So giddy about embedding the readers’/writers’ notebook into our secondary RLA curriculum next year. Building a writing culture entails ample opportunities for authentic, low stakes writing & constantly making connections b/w texts students are reading & their own knowledge.

So impressed by our Newcomer students from Irving High School Nimitz High School & MacArthur HS ! Their conviction, astute argumentation, & emotional appeals made for a lively, entertaining #IEDebate ! Congrats to the Mac team, but all 3 schools showed great confidence & leadership! 👏🏾👏🏾

Few things make happier than seeing my former students trying to make the world a slightly better place. Keep it up, M! ✊🏽

Thank you to the folks at edutopia for providing me with a space to ramble about one of the topics I am most passionate about: culturally responsive teaching! Our students deserve it!

4 Tips for Dealing With the Challenges of Teaching Diverse Texts edutopia.org/article/cultur…

Happy #TorturedPoetsDepartment Day to all who celebrate. I will be reading some John Keats, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Fernando Pessoa today.

How will you celebrate? #poetry #readmore #literature

Fantastic things are happening at Austin MS. Can’t wait to see what these Austin Middle School accomplish this spring! 🧠 📝 📚

These scholars were working so hard to follow routines and procedures, understand the meaning of unfamiliar words and letters, and excited to show off their learning. What a great morning! Thanks again for having us Lisbeth Valdez ! 👏🏾👏🏾

I am loving #GreatExpectations by Vinson Cunningham .

✅ Style reminiscent of Henry James
✅ Fictionalized version of Obama at center of narrative
✅ Flashback to 2008 when the world seemed so full of promise and optimism 😭😭

I had the opportunity to see a master teacher in action. Andrea Harris still has it! Students at Travis Bobcats were evaluating text evidence and developing their reasoning with the help of this #RLArockstar . 👏🏾👏🏾 📝 📝

Biggest takeaway from Region 10 ESC RLA STAAR bootcamp: empower students to evaluate text evidence. Give them the inference or thesis. Have Ss discuss which TE is weak/strong & explain their rationale verbally. If they can discuss it, they can write it. Chandra Shaw Jennifer Gunn 👍🏽👍🏽

So many fun & thought-provoking research questions! Great work, E2 GT scholars! 👏🏾👏🏾

Huge shout-out to Dr. M at Nimitz High School . Her ESL students are using text evidence to support inferences about Lady Macbeth’s complex character traits! You do not always have to assign a full essay to practice evidence-based responses! 👍🏽👍🏽

Ms. O at Irving High School understood the assignment. She’s having students practice applying the ECR rubric to sample argumentative student responses, discussing strengths & rooms for growths, & self-evaluating their own DCA writing. This is how you grow writers! Great work, 🐯 🐯!