Apart from Nancy Dean’s seminal text, Voice Lessons, there isn’t much on the market as far as resources go to help teachers teach their students how to perform tight syntactical reads.
And if you’re anything like me – each year I dutifully go over the exemplars and models that Dean offers – and in spite of my efforts, my kids still need a ton more practice to develop their abilities to read with greater complexity.
In my newest video, what I have done is gather a wide variety of texts/excerpts that go above and beyond Voice Lessons. There is content from Yoda, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, Harper Lee, Mark Twain … even Peter Pan … among others.
For those of you that are familiar with my work, you know that I am a big champion of including the elements of collaboration and competition into classroom instruction.
So, in this video you will find a gamified approach to the teaching of how to perform tight syntactical reads.
Here’s a link to the video: https://youtu.be/nCPr-Bn7h1o
If you'd like the accompanying material so that you can run this exercise with your students, feel free to reach out and I'll send what I have your way.
I’m adding content to my channel on a regular basis, so please subscribe.
As far as offering an update on the irons I have in the fire - I am still cranking away on my portion of the textbook I am writing with Timm Freitas.
At present, I am in the research gathering phase.
One project that I am currently immersed in is my Teach It “Write” 5-Week Mastermind. In brief, a small group of teachers and I are meeting in Zoom for five consecutive weeks for an hour per session starting at 7pm EST on Sundays to dissect how we teach composition and to learn new methodologies and approaches. At its core, these teachers are looking to retool and revamp their teaching of writing by incorporating my templates, alternative grading methods, and discussion modalities.
If you’re looking to jumpstart how you teach writing, or want to learn some new tricks, please reach out and we can breakdown the details.
My webpage also offers an overview:
https://teachinghow2write.com/teach-it-write-mastermind/
I am also still working on my short story project. In the coming days I will be posting writing workshops for The Lottery, Death By Scrabble, and A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
Happy teaching and happy writing!
Kristian
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