Literary Analysis

I read an interesting article tonight titled "How I screw up the literary analysis essay" which hurt - that's what I've been doing. But I'm not sure I'm any closer to helping my grade 12s prepare for their final exam, as I continue to press them to practice, practice, practice how to write a critical-analytical piece. It's torture for them and for me.

Where can I go next?

Pondering

The NCTE Blog post Writing for Our Students my students and their writing ability. My school is not a "school of choice", but rather the only option for most of my students. It is a constant struggle for me to balance teaching what I know they need to know and teaching what they should know (aka the basics). While these two areas, I think, should be the same, I find that I am battling more and more with students who are not where they should be in terms of reading/writing...speaking/listening...viewing/representing... etc. This is frustrating. This is hard.  One-on-one seems to be the best way that I can meet the needs of my students individually, but is there enough time in the day?!

Poetry SLAM!

It gave me goosebumps to watch the following a year ago...

and a week ago, I chuckled when I watched this...

and then I watched my students performing for our Project Week SLAM.

In the words of a colleague, my "teacher heart grew"! This is what it is all about.