Category: Reflections
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Routine Argument Writing Practices: Using Images to Spark Conversation
Students enter my classroom, milling about as they retrieve their writing journals from the bin, and make their way to their seats. While a few glance at the image projected on the screen at the front of the room, most ignore it (and me) and focus on each other. It’s a typical day in my…
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The TOLI Seminar in NYC
When faced with what seemed like unending snow days in the winter of 2019, I decided to take advantage of an invitation that always spoke to me – applying for the TOLI summer seminar in New York City. Because I love Holocaust literature and exploring big cities, this seminar seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one…
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“Show and Tell” Using Peer Templates to Teach an Argument Move
My high school juniors sit, gazing at their Chromebook screens as they think about my challenge to “extend” their evidence. I can see and feel the tension, so I know it’s time for “Show and Tell.” Extending is one of the four terms referenced by Joseph Harris in his text, Rewriting: How to Do Things…
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Inquiry, Immersion, and Interdisciplinarity on Beaver Island
This past summer, sixteen educators from Michigan districts as diverse as Utica, in Macomb County, and St. Louis, a rural district in Gratiot County, participated in a week-long, intensive workshop at Central Michigan University’s Biological Station on Beaver Island, taking advantage of the island’s unique biodiversity to explore language arts, science, and the arts. As…
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He Said, “Yes”: President Davies Visits Pre-Service English Teachers to Discuss Writing OR A President Who Is a Writer, Part 2
On November 30, 2018, President Davies accepted an invitation to the final exam session of ENG 319: Composition Methods at Central Michigan University. The purpose of the visit was to talk about the urgent message he had sent to the university community the morning after a hate crime took place on campus. ENG 319 students,…