Using Collaborative Content Curation for PD
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Entries by Linda Brock
Book Clubs for Challenging Topics
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Wrapping Up the School Year
A few weeks ago, a Writing Project colleague engaged a group of us in a conversation about how teachers might end the school year. This is typically an easy question. Most districts have traditions and rituals in place for ending the year, along with district assessments to measure academic growth. None of these typical ways […]
Tips to Structure Learning from Home
Your child’s/children’s school district is closed. You have to figure out how to keep the learning going. Most teachers are putting in extra hours to provide resources, and they will work through the shutdowns to support their students and their students’ parents. But what if you need more? There are so, so many resources available […]
Peer Feedback Strategies
Ask any ELA teacher to tell you some of the main challenges of the job, and a likely answer is keeping up with responding to student writing. It’s a laborious task, yet we know it’s a significant part of helping student writers. In fact, no writer improves without two things: lots and lots of practice, […]
Teaching Flash Fiction — Lesson 4 Fleshing Out the Story
Now that students have ideas, it’s time to flesh out the stories. With any piece of writing, two parts are critical for students: ideas and organization. Both of these, known to many teachers as traits of writing, can be difficult for any writer. Who hasn’t labored over a first rough draft, trying hard to find […]
Preparation, not Anxiety
It’s that time of year — the dreaded preparation time for state assessments! Over my career, many folks told me “Just don’t worry about it.” The reality for a classroom teacher is we have an obligation to our students, to their parents/guardians, and to the other stakeholders of our communities to do what we can […]
Teaching Flash Fiction – Lesson 3 (Quickwrites)
Follow my blog with Bloglovin “It must be a piece of writing which, even if someone else reads it, doesn’t send any ripples back to you. It is like writing something and putting it in a bottle in the sea. . . . Freewritings help you by providing no feedback at all. ” Peter Elbow, […]
Beginning Again
A few years ago, my best friend Penny gave me Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes. Penny and I have been faithful followers of Grey’s Anatomy since it first aired, so she knew I would enjoy learning a bit of Shonda’s […]
Thank you, Penny Kittle
A few years ago, I served as Penny Kittle’s driver. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. No, I am not an Uber driver, nor am I particularly good driver. But Penny was in town, and she needed someone reliable to drive her from the hotel to the workshop venue for the two days she was […]