
The book that informed my teaching the most is Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle. She’s an award-winning middle school English teacher
in Maine, and even though she teaches much smaller classes at a tiny
independent school with students who have a much smaller range of needs, her
reader’s and writer’s workshops still guide what I do. I’ve adapted much of it,
mostly because I can’t keep up with weekly letters and her version of written feedback to
every paper, but my students still read and discuss books the same way I
discuss books with friends. I use mini-lessons in my writer’s workshop
and respond with an editor submission form to address individual student needs.
I focus on revision and student ownership over their throughout the revising
process.

So, with reader’s
and writer’s workshops we read and write together and learn the standards. My
focus is on making them lifelong readers and writers, not great test-takers. So, even though curriculum constantly evolves, new effective strategies emerge, and
required texts change, I make adaptations with these educational beliefs in
mind. Even though there are days when I have to take my students to a lab for test prep, when I have to give an interim assessment, and we take a break from the "real" work, most days I manage to stay true to who I am as a writer and educator. So, I guess this is the four paragraph version of how I teach.
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