Okay, I have reasons, okay? Okay?! At the end of the year, it occurred to me what a strange brand of English teacher I am. I’m not a red-Flair-pen, writing feedback kind of teacher that students 1. don’t read, 2. don’t understand, or 3. read, and then give up when they see 5/50 points. Yes, they rip it up.
I am an art-major-writer-reader-creator-collaborator-scholar-creative kind of teacher. (I hope that clears things up.)
But next year, I’m going to do better. And by better, I mean using the expertise I possess, using the rubrics the ELA department uses, and weaving together a substantial and formidable instructional practice. And I won’t ever have to use a red pen.
The ideas:
- Existing Rubrics and deconstruct into single-focus rubrics
- Existing rubrics: parse into mini lessons
- Weekly Wednesday Writing
- Writing Workshop
- Composition Notebooks (there will be a follow-up post about these)
- Tabulate and curate the resources — a living archive
Now, how I’m going to tabulate this information, I’m not really sure. I’m thinking I’ll set a date on the calendar that’s called “After things are cleaned up and tidy in the house, dedicate a notebook/binder to this, Kelly” day. Maybe July 7th would be a good day for this.
