An archived stack of papers: 'Writing'
Horrible Music Day
In a stack of papers called Writing.
- Aug
- 07
- 2008
Bad music lingers like bad food: you feel the effects hours after initial contact; gradual nausea sets in; you finally throw up and feel much better about things immediately after; but, when the memory returns to your head a short while later, it’s just as bad as in the beginning. While eating lunch, we heard the following songs:
“How Will I Know” – Whitney... read more
Equity In Video Gaming
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Jul
- 24
- 2008
I just watched King of Kong and loved it. It’s about 75 minutes, so would take two class periods to show. Using the idea that a single set of texts can produce multiple writing styles (and that a single writing assignment can encompass several styles), students begin with the obvious: was Steve Wiebe treated fairly? This encourages simple... read more
Change In Your Classroom
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Jul
- 16
- 2008
If you’ve stopped reading on a regular basis, it’s time to start again. Here are some beginning ideas for changes I might make to course content this coming school year. I’ll get to classroom policies later. I need you to agree or disagree with me on any of these. What are you thinking about doing in your classroom?
Skills Lists
Produce a list of... read more
Formulas FTW
In a stack of papers called Grading.
- Jun
- 27
- 2008
I’ll expand on these thoughts later, but I want to help this conversation about English assessment grow as much as I can. Eric Hoefler brings up some interesting thoughts, admittedly from a distance that might skew his interpretations. His theorizing feels spot on at first read and that’s a good... read more
3 On Txtng
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- May
- 13
- 2008
Students feeling a little disconnected? Find it hard to get them reading? I have just the thing. There are three rounds to this conversation and it all leads up to some in-class writing. I’ve spread this out across a few days. We began on Friday, continued Monday, will pick it back up on Wednesday, and complete the writing on Thursday. Each day was twenty to thirty minutes, allowing time for us to... read more
Been Up To: Quick Version
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- May
- 10
- 2008
More details about all of this to come, but I’ve been really busy with work the last few months and want to at least get the beginning of this idea in front of your eyes. I feel like I’ve been cooking something up for the longest time with nothing to show for it along the way. Here’s a peek.
ROI
The biggest return on investment of my time has come from a very simple... read more
Can’t Separate
In a stack of papers called Writing.
- Apr
- 07
- 2008
In theory, my idea for writing assessment this year was good. In practicality, it did not work.
I started off with the idea of assessing writing for only one thing at a time. Every so often, I’d assign a piece of writing that evaluated several of those skills at once. As I tried to keep that going, the realization hit me that when... read more
After Day Three Of Finals
In a stack of papers called Grading.
- Jan
- 18
- 2008
Not many kids wrote papers that raised their F to a D-. It helped a small handful of students, but all were already only a few percentage points away from passing. No one managed to raise, say, a 22%/F to a D-. That’s what I was hoping for. There’s one student for whom the jury is still out, but I don’t think she’s going to make it. [Update: She made... read more
Why Can’t I Get This Right?
In a stack of papers called Grading.
- Jan
- 06
- 2008
Experimentation is the nature of any classroom. If you’re just doing the same things you’ve done for the last 10 years, you aren’t responding to the way students, education, and the world are changing. That said, I sometimes wish I’d just do the same thing I did last year because at least part of it was successful. This year, my experiment failed in a big way. Next semester will... read more
Picture Write
In a stack of papers called Writing.
- Dec
- 18
- 2007
Something hit me tonight, browsing around and thinking about how to fix a mess I’ve made of student writing this semester (more on that tomorrow — possible solutions first, though you don’t know the exact problem yet). I’ve spent... read more