Scaffolded High School English Resources
If your students can write a claim and drop in evidence but completely freeze when it’s time to explain why it matters, you’re not alone.That middle piece—CER reasoning—is the hardest part of the CER framework to...
Read MoreWhen we think about teaching writing styles in English Language Arts, our minds often jump to creative writing, poetry, or analyzing literary devices. But what about the type of writing your students will actually use day after day—beyond middle school, high...
Read MoreSometimes, you just need a good old-fashioned worksheet. After all, nothing beats practice and repetition. In this post, I’m going to share active and passive voice worksheets for high school along with other resources. If you need to teach...
Read MoreFor English teachers, there’s no escaping the essay. Yet, getting your students to actually write essays can feel impossible! In this post, I’m going to share what I’ve done to get students to complete their...
Read MoreEven though students start learning about the 5-paragraph essay in middle school (sometimes even elementary!), it seems like they magically forget everything by high school. In this post, I hope to share some tips for...
Read MoreIn college and during your teacher training, you probably spent a lot of time discussing how to teach writing to students. Even if you didn’t discuss writing pedagogy, you know the basics of academic writing...
Read MoreI absolutely love October, Halloween, and everything that comes with fall! I might be a #BasicTeacher, but I love bringing a little seasonal fun into my classroom. Two-sentence horror stories are one of my favorite...
Read MoreEvery year, teachers are asked to do more--close the gap, make learning fun, use technology, encourage independence, provide quality feedback, collaborate, and so on. It’s not easy finding a class structure that perfectly meets the needs of students, administrators, and classroom evaluators. When it comes to teaching writing with mini lessons, however, you can get pretty close.
Read MoreNow, when I attend conferences and professional development, using mentor texts and sentences seems like a prerequisite for every quality unit. In this post, I hope to answer any and all questions you might have about mentor texts. I’ll try to include plenty of examples, links, helpful resources, activities, and lesson ideas.
Read MoreHave you been told that you need to start using a claim, evidence, and reasoning (or C-E-R) framework for writing in your classroom? Maybe you need to closely adhere to the Common Core State Standards but aren’t quite sure where to begin. If you’re like me, you may have been told by administration-on-high that the whole school would be using C-E-R language in their classes to build consistency and teacher equity for students. Regardless, here you are wondering, what the heck is claim, evidence, and reasoning anyway? In this post, I aim to break it down for you.
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