On Saturday, Black College Wire posted an article on a composition assignment that had consequences the teacher never expected. The teacher, Lisa Carl, asked students to write “either a first-person autobiographical account of a significant event in their lives or…
Category: Teaching
Ten Ways to Document Your Convention Participation
When you attend a convention, you can gain more than a vita line. You already know that you can learn about the latest research and practices, and you probably value the chance to catch up with colleagues from other schools…
Write a Poem a Day for National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, sponsored by Academy of American Poets and other poetry organizations. ReadWriteThink includes links to poetry lesson plans, websites, and classroom activities on the calendar entry for April 1. I wondered, however, if we had enough…
March Madness! Bits Flashback for March 20
It’s the time of year for basketball and brackets, underdogs and dream teams, last-second miracles and heartbreaking losses. In the classroom, why not try a March Madness Poetry Tournament? It’s an activity you can easily customize for your class. Don’t…
Challenge students to take part in Script Frenzy!
Script Frenzy is a free event that challenges writers to compose an entire script during the month of April. There are many more official details on the site’s About Page. All kinds of scripts are welcome: screenplays, stage plays, TV…
Turning Blog Posts Into a Book Draft
After thirty days of thinking, sorting, and scribbling, I turned a variety of notes and blog posts into a very rough and informal book draft of 52,967 words. Now as I confessed a month ago, I went about the process…
Writing Effective Titles for Your Blog Entries
How do you write a title that makes people want to read your text? That was one of the major lessons of Chris Pirillo University (CPU): Writing for Google, an online seminar I attended last month. The on-demand version of…
Thanksgiving Classroom Discussion: The Meaning of Thanksgiving
Still looking for that last-minute classroom activity to keep the class occupied before the Thanksgiving break? Mark Twain’s newly released autobiography includes a comment on the meaning of Thanksgiving that is bound to lead to a lively classroom discussion. Begin…
Bit.ly Bundles Simplify Sharing Links with Students
Bit.ly Bundles are about to simplify the way you share links with students and colleagues. Take any collection of links you want to pass along, and with Bit.ly Bundles you can share just one short web address. You’ll no longer…
Updating the Copyright Puzzle
In some ways, copyright is a very static thing. Once you set your words down, you own them for decades. When it comes to how teachers apply and teach copyright however, there are always new resources and new guidelines to…