tweenteacher.com

This weekend I'm presenting at the CATE conference in Santa Clara, CA.  It's a session on developing high level, critical-thinking commentary in expository writing.  My feeling is that great commentary is the Voice in Expository, it is the Show, Not ...

Every year, I do this activity when teaching Narrative Plot.  I've used it from 3rd grade to 12th grade.  I learned a version of it first in 1993 at a UCLA Extension class on "Teaching Reading to Secondary Students" and ...

An (aspiring) Educator is hosting this week's Carnival of Education #178.  I've tweaked my How to Take Control of Your Teaching list and although it's still in an evolving state, you can read it here.  Enjoy the Carnival and the ...

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you get a student who gives you a mug at the end of the school year. Sometimes, you even get a letter of thanks on a Teacher Appreciation Day.  And then there are the times (maybe) ...

Here is a short Oral Presentation Rubric that I developed for my Teach the Teacher unit.  Haven't used it yet, but the students have heard all the terms and definitions before. I'll hand one out to each of the students to ...

As I teach Narrative, I eventually get to the proper rules of Dialogue.   In their Writer's Notebook, they take notes on the following PowerPoint by writing down the numbered rules.  They generally don't copy down the entire example.  It's meant ...

I loved Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant.  Let me say it again: I loved this book.  It's edgy, dark, and hilarious.  I haven't read a vivid character like this is a long time.  Skulduggery is in one breath a rapscallion, a ...

 Here's how I have set up this lesson:    Having been trained in the America's Choice Writer's Workshop as well as History Alive, I have my students keep a Writer's Journal with a running Table of Contents.  This is a journal that ...