A Few Crooked Words
Tag Archives: teaching English
7 Ways to Strengthen Democracy Through Language Arts
This political season has me thinking about the importance of teaching democratic skills to children. In fact, I’ve been thinking about it with the kind of starry-eyed civic hope that maybe only elementary school teachers can summon. It’s the kind of … Continue reading
Posted in Essay Writing, Literature, Ruminations, Uncategorized
Tagged democracy, Education, Homeschooling, politics, Seattle, teaching English, Writing
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Look and You’ll See: Observation as Writing and Social Practice
We began this year by doing observational writing. I took my classes to different places — a community garden, a meadow — and had them write down things they noticed. I asked them to only write down things they had … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Uncategorized
Tagged Frog Hollow School, Homeschooling, Seattle, social justice, teaching English, Travel, Writing
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Why Is English Spelling So Weird?
English spelling is undeniably chaotic. There is an exception to pretty much every rule. However, while it doesn’t follow orderly rules, English spelling does have patterns. I think that learning a little background about how English spelling came to be is … Continue reading
Posted in Language
Tagged Education, Homeschooling, Language, Seattle, spelling, teaching English, Teaching writing, Writing
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Dada in Our Hearts: teaching French Surrealism and Dadaism to children
Last week, I introduced the class to French Surrealist poetry and Dadaism. This sounds very highbrow, but actually this poetry is right up the kids’ alley. Why? Because it’s totally nuts. Basically, these poets were responding to the insanity of … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Poetry
Tagged Education, France, Homeschooling, Language, literature, poetry, Seattle, Teaching, teaching English
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Frog Hollow School 