This spring I wanted to design a project that would challenge my English students to both see and express their lived realities in new ways. I taught Walt Whitman once before, years ago, but remember the feeling that I had missed an opportunity for my classes to go deeper with his work. In the past […]Read Post ›
Through no fault of our own, this fall has been a tumultuous one for our school community. In the midst of the upheaval of relocating the school, my students have been doing impressive work. My English students began the year using evidence from their lives to develop larger ideas through their writing. This is a […]Read Post ›
At a time when so many of us are struggling to recover from the shock of our recent election, the voices and work of my students offer insight. The young people I work with feel hopeless. They are passionate about change and questioning ideas that many around them take for granted. They yearn for a vision of […]Read Post ›
[Cross-posted on Edutopia] There is a sad truth about the way that most students learn to write: They become boring writers. To write with clarity and insight involves struggle (regardless of age). When faced with this challenge, many students are taught to detach from content, to analyze with sterile language, and to develop ideas within […]Read Post ›
Our collaboration with The Painted Bride Art Center was a wonderful opportunity for students to design and create thoughtful, sometimes quirky, Field Notes that met the Re-PLACE-ing Project goals of an expanded archive of cultural memory that includes multiple histories. I love their project description — it reads like the guides I write for student projects: [T]his […]Read Post ›
Mr J Block 