Proof That Writing Rubrics in Oklahoma Are Designed to Fail Your Kids

I’ve been an English teacher for over 20 years. I know how to teach students to write essays. It is in my blood. I can usually take any student from a mediocre writer or a poor writer to a functional writer. I have worked in districts with zero vertical team and a micromanaging vertical team.

An 8 Step Collaborative Essay Lesson Plan Tailored to Your Student’s Needs

Let’s face it. Many of the prompts your state provides for your students are boring. The students will diligently write to the prompt, but the prompts are usually out of touch with current issues or topics that interest your students. So what is the answer? *Note: Before you launch this lesson plan, be sure to

How To Teach Writing Students Not To Use Colloquial Diction

One of the worst problems plaguing high school writers is their misunderstanding that when writing a formal essay they must use formal diction.  It is probably one of the largest hurdles any writing teacher will have to vault their students over, and most times it feels like they are weighed down with years of being

An Essay

The following is the essay I wrote for the Teacher of the Year selection process.  Again, I thank all of my fellow teachers who voted for me. To Emulate the Gardener Henry Adams, President Lincoln’s ambassador to London, once said “a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops”. Think of all

How to Write Descriptively With Metaphors

Metaphors are one of the most used literary devices in the English language second only to similes. The problem with using similes is that they often cause your writing to become a mine field of quantifiers. (i.e. His breath was like the foul smell of a garbage heap and his face was like a pock

Feeding Squirrels: Taking AP Students to Do Research at a College Library

Yesterday I took my AP students to the University of Oklahoma Bizzell Library to do research for their critical perspectives paper.  Their assignment is to read a canonized novel of their choosing and then write an analytical research paper viewing that text through a critical lens (i.e. Marxist, Feminist, New Historical). Each year I take a group

How To Write A Persuasive Essay: 10 Steps To Student Success

I have taught AP Comp classes for over 10 years.  In that time, I have picked up some handy tips to teaching students how to write a solid, well constructed and well written essay. Here are the steps: 1. Stick to the Prompt – The prompt may be on an essay test or it may