Welcome to the Podcast
Empower Students Now
What does workshop actually look like in a secondary classroom?
I get a lot of emails every week asking a wide range of questions. One question that seems to come up over and over again is, what does workshop...
Your First Mini Lesson of the School Year: How Workshop is Like Playing Fortnite Battle Royale
There are so many things we need to accomplish the first week of school. We need to get to the content but we also need to teach students about how...
Life Changing Podcasts and Books for Teachers
Teaching is such a demanding job that requires constant energy. And when school ends abruptly it can leave us feeling empty and looking for ways to fill the void. Here is a big lists of podcasts and books that can help!
Noise Levels in the Workshop Classroom: What They Are, How to Teach Them & How to Hold Students Accountable to Them
Kids love to talk to each other, they are human and humans are social! In a classroom of thirty plus secondary students how can we balance allowing...
5 Common Distracting Student Behaviors During Writing Workshop & What to do About Them
Teaching writing is so hard! There are many reasons why, but one of the main reasons is distracting student behavior! With a plan in place, your...
How to Write Your Own Mini Lessons
Teachers are busy and don’t have time to go looking for mini lessons. If you do have time, here are The Best Places to Find Mini Lessons Online. However, if you you don’t have time, like most teachers on planet Earth, then you’ll want to come up with your own mini lessons.
5 Exciting Ways to Introduce Your Writing Unit!
Table of contents: Give Student ChoiceMake it a ContestThrow a PartyPublish Student WritingUse Last Resort TacticsSo you want to excite students...
Places to Find Mentor Texts That You May Not Have Thought Of!
The phrase “mentor text” is pretty new. Ralph Fletcher, a guru in the writing instruction world defines mentor texts as, “Any writing that you can learn from…”, this definition is so satisfying. It’s satisfying because often, one of the biggest challenges about being a writing workshop teacher is finding mentor texts. But, this definition opens a plethora of texts up to us.
5 Fun Activities to do with Your Students the Day After Coming Back from a Long Break
Coming back to school after having two weeks off (or the summer off) can be really rough for students and teachers. The last thing anyone wants to do is get right back to work the first day back. It’s important for us to reconnect with our students, have some fun and listen to what they’ve been up to the last few weeks/months. Here are five activities that can help you do just that!
I’m More than an English Teacher
Don't have time to read? I received an email recently (I love receiving emails from teachers who read my blog!) asking me a really interesting...
The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Workshop
Many secondary teachers, like you, are beginning to realize the power of running their English classes using writing workshop. Maybe you keep seeing...
10 Ways to Make Grading Writing Easier
Don't have time to read this article? Listen here! Grading hundreds of papers is the bane of an English teacher's existence. Don't get me wrong. I...
Mentor Texts for Middle School by Genre+Summaries and Skills to Teach
Every writing unit should start with mentor texts. Students need many examples of the type of writing we expect them to do. In this article, I've...
Teach Students HOW to Use Mentor Texts
Most writing workshop teachers know what a mentor text is (examples of writing in books, short stories, articles, poems etc.). But, what...
We Need to Stop Neglecting Fiction
Don't Have Time to Read? Fiction writing is neglected in English classes everywhere for many reasons. We don't have enough time. Or we...
What I’m doing the very first day of school might surprise you…and why you should try it too.
I let students socialize the first day of school. Read on to find out why... After reading this important article by Write On with Miss G (which I...
10 Reasons Secondary Teachers Should Try Reading & Writing Workshop
Don't have time to read this article? Listen on iTunes instead! We all have our own curriculum, our own teaching teams, our own way of doing things...
My Students Don’t Write During Writing
Don't have time to read all of this?!?! Listen below:) So, some of your students aren't writing during writing? Maybe they are just sitting there...
Whole Class Novels Reading Workshop Style
English teachers struggle to fit it all in. We want to teach the novels we love while also allowing the freedom and choice that reading workshop provides. Can we do both? Yes! Keep reading to find out how…
First a bit of background about my interpretation of what reading workshop and whole class novel teaching looks like:
Encyclopedia Memoirs: The Best Way to End a School Year!
The end of the school year can be chaotic, so keeping students engaged and having fun is incredibly important. I have used the project detailed here...
5 Simple Ways to Differentiate Writing Instruction in the Middle School Classroom
Teaching writing is tough and differentiating writing instruction is tougher! Student writers have so many varying needs. What do you do when Steven can crank out a well organized, thoughtful literary essay in twenty minutes and John can barely write a paragraph? What do you do when Cindy says she is confused about how to develop a claim and Sarah says she needs help organizing her essay?
10 Ways to Make Reading & Writing Joyful Before Break
Here you’ll find ten ways you can keep the learning happening while also remembering minds may be elsewhere. These are engaging activities to inspire joy in your classroom before break! Read more blog posts about bringing comfort and joy into your classroom from other stellar teacher authors.
How I Teach Reading & Writing Workshop in 54 Minutes
Writing and reading workshop are powerful methods to teach English. But, how can secondary teachers, who have less than an hour with their students, do it all?!?! I think I have found the solution!
5 Ways to Use Google Classroom During Writing Workshop
In the last three years Google Classroom has definitely transformed my teaching practices. It is such a simple system to use. At first I used it in...