Archive

As a writing teacher, I’m sure your students write a lot, right? But how often do you give them time to ‘make’ their writing? How often do you let them get lost in the ‘parts’ of writing instead of merely plugging out draft after draft? How often do you let them create? In this Facebook […]

If there’s one thing I know about mastery, it’s that experts master the basics first before building upon them… Some of the finest athletic coaches will agree–including Vince Lombardi, former head coach of the Green Bay Packers and arguably one of the greatest football coaches of all time: ‘become the best in the league at […]

The art of summarizing is a lot harder than it sounds, but it’s an essential part of the note taking process… Being able to effectively summarize information will help students expeditiously unpack their research to the reader.   To this end, I’d like to share a few useful activities for teaching summary-writing with your scholars. Tweet […]

IMPORTANT NOTE: I originally wrote this post when I was pioneering several brand new,advanced-level curriculums being made available to high school students: AP Seminar, AS Level Global Perspectives & Research, and AS Level English General Paper.  And though I will mention these course names during the course of this post, it shouldn’t be off-putting if […]

Quarter 1 has a lot to do with getting your students acquainted with global issues, filling the “blank slate”–so to speak—with those basics that’ll lay the groundwork for deeper research later. While it’s true you simply can’t cover every contemporary and/or controversial issue out there, you do have the Quarter 1 obligation of helping students feel […]

When they first arrive on our doorstep, our students are convinced that they’re masters of argumentation: So confident they are (I say this in love), that when we tell them we’re going to write argumentative essays this year, they challenge our very intelligence and purpose altogether: “‘Persuasive,’ Miss, you mean persuasive essays.  We learned those in middle school.” …to which […]

August finishes out a season of rest and respite for the teachers of the world and invites a period of rejuvenation to follow.  It’s a time when spirits are high, and a fresh white board is waiting for us to color it with our trade.  It’s also the time we begin our ceaseless search for new ideas […]