The film version of the Giver is out in theaters near you. To mark its release I thought I’d re-post my own review… of the book… as a teaching tool. Reviews of the movie version are mediocre but as a book it’s–to my eyes–a work of significance and ideal for teaching. Go to see the movie…
A few weeks ago a transatlantic flight finally caused me to watch Saving Mr. Banks the story of how Walt Disney won P.L Travers’ trust and warmed her cold, cold heart just enough to get her to gift the ages with a Disney version of her book Mary Poppins. Decent movie, that Saving Mr. Banks. If…
Been reading through Judith Hochman’s Teaching Basic Writing Skills. Very compelling! In it, she describes the power of writing as the most rigorous and challenging skill to learn, and wisely advises intense, consistent intentionality in teaching it- that is, not just having kids ‘write a lot’ but having them learn to create the basic forms of…
Had the pleasure, Monday, of meeting with Judith Hochman, whose Hochman Writing Method has been profiled extensively (for example here) for its remarkable results. By the end of our meeting, my notebook was full of double-underlined insights describing tools for teaching writing better and the nature of the connection between writing and reading. But I keep…
Twice a week at TLaC Towers we discuss video and other lesson materials from teachers in the field. Last week Dan Cotton and John Costello–two members of our great TLaC team–were really excited by the possibilities of the question one teacher asked in particular. They wrote this reflection. Last week our team watched video of Uncommon…