Skip to content

Jan 12

2 Comments

Moving Students Forward: Be Generous with Time and Space

By Janice Ewing

Time and SpaceWe all know that a teacher’s new year starts in late August or early September, but still, during the months of December and January, as the rest of the world closes out one year and starts the next, it seems appropriate to focus on the theme of moving students forward as readers, writers, and thinkers, and that’s what we’ve been doing on our blog. Moving students forward is what we’re all about, even if that movement is inconsistent or even imperceptible at times.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what it means to “see” growth in our students – whether in test scores, conferences, writing pieces, or observation. What’s happening when growth is not evident, and how should we respond? Read more

Jan 5

5 Comments

Gatsby, Hawthorne, and Being Sixteen

By Tricia Ebarvia

One of the last books I read in 2014 was Gabrielle Levin’s delightful novel, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.  At one point, the main character—a somewhat odd and sometimes churlish bookseller named A.J. Fikry—tells his daughter to remember that “the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life.”  He adds, “Sometimes books don’t find us until the right time.”

Many years ago when I first read The Great Gatsby in high school, I didn’t like it very much. I remember listening to a classmate discuss how much she loved the book. “Gatsby,” she gushed, “The way he could change his entire life to win Daisy over? It’s soooo romantic.” I didn’t get it. Read more

Dec 21

2 Comments

Give Yourself a Gift of Reading

With the holidays here, we hope that amidst the busyness of unwrapping presents and getting together with friends and family, perhaps you’ll find a moment or two to give yourself a gift… the gift of a good book. We asked some of our PAWLP Fellows for book suggestions, and below you’ll find a few of their responses. What could be better than a good book, some hot chocolate, and a warm fire?  Wishing you and yours happy reading this holiday season! Read more

Dec 15

Can You Hear Me Now?

Using Audio Tools to Provide Feedback to Student Writers

by Jen Ward

I’ve pulled out back issues of the English Journal, dusted off my copies of Kelly Gallagher’s work. In the course of my research on using digital tools to provide students access to audio versions of writing conferences, I have reviewed what compositionists from Peter Elbow to Ralph Fletcher have said about the need for supportive, verbal feedback during the writing process. Lucy Calkins and Nancie Atwell, two gurus of conferring in the classroom, strongly advocate for face-to-face writing conferences with students over the more traditional written evaluative feedback. Verbal feedback is powerful. And although technology has certainly changed how we work with practicing writers in our classroom settings, there are a few things that remain constant. Read more

Dec 8

The Writing Conference in Nancie Atwell’s Room (Part 2)

in the middleBy Donald LaBranche

This is a continuation of last week’s review of the two editions of Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle. Click here to read Part 1.

  • In the ’87 edition of In the Middle Atwell explains that there are multiple types of conferences for different purposes. She identified several, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll focus on two of these: the Status of the Class Conference, and the Conference for Content.

Read more

Dec 4

Visualizing Non-Fiction and Literary Elements

by Gaetan Pappalardo

image1

Read more

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →