I sit… Read more »
An Inspiring Author Visit with Eliot Schrefer
It’s a logistical challenge to coordinate an author visit. Especially if the author is coming in from out of town and presenting to multiple groups. And especially especially when there’s a snow day on the originally scheduled date. So it’s really saying something that Eliot Schrefer’s author visit on February 20th was worth the logistical… Read more »
Exceeding My Expectations: A Great Author Visit at a Hectic Time
Last Friday morning as I was having breakfast before school, I read this blog post entitled “The Paradoxical Extremes of Middle Grade Students: A Holiday Memory,” and I teared up a bit. In the post, Braden Bell, a choir director and author, describes his experience with a talented but silly group of eighth graders and… Read more »
“Why are we allowed to read this…?”
Pretty soon, I’ll post the final installment of my series on engagingly fallible first-person narrators, but in the wake of Banned Books Week last week, I wanted to post something else while it’s fresh in my mind. After A.S. King visited my school last spring and gave three amazing presentations to grades 7-9, several students… Read more »
Highlights from A.S. King’s Author Visit
The past week has been a busy one for me. On Saturday night, I returned from the 8th grade class trip to New Mexico, where we visited ruins and living pueblos, ate delicious New Mexican food, and saw breathtaking sights. And the day before we left, the inspiring and entertaining A.S. King came for a… Read more »
Excited about E-Books: An Author Visit from Andrea J. Buchanan
Most writers I know are a little bit wary about e-books. Some duck their heads and smile apologetically when they admit that they kind of like the Kindle they broke down and bought. Many seem worried about what electronic publishing means for independent bookstores and the future of the book as we know it. Not… Read more »
Middle School Girl Culture Mini-Course
Now that I’ve made it through the first week back from spring break, I’m finally getting around to writing about something that happened just before vacation: a two-day “Middle School Girl Culture” mini-course that included a successful Skype visit and other fun events. My friend and colleague Maureen and I led a course for fifteen… Read more »
The Value of Failure?
For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about the value of failure. Sounds counterintuitive, I know. But last week, I went with the other teachers at my school to the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference for a day. I expected lots of information about how we can set our students up to… Read more »
Short, Fun Projects to Energize Student (and Adult) Writers
I’m working my way through the first seasons of Dr. Who, and last night I watched an episode called “The Girl in the Fireplace.” In that episode, the Doctor passes through time windows to 18th century France to protect a young woman being stalked by extremely creepy looking clockwork droids. For the Doctor, only a… Read more »
How Structured Writing Assignments Can Unleash Creativity
In July of 2011, I was beginning the third semester of my MFA program, and I had some very definite goals. I was going to start a new teaching job, so I knew the first few months of the school year would be especially busy. To make the beginning of the year more manageable, I… Read more »
Skyping with a True Pro
Last Thursday afternoon, thirty-nine seventh graders crowded into my classroom. I handed them index cards with the questions they’d prepared ahead of time, signed on to Skype, and set up the projector. Soon, Kate Messner’s face appeared on the screen, and we began our virtual author visit. The day before, we’d finished Capture the Flag,… Read more »