Literacy Speaks Volumes

Last year, I decided to do a class read of Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl; but, I decided to go easy on myself and make it as painless as possible. All assessments would be formative and there would be no summative assessment over this sweet memoir by one of the most famous YA authors. After reading the first two chapters, the students wrote five questions that might be on a book test for these two sections. But instead of me creating the questions for the students, I had them get together and create their own questions.  The students had to use my basic format: 1. Define the meaning of _____. 2. Where was/were _____. 3. Name as many _____. 4. Describe in your own words _____. 5. What happened when _____. I was very pleased with the results. These are just two of the formative assessments turned in to me. I'm going to be working on this activity for my English Labs this year. I'm going to try to steer away from so many multiple-c...

My son, now a teenager, asks quite a few questions. About a week ago, I was helping him study for a biology test; the test was over the cell cycle. As an English Language Arts teacher, I don't know much about cells other than they can be found in all living things. One of his questions was, "Is our body always going through the cell cycle?". I didn't know and was too tired to help him research the answer to that valid question. My answer was, "You need to ask your teacher." Last night I asked him if he'd ever asked his teacher about the cell cycle; he said no, because he didn't think of it anymore. The question should have been answered the night that it was asked~but the time was gone and neither one of us will bother to ask or attempt to answer it again. The teacher will move on to some other important learning and the cell cycle will become one of those topics that will not come up again...except on the end-of-course exam.  No matter how ...