Matt
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Words Matter
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” -Mark Twain Words are the molecules of language. They are small, complicated building blocks… Continue reading
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Responding Smarter, Not Harder, to Student Writing #2: How Much Feedback Should Teachers Give on a Single Paper?
This is the excerpt for a featured content post. Continue reading
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How to Get Students to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love Writing
In an earlier post, I discussed why most students tend to not like writing. In short, it is generally because writing is so complex that it maxes out our attention and working memory. Our brains are highly suspicious of anything… Continue reading
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Responding Smarter, Not Harder, to Student Writing
This is the excerpt for a featured content post. Continue reading
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Planning for Success: Four Prewriting Activities That Can Jumpstart Student Writing
As a student, I hated being required to show my work in math class. If I could produce the correct answer at the end, why should it matter how I came to it? Of course, now that I am a… Continue reading
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Writing Is Revising
“Published authors know that revision is the heart of producing effective writing…Developing writers don’t know this. They think of revising as a chore assigned because they aren’t good writers and can’t get their writing right the first time.” –Kathleen… Continue reading
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The Problems and Power of Peer Response: How to Get Students Deeply Engaging With Each Other’s Writing
For the first five years of my career, nothing frustrated me more than peer response. On the surface, peer response seemed like the likely answer to what I believe is writing instruction’s hardest question: we know that direct personal feedback is… Continue reading
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The Power of Positivity in a Writing Class
Five years ago I was lucky enough to do the Oregon Writing Project with the incredible Linda Christensen, and during one of our sessions, a fellow teacher mentioned something about having a 50/50 blend of praise and constructive criticism when… Continue reading
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The Importance of a Writing Sketchbook
Writing is dangerous. Silence leaves everything up the imagination. Spoken words fade as soon as uttered. But writing lasts forever as a concrete monument to one’s persona, knowledge, and ideas. It can be closely examined, dissected, and easily picked apart. This… Continue reading
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Why Your Students Should Write More (and How to Get Them to Do It)
Now that time has continued its march to the start of a new year, it is once again time for resolutions. In the cycle of teaching, this stage is actually one of the things I look forward to the most because… Continue reading