In a reading workshop, students often read their own books at their own pace, books that they choose themselves. While there is space for this kind of independent reading in AP Lit, whole class novels are also important. Discussion surrounding … Continue reading
This will have to be quick. I need to get some other writing done. But there was a moment this week with my AP Lit students that really clarified why I don’t put grades or points on my students’ writing. … Continue reading
I’ve had this post on my to-do list for months. To be honest, this is the piece of this whole process that I have the most questions about, so I just kept putting off writing it. I’m in a book … Continue reading
We were lucky this year to be able to do two presentations. Today’s was about surviving teaching. We intended an interactive session where our attendees talked more than we did. We wanted them to have space for conversation about … Continue reading
I got to the point last Tuesday while watching election returns that I couldn’t focus anymore on what was unfolding on the US maps the news commentators kept describing, so I wrote a few emails, shopped for some new running … Continue reading
Finished the presentations today. Nothing I saw changed my thoughts from my initial opinion. Which reminded me of a pedagogical principle: if you need to ‘grade’ or assess a piece of work, you need to read every student’s work. If … Continue reading
I was sitting in class today, listening to the sixth of seventeen group presentations I will hear in the next three days. They were pretty much bad. Not bad in the inarticulate way, but bad in the ‘we’re going through … Continue reading
Every spring, I survey my students somehow about their experience in my class so I can work to improve for the following year. This year and last year I landed on a format for this survey that has yielded some … Continue reading
Seems I’m on the hunt for the perfect online home for my classroom. Last summer I wrote with great excitement about my move to Schoology from a Google Site as the home base for my classroom. I had been using … Continue reading
In my incremental movement toward a high school reading/writing workshop classroom, one piece I’ve struggled with is the classroom library. I see photos of Penny Kittle’s classroom library, and I get anxious to create the same for my students. I … Continue reading
