Across the United States, many educators will face what often feels like an insurmountable predicament. The goal is to provide students with complex, grade-level academic challenges designed to achieve a rigorous set of standards. The problem is comparable to a 20-foot brick wall in front of us and our students, and we have 120 days … Continue reading The Kids Can Do It: Slow down, Collaborate, and Scaffold by Chelsea Bowker, Austin Castro and Anastassia McNulty
Making Time for Teacher Candidates to Write in the Language Arts Method Course by Kay Rosheim, Freelar Htoo, Van Tuong Nguyen, Aisha Muhammed Warmahayye, Hermela Tibebe Solomon, Yorina Roh, Sagal Daad, and Azza Suri
How can writing teachers understand what they ask their students to do unless they do the work themselves? Effective writing teachers are, in some way, writers themselves. They model the different processes, behaviors, techniques, and pleasures involved in writing. This allows them to respond to learners’ written efforts in ways that promote learner reflection and … Continue reading Making Time for Teacher Candidates to Write in the Language Arts Method Course by Kay Rosheim, Freelar Htoo, Van Tuong Nguyen, Aisha Muhammed Warmahayye, Hermela Tibebe Solomon, Yorina Roh, Sagal Daad, and Azza Suri
Mirage or Memory: How Writing Prompts May Generate False Memories by Daniel Ruefman
“Our Memory has no guarantees at all, and yet we bow more often than is objectively justified to the compulsion to believe what it says.” — Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams Introduction In September 2023, I began a year-long research project intent on examining the impact that personal traumatic experiences (PTEs) have had on … Continue reading Mirage or Memory: How Writing Prompts May Generate False Memories by Daniel Ruefman
NW Elysium by John Leppik (Introduced by Kathryn Van Wert)
The final assignment for my upper-division modern British literature course (taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth in Fall 2023) was to ask a question about a text from our syllabus and answer it in a format and medium of the student’s choosing. Beginning with Zadie Smith’s 2012 novel NW, John Leppik asked the question: … Continue reading NW Elysium by John Leppik (Introduced by Kathryn Van Wert)
Re/Defining Curriculum: Poetry as a Pedagogical Tool by J. Scott Baker, Savanna Alfonso, Brittany R. Brinkman, Daniel Gebur, Mallory Morris, Tyler J. Rummel, and Lidiah K. Zipp
Introduction Over the last seven years, working in two Midwest teacher education programs, I have become concerned with how many preservice teachers (PTs) see “curriculum” as tangible items, not a process. For many PTs, curriculum is exclusively state or federal standards or a textbook they are required to follow; so, my challenge as a teacher … Continue reading Re/Defining Curriculum: Poetry as a Pedagogical Tool by J. Scott Baker, Savanna Alfonso, Brittany R. Brinkman, Daniel Gebur, Mallory Morris, Tyler J. Rummel, and Lidiah K. Zipp
Establishing Contact: The Idea of Writing Center Studies by Jennifer Forsthoefel
In the physical writing center space, we encounter the mass differences that exist across the student and faculty population as well as the disciplines these populations are housed in. As a result, writing centers have made possible in the past, and create new possibility in the future for, teaching and learning across varying disciplines, positions, … Continue reading Establishing Contact: The Idea of Writing Center Studies by Jennifer Forsthoefel
Reimagining Teaching Middle School English with Digital Tools by Cami Christman and Lan Vu
The touch of a keyboard replaces the turn of a page, just one of the many ways that digital tools have transformed the educational landscape. Today’s educational experience is saturated with technology. Screen time has become a normal part of the school day for sixth grade students everywhere, and often replaces the use of pencil … Continue reading Reimagining Teaching Middle School English with Digital Tools by Cami Christman and Lan Vu
Owning Their Stories: Teaching Memoir at an Alternative High School by Amy Vizenor
On a sunny afternoon in May, I sat in the parking lot of Midwestern Alternative (pseudonym), a high school for “at-risk” students where I was interviewing for an English teaching job. Watching the high schoolers spill out into the parking lot to leave for lunch, I felt intimidated by their stereotypically edgy, alternative dress, style, … Continue reading Owning Their Stories: Teaching Memoir at an Alternative High School by Amy Vizenor
Writing is Elemen‘tree’: A Visual, Auditory, and Tactile Framework for Navigating the Writing Process by Lyndi Maxwell
Abstract This article describes how teachers can use manipulatives, visual aids, and poetry to help students navigate a process-approach writer’s workshop. The workshop is presented as being analogous to how a squirrel navigates an oak tree, as the squirrel represents the writer, each part of the oak tree represents a stage of the writing process, … Continue reading Writing is Elemen‘tree’: A Visual, Auditory, and Tactile Framework for Navigating the Writing Process by Lyndi Maxwell
Dogmatism and Teaching Writing by Alexandra Glynn
The great writing textbooks seldom prompt aspiring writers to be certain. The ancients assumed that they would already be, so there was no need to discuss it. The moderns deride certainty. But how many times have writing teachers had to correct an “I think that the political atmosphere is…” by deleting the “I think”? And … Continue reading Dogmatism and Teaching Writing by Alexandra Glynn
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