I basked in the warm glow of believing I ran an exceptionally effective activity in class. Teaching and learning synergy? Achieved. Students engaged and satisfied? Affirmative.
I’m an awesome teacher!
That’s what I thought as I read through students’ exit tickets, responses about experimenting with mentor texts. We examined the opening lines from selected novels by one of my favorite authors (Walter Mosley!) and brief ledes from a couple of my favorite blogs (Crunk Feminist Collective and VSB - Very Smart Brothas). Our goal? To explore how authors craft words to make meaning in order to “try on” those formats and to apply those patterns to our composition/storytelling projects.
