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Sarah Cooper

Reflecting & Storytelling About Teaching

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Category: Writing

“Advice for Teachers Who Want to Write a Book,” Education Week Teacher

April 5, 2020April 19, 2020 Sarah Cooper

Writing a book about teaching is not as hard as it seems. You don’t need an agent, and cold submissions can be very successful. In 2007, I had been teaching for almost a decade, always fascinated by curriculum design… Continue reading

Posted in Storytelling, Writing

“What Students Can Learn by Writing to Politicians,” MiddleWeb

February 10, 2020March 23, 2020 Sarah Cooper

Writing a letter to a politician is about as “civic” an assignment as we can do within our classroom walls, and it feels especially relevant in our polarized political climate. For the first two years that my U.S. history and civics students wrote these letters, though, I didn’t quite… Continue reading

Posted in Civics, Writing

“Making Annotations with Less Pain, More Meaning,” MiddleWeb

November 18, 2019March 23, 2020 Sarah Cooper

I’m an annotation geek, and my students know it. Whether in English or history, I’m that teacher: the one who asks students to interact constantly with the text as they read. This could be in the margins if they’re looking at a handout… Continue reading

Posted in Research, Writing

“The Top Skill We Can Teach Our Students: Context,” MiddleWeb

March 25, 2019June 20, 2019 Sarah Cooper

Why do we want to make our students into historians? Not because even a fraction of a percent of them might become writers or professors – but because “doing history” teaches life skills hard to learn… Continue reading

Posted in Research, Writing

“‘Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice,'” MiddleWeb

October 4, 2018June 17, 2020 Sarah Cooper

Linda Christensen and Dyan Watson’s Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice had me at its title, which promises the perfect blend of art and activism. After I read the introduction to the first chapter, I realized this book might promise even more than that… Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, Writing

“An Op-Ed Project Based on Personal Choice,” MiddleWeb

July 29, 2018June 6, 2019 Sarah Cooper

Assigning opinion pieces on current issues gives our students voice and lets us hear their strong and sometimes fiery perspectives. When I’ve assigned op-eds in both world and U.S. history, students have responded best when… Continue reading

Posted in Civics, Research, Writing

“Inspiring Active Citizenship Across Disciplines,” NAIS Independent Ideas Blog

March 19, 2018June 17, 2020 Sarah Cooper

A recent one-day professional growth workshop epitomized what I hope students will take away from my classes: a sense that their well-informed communication can change the world. The event, Poetic Convergence, was on a Saturday, and it took more than an hour… Continue reading

Posted in Civics, WritingTagged Research, Writing

“Stepping Back and Letting My Students Go,” MiddleWeb

October 22, 2017June 8, 2019 Sarah Cooper

Why did I worry? In my last blog post, I wrote about my fears surrounding a new project. My eighth-grade U.S. history students had chosen an issue they cared about in the news, and they were about to write and film spoken word poems about it. I was nervous, and… Continue reading

Posted in Civics, Writing

“Starting from Scratch: Spoken History Poems”

September 24, 2017June 8, 2019 Sarah Cooper

Right now I’m barreling into the year with a project I’m beyond excited about. It asks students to choose a current issue in the news and then write and film their own spoken word poem about it. This spoken word poetry project feels unusual (okay, scary) to me in a number of ways… Continue reading

Posted in Civics, Writing

“Browsing History with a Silent Discussion,” MiddleWeb

March 15, 2016June 8, 2019 Sarah Cooper

For adults who love history, the spark of the past arrives not in packaged textbook bites but in zingers that we can’t forget. We see a historical reference in the newspaper and can’t wait to share it with our breakfast table companions – children, partners, dogs, cats… Continue reading

Posted in Civics, Writing

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