June 17, 2025

8 Things I Tried This School Year

This year I tried out 8 different things related to ELA instruction and routines in my classroom. Here's a review of what worked and what I'll change.


We all do something a little different each year, but may not always take time to reflect on what has worked and what hasn't. I know I haven't always.⁠ This year will be year three of me putting my reflections into a blog post. The process of putting my thoughts down on "paper" helps me to consider what I want to do again the next year and what I want to do differently.⁠
I also really like being able to look back at previous years to see what I was doing before and if there's a teaching practice I want to bring back in my classroom.⁠ You can find my reflections on what I tried last year and what I tried the year before to see if there's anything you'd try out in your own classroom. 



April 17, 2025

Collaborative Writing Responses: A Structure For Writing Paragraphs As A Group

I use a collaborative group framework to allow students to practice selecting text evidence, engage in academic talk, and increase writing practice.


Some of my best ideas come from other teachers on Instagram. After seeing a post from an elementary teacher about using a collaborative process for solving word problems as a group in math class, I was inspired to create a structure for writing paragraphs as a group in my English language arts class.

I use this collaborative group framework to allow students to practice selecting relevant text evidence, engage students in structured academic conversation, and increase the amount of writing students do in my class.