In the Classroom

Shifting how we were teaching writing to prioritize our focus on the paragraph rather than the essay was a gradual one for us, largely because we felt guilty not always assigning full essays, but the more we saw the benefits and the more we saw how we could apply our work with the paragraph to our work with essay structures, the more willing we were to shift our focus.

For any attempt at goal setting with students to be meaningful, they need guidance. They need to know how to accurately and honestly reflect on their past performance and habits. They need help narrowing their personal goals down to something specific enough to achieve.

We like starting a new semester with a high-interest or accessible (or both!) unit to work on engaging our students from the start and capitalize on their “new year, new me” energy and desire to start the semester strong.