Whenever my students and I come to the end of any novel study, I’ve always struggled with finding that perfect and elusive “closing” activity—the lesson that can somehow do justice to our novel study before we move on to the next text. While we often… Read More
All posts filed under “Blog”
Slice of Life: Insomnia
My 7-year-old currently claims that he has a hard time falling asleep. He’s not lying exactly. The other night, I sat next to his bed in the too-small-for-a-grown-up beanbag chair, waiting for him to nod off. He tossed, turned, tossed some more. Finally, I squeezed… Read More
NCTE17: Bust a (Writing) Move with Swipe Folders
Although we’ve been sharing and writing on the same online space on Moving Writers, there’s nothing like being able to present in real life! together like we did at #NCTE17. Rebekah O’Dell compiled and posted a recap of our session highlights HERE on MovingWriters.org. Click HERE… Read More
Oh the Places You’ll Go: Mentor Text for Writing About a Meaningful Place
Each year, my students compose a series of brief writing pieces—each one describing a person, place, or thing. Currently, students are working on their “person” essay—a personal essay inspired by the beautiful mentor text, “The Stranger in the Photo is Me” by Don Murray. The… Read More
Ask Moving Writers: Mentor Sentences
Hi, Beth! Thanks for asking. As you know, mentor texts can be incredibly powerful tools to help students see the beauty in our language—and studying mentor texts at the sentence level can help students see what happens when we craft together the best words in… Read More
Ask Moving Writers: In Pursuit of Meaningful Feedback
Hi, Elizabeth! First, thank you for asking this important question! We know how important it is to find ways to give meaningful and timely feedback to students. But we also know how limited our time is—there are only so many minutes in a day, in… Read More
Slice of Life: The next time…
At an ILA panel on Saturday, graphic novelist Gene Yang shared how much superheroes and comics meant to him and for his reading life when he was growing up. The panel, titled “Disrupting a Destructive Cycle,” focused on how we can work to disrupt the… Read More
Slice of Life: Embarrassment
It was the first day of class, and we talked about embarrassment. Not in the “share your most embarrassing moment” get-to-know/team-building exercise way. One of the most embarrassing moments of my teaching was when I went to school with two different shoes on. And as… Read More
How do we challenge our students—and ourselves—as readers?
Like most English teachers, one of the things I love most about the summer is time to read for pleasure. While my favorite reading spot in the winter is that comfy corner on my sofa, in the summer, nothing beats sitting poolside, the sun warming… Read More
Heinemann Fellows Symposium: June 2017
Link to my presentation given at the Heinemann Fellows Symposium in June 2017.
Tricia Ebarvia 
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