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All That Glitters Is Not Good Teaching
Keys to Engaging Lesson Design and a New Lesson Plan Drop! In their wonderful book 100% Engagement, Susan Barber and Brian Sztabnik begin by saying the following: There is a myth that says engagement is the purview of young, fun,… Continue reading
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Teaching the Why: A Quick, Effective Strategy for Increasing Student Engagement
I have a rule that I tell students on the first week: If you don’t know why we are studying something, why we are studying something in the way we are, or why I’m assessing you in a certain way,… Continue reading
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More Than a Name: Four Quick Tools to Increase Student Engagement by Helping Them to Feel Seen
My topic for the last few posts, Gen AI, may be the large, loud, and ostentatious elephant sitting in the corner of teachers’ rooms across the world right now, but I’ve found that many teachers’ rooms also have a second… Continue reading
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How I Plan to Cut Down on Student AI Misuse This Year
During our first departmental meeting of the year, a teacher offhandedly bemoaned the new paywall for Draftback, a tool for investigating the revision histories of students suspected of using AI. Another teacher responded by bringing up a new tool she… Continue reading
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One Way I Plan to Use AI to Improve My Writing Instruction This Year
I remember sitting down to read a student paper last year and instantly feeling the beginnings of that whispered question that many teachers have come to know so well: Hmm, I wonder if this was written by AI? Sadly, this… Continue reading
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Year 10 of the Re-Write Newsletter Begins and Exciting News!
A few weeks back I was scrolling through photos, and I stumbled upon a photo I’d long forgotten. It was from a class trip late in 2019, and in it my entire advisory class is piled together on a small… Continue reading
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Thoughts on Ending the Year Strong
Three weeks ago I discussed how conclusions are often an afterthought in writing instruction. The unwritten rule I’ve observed—and often followed—is that the conclusion is a sort of cherry on top of an essay sundae. Like with the cherry, instruction… Continue reading
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Do We Really Need to Teach Grammar Terms?
I will be on Jennifer Gonzalez’s Cult of Pedagogy this week to talk about my book Good Grammar, and when we recorded our discussion, Gonzalez asked me an important question that I didn’t have time to answer fully in the… Continue reading
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How Expanding the Frame Can Improve Essay (and Most) Instruction
I was glad that so many liked my last post about one way I’m striving to say the quieter parts out loud when it comes to essays, so I thought I would share another lesson from that unit this week.… Continue reading
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A Springtime Lesson to Awake Dormant Essay Writing
Happy Spring, wonderful readers! In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston says that “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” I’ve found this to be very true, although there are also occasionally years like the… Continue reading
Matthew Johnson is a writer, speaker, and teacher who wants to help you teach writing in a better, faster, and more inclusive way.