I have been sitting here staring at the screen for about 20 minutes. I have been avoiding this post for about 4 weeks. I don’t even know why. About a month ago, I read two books back to back: The Still Point of the Turning World by Emily Rapp and Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala. I … Continue reading
Tagged with teaching reading …
How do you read? (A Marsden Giberter)
Teaching reading is hard because students don’t realize what they do when they read. There’ s an innate knowledge involved, and they (most likely) have never been asked to describe their reading process. In order for them to move forward in their reading skills, they need to understand what skills they already have. Enter the … Continue reading
Speed Dating/Speed Reading Activity
I had two energizing, amazing classes last week doing this activity, so I wanted to share. Has anyone ever participated in speed dating? I, sadly, have not. It came about after I had met Adam, but I had many colleagues who went to speed dating sessions throughout the city. Speed dating, for those of you … Continue reading
Summer Reading: Cheryl Strayed, I heart you.
The summer is winding down and a new semester is upon me. What I should be doing is prepping for my courses that I’m teaching in the fall. What I am doing is reading like a mad woman, reading like a person whose time is running out, reading like someone is standing next to me … Continue reading
Classroom Libraries: Shelves versus Bins
I spent three years as the Literacy Coach at my high school. This was during the time when the Teachers College Reading & Writing Workshop was the mandated balanced literacy curriculum in 9th grade and it was trying to push its way up to 10th grade and dreaming of living in 11th grade as well. … Continue reading
Writing Teachers Must Write
nulla dies sine linea (Never a day without a line) –Horace, 65-8 BC My goal this summer is to post once a day and to develop this site into something more substantial. We have been creating the RTP process at my college (That’s Reappointment, Tenure, & Promotion for anyone who doesn’t know. I can’t even … Continue reading
Mix It Up (Reading Strategy)
For the past seven weeks, I have been edging my way through Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. I started it on the airplane on the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the National Writing Project’s Urban Sites Network Conference, and from page one I was captivated. But … Continue reading
Socratic Seminar Conversion (Reading Strategy)
In my early years of teaching, I worked with a teacher named Rebecca who was a Socratic Seminar bad ass. She was known in our school and in our district as the mother of Socratic Seminar. I was known more as the teacher who could get any kid to write. We all have our badges … Continue reading
The Benefits of Re-reading: Poetry
I am a huge fan of rereading. I used to think it was lame. Why waste time reading a book I had already read? There are so many new ones to read! Much like my theory that I can’t travel to the same place twice, I would not read the same book twice. But then … Continue reading
