Posts in Philosophies on Writing
The Collaborative Essay: Good or Bad?

The collaborative, or “group” essay concept, is a staple in business schools and college curriculums. It’s a strategy that on the surface may seem to work in encouraging group participation in the writing process, and there are certainly cases where this happens. However, it is a strategy that comes with both pros and cons in the secondary English Language Arts classroom.

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The Two Sides of Our Writing Brain: Supporting Student Writers in Process

Breaking the writing process up into two powerful sides of the brain can help students be more effective in the writing process. Let’s look at four different techniques to make this happen in the high school English classroom.

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9 Ways to Get Secondary Students to Enjoy Writing

How can teachers help older students enjoy writing? Negativity and reluctance is a mindset that is established early on. However, in middle and high school, certain teaching approaches and strategies can help to change the way students view themselves as writers. Create a positive writing culture and maintain it through the year. These nine approaches can help.

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10 Unique and Creative Reflection Techniques & Lessons for the Secondary Student

As educators, we know how critical reflection is to the learning process. Getting students to reflect- deeply and meaningfully- is often one of the most challenging lessons we teach. I have found that both my middle school and high school students will often scoff at these reflection activities, providing the least amount of effort possible to complete the task they see as meaningless. I have been searching for and creating lessons and activities that will bring interest and engagement to this task. The following

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Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing!

Understanding the many nuances of great writing can seem like a daunting challenge for teachers and students alike. As educators, we are aware of the strong correlation between good reading skills and good writing skills. This is because students are absorbing the author’s craft as they explore amazing works of literature. This knowledge has given rise to the popularity of mentor texts within the ELA classroom.

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How to Create a Writing Culture that Empowers Students through Grammar

Writing is grammar. Grammar is writing. Sure, there are elements of writing that may not be directly related to grammar, such as word choice, citation rules, and paragraph organization. Still, the ability to take words and play with them skillfully mainly centers around students' mastery of grammar. Teaching writing? When creating a writing culture in my classroom, demonstrating how grammar empowers authors is paramount. As I tell my students, "In this classroom, we do "grammaring."

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Foster a Writing Community in your Classroom by Creating a Class Blog

I have decided to build my own community of collaborative authors within my classroom; I will be establishing a class blog for my students, allowing them to grow together as authors, building a unique platform to showcase/display their works to the world!

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Supporting Struggling Writers: 6 Strategies for Turning Struggling Students into Successful & Confident Writers!

6 Strategies for Turning Struggling Students into Successful & Confident Writers!

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14 Strategies to Support Struggling Writers: Build Confidence & Increase Success

Teaching and assessing writing can be challenging, and even more so when you're trying to identify effective ways to scaffold writing instruction for struggling students. Set teenagers up for success by incorporating these teacher-tested, student-approved strategies.

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A Philosophy for Teaching Writing: Structure, Purpose & Passion

It was a Saturday sometime in August of 2007. I had just two days until the first day of school to organize a room loaded with textbooks, workbooks, piles and piles of worksheets, dictionaries and teacher curriculum that walked me step by step through the teaching process for all the core subjects, reading, spelling, math and science.

As for writing... I had some six trait posters and a pile of dusty grammar workbooks.

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How to Teach Writing: 3 Cornerstones for Writing Instruction with Older Students

"3 Cornerstones for Teaching and Assessing Writing" is a part of a writing philosophy series for teachers who are always learning and adapting to their students' needs and educational demands.

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A Philosophy for Assessing Writing: Aim for Improvement, not Perfection

Over the past 10+ years of teaching high school, my philosophy for writing instruction has changed greatly.  It has been a decade of experimentation and adaptation; a decade dedicated to finding what works and trying out new methodologies...

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