It’s a Project-Based Learning partnership with White River Valley Historical Society The October-November 2017 issue of WRVHS Whippersnappers was published a few weeks ago! My seventh-grade students wrote all the content for the issue using online archived articles from the White River Valley History Society Quarterly magazine as their research. They designed the content around HalloweenContinue reading “Seventh-graders publish first issue of Whippersnappers newsletter”
Author Archives: Marilyn Yung
Thanks, Kohl’s, for selling this shirt.
I recently posted this on my personal writing blog. Thought it should appear here as well. Enjoy!
“So are you calling us stupid?!”
Teaching the standards takes time; so does building trust. “So are you calling us stupid?!” a middle school student asked me two months into my first year of teaching. Her eyes bore straight through to my heart. It was 9:15 a.m. on a Monday during my first year of teaching in a small rural schoolContinue reading ““So are you calling us stupid?!””
My Seventh-Graders Told Me This: Everything’s Gonna Be Okay
The future of the country is in good — albeit small — hands. Just when you think the country is spiraling out of control due to natural disasters, political upheaval, and lone wolf violence, you read some words written by twelve- and thirteen-year-olds and you realize that kids will carry us through. In short,Continue reading “My Seventh-Graders Told Me This: Everything’s Gonna Be Okay”
Six Things I’ve Learned So Far from Using Instagram in My ELA Classes
#workinprogress #experiment #askmeagaininMay I attended an ed-tech conference over the summer. One of the sessions, Social Media in the Classroom, was taught by a middle school teacher from another district in my area who admins a private Instagram account for her ELA classes. The idea intrigued me. I already knew Instagram was fun, based onContinue reading “Six Things I’ve Learned So Far from Using Instagram in My ELA Classes”
Worth the wait… fifteen students are now published writers!
Last spring, many of my students entered their “Where I’m From” poems in Creative Communication‘s Spring 2017 Poetry Contest. Fifteen are now published writers with the printing of the anthology shown in the photo. I am so proud of them! I’ve also shared these photos and posted them on my class Instagram page… IContinue reading “Worth the wait… fifteen students are now published writers!”
It Bothers Me that Sept. 11 is Becoming “Historical” and in the Distant Past
I know the timing isn’t right on this post since 9/11 was last week, but I thought I would go ahead and reblog it here for future reference. I originally wrote it for my personal blog, http://www.marilynyung.wordpress.com
It’s hard to teach middle schoolers this: grammar rules exist to bring readers on your journey
Part 4 of 4 In my classroom, I stress that writing is so much more than just knowing a bunch of grammar and punctuation rules. Writing is really about expressing oneself, your dreams, your beliefs, your hopes, your imagination. Writers don’t write to show off to readers that they know how to avoid vagueContinue reading “It’s hard to teach middle schoolers this: grammar rules exist to bring readers on your journey”
Reading about how to teach writing
It has its ups and downs I love reading books about the teaching of writing. It’s always so valuable to me to find ways to help kids love writing! Right now, I’m re-reading Real Revision by Kate Messner, a text chock-full of innovative strategies that real-life published authors use when they revise their own writing.Continue reading “Reading about how to teach writing”
Dear English teachers: No offense, but your students shouldn’t be writing for you
In fact, they should be writing for anyone but you. part 3 of 4 Let’s get real. If your students know their writing will be read by someone beyond the school building walls, they’ll sit up a little higher in their desks. They’ll be a little choosier with their words. They’ll be more carefulContinue reading “Dear English teachers: No offense, but your students shouldn’t be writing for you”