I was struck by the importance of creating a positive environment for my students. One presenter showed a picture of a woman who had a fearful expression on her face. Most of the teachers in the room said she looked afraid; however, the presenter said 8/10 middle school students thought the teacher was angry. We need to be careful how we express ourselves in front of our students, knowing that they misread some of our thoughts.
I attended a short Speed Learning Session with Vicki Meigs-Kahlenberg and enjoyed it so much that I ended up purchasing her book The Author's Apprentice . Essentially, Vicki's session was on not letting narrative writing fall by the wayside in the world of high-stakes testing. She talked about teaching students to develop their writing voices by studying the works and process of popular young adult authors such as Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, and Lois Lowry. I have always been interested in using mentor texts to teach students writing strategies such as "Show, Don't Tell" and dialogue that develops characters, but I felt like Vicki's process takes this one step further because she has students research the actual authors and learn about their lives and writing processes. There is no one correct way to write. Every author plans, drafts, and revises differently, and I think sharing this with students makes the whole writing process seem m...
Tim, we must've seen the same presentation. I thought it was amazing, too. We know that perception is crucial, however, to see such a misinterpretation of emotional expression was eye-opening. I wonder though, is it that adolescents don't have a developed emotional IQ to discern anger from angst or is it that they lack a working vocabulary that they can draw upon to verbalize what they're feeling?
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