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My ChatGPT and Generative AI Policy This Year
Like many teachers, I spent a lot of time this summer thinking about how I would handle AI in my classes. That journey was often an all-seasons-in-a-day experience. I would go from excitement over its possibilities to existential fear concerning… Continue reading
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A New Year and a New Approach
Today’s post marks the beginning of the seventh year of my Rewrite Newsletter, and over the last couple weeks I’ve found myself reflecting a lot on why I started it in the first place. While I have always been a… Continue reading
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One More Favorite Language Lesson: Repetition and Style
The most important change I have ever made to my grammar and language lessons was one that I originally shared on here a few years ago: Reorganizing grammar and language lessons by what they do, not by what they are.… Continue reading
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Another Favorite Language Lesson: Parallel Structure
This is the second entry in a series I’m doing on some favorite spring grammar/language lessons. Here is a link to the first one. My grammar and language lessons as a new teacher generally didn’t go well. I would be… Continue reading
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It’s Testing Season: Here are Some Best Practices for Providing Better Language Instruction
In two weeks my Michigan students will be taking the SAT or PSAT as a part of their state testing. Wherever your school is, I would wager that, if it is a k-12 school, you likely have a test on… Continue reading
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Pausing for Poetry with Brett Vogelsinger
I have talked before about how Brett Vogelsinger’s work with finding ways to bring more poetry in the language arts classroom and use poetry beyond the classic poetry explications or once-or-twice-a-year freewrites has been transformational to my practice. This last… Continue reading
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Having Your Cake and Time to Eat It Too: Five Places We Can Save a Lot of Time and Provide Better Instruction by Letting Students Lead
Writing teachers have never had it easy. Pick any era and dig into its literature around writing instruction and it won’t take long before you find those who teach composition bemoaning how Herculean their task is. My favorite historical example… Continue reading
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Building a Sequoia Root System
The largest tree in the world is the sequoia redwood, coming in at upwards of 2,600,000 pounds and heights taller than a football field. It follows that a tree that big must have an enormous root system to stay upright,… Continue reading
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Postcard from NCTE #3: Why I’m Making 2023 the Year of Poetry in My Classes
This is the third and final of my reflections from the NCTE Convention. For the first two, click here and here. “Poems give us something to hold up to the light, to examine from different angles” –Brett Vogelsinger Before winter… Continue reading
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Postcard from NCTE #2: Building Better, Stronger Classroom Communities in 2023
This is the second in a series of postcards of my key takeaways from the National Teacher’s of English Conference in November. It also marks my last post of 2022. I hope all those reading have a good, healthy, and… 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.