Many teachers consider themselves to be coaches rather than just instructors. We are not just imparting knowledge, but we are there to mentor our students and develop them into becoming better thinkers, writers, readers, doers. We don’t bark orders, rather we kneel down and workshop papers and assist in labs and calculations. It is reasonable to […]
Katie Sluiter
Katie Sluiter is currently an 8th English teacher in West Michigan. She has taught middle school, high school, and community college and has her Masters Degree and is currently working on her doctoral degree in Teaching English. Her writing has been featured on Writers Who Care, The Nerdy Book Club, and Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday. She is a member of the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), the Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) and ALAN (the Assembly on Literature of Adolescents of the NCTE). She is a National Writing Project participant, has presented at both state and national conferences, and has been published in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan multiple times.
Posted inEnglish Language Learners
Six-Word Memoirs as an Introduction to Narrative Writing
Six-word memoirs are not a new thing. A simple Google search will bring up Smith magazine and their six-word memoir site that all began in 2006. If you search Pinterest, you’ll find dozens of ways to use six-word memoirs with kids of all ages. That is all I did to piece together something that I […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Putting Books in Student’s Hands: How to Make the Right Match
Last week school started and a whole new group of 8th graders filled the desks in my classroom. Besides talking about the syllabus, creating a social contract, and handing out all of the many things parents have to sign, my biggest goal was to get a book in the hands of each student. [bctt […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Disrupting Thinking: Stop Focusing on Leveled Reading
Each summer I try to squeeze at least a couple professional books into my summer reading pile. This year, I knew I wanted to read Kylene Beers and Robert E Probst’s new book, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters. Teaching my 8th graders not just to read, but to love to read has been my main goal. […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why What Teachers Read Matters
This summer I had the privilege of sitting in on interviews for a new ELA teacher in my building. In my fourteen years in the district, this is the first time I have been able to take part in something like this, and since the hired person will be my classroom neighbor and part of […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Five Books That Will Make Your World Bigger
Someone once said that reading can make your world bigger. Someone also said that reading can be a mirror to your own true self. I projected both of these thoughts on the screen in my classroom recently as a way for my 8th grade ELA students to reflect on the books they read during the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Reading Response Prompts for Nonfiction
In March, I shared how I create reading response prompts for my 8th-grade ELA students. Since then, I have gotten inquiries from other content areas about what sorts of prompts are appropriate for nonfiction texts. Many of my students choose to read nonfiction, but sometimes, we all read nonfiction together. Other content areas tend to […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Six Books for Secondary Teachers on Teaching Students to Write
Writing across the curriculum is not a new idea. In fact, for over a decade we have seen professional development and training about how to incorporate more writing in more content areas other than ELA. The National Writing Project (NWP) has been a leader in the pursuit of bringing more and better writing instruction to […]