The first annual Wayne High School literary anthology is now available online! I encouraged all my students to write every day this year, and often “battled” students who don’t see the point, and don’t enjoy the process. But not only did all of them show significant improvement in their ability to write, 15 students chose […]
“Weird Al” Vociferates Against “Word Crimes”
“Weird Al” Yankovic aims his biting satire against “word crimes” in his latest parody extolling the virtues of correct grammar and punctuation. This video is perfect for a middle or high school class! Michelle WatersI am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, a University of Oklahoma graduate student, and a NBPTS candidate. I am constantly […]
Journalism: Connecting ELA Classes To The Real World
I had the opportunity to meet with Josh Flores, the Director of Language Arts at the Oklahoma State Department of Education, a few weeks ago. When he found out I have a background in journalism, he asked me to write up a small guide to incorporating journalism lessons into an English/Language Arts classroom. Needless to […]
Common Core Creator Doesn’t Care What You Think…
A post on Facebook recently reminded me of this video of David Coleman, in which he states that the problem with narrative writing taught in schools is that when kids grow up, they realize nobody… cares what they think. You can watch the video here: Michelle WatersI am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, a […]
Writing Short Is Harder Than Writing Long
Most of my students would vehemently disagree with the statement that writing shorter is harder than writing longer. Most of them struggle with getting ideas, organizing them and then putting them onto paper in a coherent manner. I’ve rarely had that problem. Ideas come easily, categories appear and the words flow on the the page. […]