Wessling Writing Tips: A Video Message to My Students

Why Conflict (in Sarah Speak)

Most of my students intrinsically understand conflict; after all, it's an essential reality in all of our lives. But they don't always remember how to think about it's function in literature. After a series of conversations with some of my students, I made this video...

Taking Public Notes to Scaffold

Be Bold, For Your Classroom, Ideas

I'm a big believer in taking public notes of classroom discussions and work. Public notes not only reinforces for students that it's their ideas and words and connections that are worth recording and remembering, not mine....

The Two-Cents Discussion

Be Bold, For Your Classroom, Ideas

I call it the “Two Cents Worth” discussion and I really like to use it when I need to encourage everyone to use their voices. The concept is pretty easy: we put our chairs in a circle, a basket in the middle of it and everyone gets two pennies. When they contribute to...

Engaging Learners in Online Productive Group Work

Be Bold, For Your Classroom, Ideas, Professional Learning, Technology Tools

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ld-P1scI324 In our urgency to put content in front of our students, it's easy to slip into assigning a lot of independent work, which can be a shock for students who are used to guided instruction and collaborative work. Here are some...