Writing Instruction that Works

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet year after year, teachers continue to rely upon writing

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Summer Olympics: Keeping Students Engaged in the Waning Days of School

I hadn’t stopped speaking before the glares began. Angry face after angry face greeted my words.   I was thrilled.  Why was I so happy that my students were

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Encapsulate Your Learning: Time Capsules in the ELA Classroom

In December 2021, historians in Richmond, Virginia, uncovered not one, but two, time capsules that had been embedded in the base of a Confederate statue. The country watched

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Strong Writers Make Strong Readers

One of the central premises of the upcoming Writing Wednesday series is that by engaging students in meaningful creative writing tasks, we can improve not only their writing

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Being Wrong in all the Right Ways

When I began my journey towards Writing Wednesdays, my educational goal seemed fairly simple: to develop a year’s worth of standards-aligned creative writing lessons that would challenge students

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Writing Revelations: Why Writing Wednesdays are Good for Everyone

In my school district, November is affectionately known as “No School November.” Between election day, a teacher workday, and three recognized holidays, we end up with only one

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Writing Into Winter Break

With only a few weeks to go before Winter Break begins, student engagement often starts to wane. Rather than lament their lack of focus, try shaking things up

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Celebrating Celebration Days

This week marked the first “Celebration Day” – a quarterly Writing Expo – of the school year. Across all of my classes, students came together in their Writing

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Writing Wednesdays: Why We Write

Dedicating every Wednesday to creative writing instruction takes commitment. Rearranging the schedule in order to maintain weekly writing when unexpected events chip away at instructional time takes commitment. Taking

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Who Gets to be a Writer?

Do you consider yourself a Writer?  ___ Yes   ___No  Let’s play a game. Grab a scratch piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Go ahead. I’ll wait. 

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