Rather than teach the standards like products, I take the assignment’s purpose and teach the skills to accomplish the same thing with a creative product.
5 Creative Projects That Develop Technical Writing Skills
4 Little-to-No Prep Strategies to Increase Student Reading Accountability
Kids don’t read. A sad fact that is only perpetuated by media and technology. Are media and technology ALWAYS to blame to you? Yes. Literature and stories are not dying, but the need to read them is. Why read it when… You can watch the movie or show? You can just read the summary and […]
Building Reading Skills: Dr. Seuss for Allegory Analysis
As teachers, we strive to get students to perform at the highest level of the pedagogical taxonomy. Personally, I follow Bloom’s and cross-reference with Maslow’s psychological needs hierarchy. But, why…? It’s complicated. I’ll hit that another time. Anyway, the point is that we are constantly trying to get the kids to think in more sophisticated […]
How to Foster College & Career Ready Students, according to Common Core
The type of student that we want to send to college is nothing new. When Common Core compiled their college and career ready list, all teachers–young and new–recognized those descriptions of what we have tried to mold for years. But, we have to admit, how we teach our kids to be like that is a […]
What’s the Difference Between Theme & Motif?
I get it–it’s easier. But, that doesn’t mean it should be done. It kills me when my high school freshmen mix up motifs and themes. Thinking they’re interchangeable, it makes it almost impossible to get them to understand how very different they are. It’s frustrating for me. Motifs are everywhere in life; we need to […]