English teachers: It is time we joined together and found a better way to grade papers. No more giving up weekends piled in papers or letting our over stuffed school bags stare at us and fill us with teacher guild. I’m done spending too much time grading papers, and you can be too with a few simple shifts in your grading process. 1. No matter how you grade, create a list of frequent feedback. As you’re grading your next set of papers, keep a document open and assemble all of

Conferencing with student writers can be magical. There is no greater feeling than seeing a student’s creativity come alive or seeing their understanding grow before your eyes. Conferencing allows teachers to work with each individual student one on one, building stronger writing and relationships along the way. Spending time in a one on one writing conference communicates to a student: your voice matters. How can you implement writing conferences in the secondary ELA class

"Grammar is the skunk at the garden party of the language arts." --NCTE Grammar has had a bad reputation for good reason: most kids don't love it, and no matter how much teachers review the rules, the knowledge doesn't seem to stick. Years of research shows that teaching grammar in the traditional sense simply does not work (article). Yet, for various reasons, teachers have struggled to let go of traditional grammar practices: rote memorization, worksheets, workbooks, onl

Imagine being able to conference with all of your student writers before they hand in a paper? With revision stations, it’s possible. While students circulate through a variety of other stations, teachers can meet with groups of students at a time and, over the course of a few days, conference with every student in the class. Here are four tips for making ten minute teacher conferences happen: 1. Set up revision stations for students who are not conferencing with you. Whil