Ideas from the Blog

The year 2016 is drawing to a close, and I'd like to take this time to thank all of my loyal followers.Every morning this week (December 12th - 16th), you will receive a gift in your inbox, a short exercise you can use with your secondary students to keep them focused AND have a little holiday fun. … [Read more...] about The Christmas Countdown is on!

  Reading workshop conferences are a very important strategy for learning in my classroom, and I'd like to give you 5 reasons to start conferencing with students too. A conference is a short conversation between teacher and student, one that allows you to provide direct instruction and/or to … [Read more...] about Conferencing with students

It's December first. I must admit, I'm a little shocked to realize that. The semester has flown by, and before we know it, it will be Christmas break.  While you're spreading Christmas cheer, don't forget your students. High school kids (and teachers) like to get gifts too and there are … [Read more...] about Holiday Gifts for Big Kids!

Unfortunately, George Orwell knew what he was talking about. His novella is not just a condemnation of what happened during the Russian Revolution; it's a cautionary tale that can be applied to many events that happened since it was written, from political revolutions to student council elections. … [Read more...] about Animal Farm is Always Relevant

Last week, I wrote about the assessment strategies I was using to get students to take more responsibility for their learning, thanks to ideas shared by assessment guru, Sandra Herbst. My students and I worked to develop success criteria for a paragraph on theme. I gave them a model paragraph and … [Read more...] about Better Feedback Strategies: A Follow-Up

It's the plight of every English teacher: bulging bags, full of papers. Once that bag gets emptied, more papers appear to fill it back up again. We give lots of feedback, intent on showing our students what they did well, what needs work, and what needs to be improved for next time.There are several … [Read more...] about Use Better Feedback Strategies — Students will learn more & you’ll work less!

Welcome to my stop on the "best of the best" blog hop. I'm so pleased to be joining host Secondary Sara, and other amazing ELA teachers, as we share our favourite lessons and products.  One of my favourite things to teach is the writing process. I love seeing kids discover that they can write … [Read more...] about Best of the Best Secondary ELA Blog Hop & Giveaway!

My students are working on a persuasive research essay and we did a lot of prep work last week with activities that had them focus squarely on the writing process. In fact, we used 4 ways to focus on pre-writing. I'm very aware that many of our students skip over the steps of the process and are … [Read more...] about 4 Ways to Focus on Pre-Writing

I had a great week with Reader's Workshop. Last week I focused my mini-lessons on the ways that authors develop character, so during our conferences, students had to illustrate their understanding of how this could be applied to their own novels. We had some great chats. And the whole time, I was … [Read more...] about Reader’s Workshop Victories

It's one of my favourite activities. I wait for a beautiful fall day, and I take my class to a nearby park, one that's surrounded by sparkling water and a wood full of colourful, crunchy leaves. I give them a handout with a number of tasks that ask them to capture what they see, hear and feel as … [Read more...] about Take it Outside: Embracing Autumn

I'm engaged in a battle with my twelfth grade class. They have been giving me less than stellar work. Their written responses have been pretty superficial, with little to no idea development. So this week I've been really focusing on how to develop this skill.I know my old way of doing so wasn't … [Read more...] about Teaching Students to Develop Their Ideas

I've had a hard time getting into my groove this fall. I've had a really hard time getting my head to a place where assessing my students' work is part of my day. Instead, I'd get to work an hour early, as is my practice, and spin my wheels. I was spending far too much of my prep time searching … [Read more...] about Organization and Planning: Getting My Act Together