Really, a PEEL pun? Who am I? I never liked the burger/sandwich metaphor for writing paragraphs. Sure, it looks good on a poster – but when was the last time you ate a burger bun-first, working your way through one layer of ingredients at a time? When has a mouthful of bread given you aContinue reading “Throwing out the PEEL: An Argument-based Approach to Teaching Paragraph Structure”
Tag Archives: the writing revolution
Kids like learning *stuff*
Figuring out what kids actually find fun has always been a struggle for me. To start with, it’s not my top priority – if something’s worth doing, I’m perfectly comfortable requiring students to do it, whether they’re excited about it or not. Still, a classroom where students are having fun is is a much happierContinue reading “Kids like learning *stuff*”
How to teach writing so students actually make progress
This book changed the way I teach writing – and everything else. When I went into my first year of teaching last year, I brought with me a hodge-podge of different approaches to teaching writing. I believed, contrary to what people kept telling me, that it was important to teach grammar explicitly and systematically, butContinue reading “How to teach writing so students actually make progress”
Literature and Literacy: What’s the point of English?
Schools make students take English for longer than any other subject. At the same time, English has become less about literature and more about literacy. Should it be? When I was in year twelve, on the heels of an exciting assignment in one subject and some less wonderful test results in another, I started toContinue reading “Literature and Literacy: What’s the point of English?”
Scholar's Atelier 