Teach Writing Well
Writing assignments you'll want to read. Writing assignments they'll want to write.
Teaching writing has always been labor intensive. Teaching writing in the age of AI requires even more tools to engage our students. This site is dedicated to exploring ideas that have worked.
The writing assignments aren't really "assignments" at all--they become whole units that encourage student writers to build on what they know and write in fresh ways. You won't mind reading this work--and they won't mind writing it.
Assignments that work
About this project.
My name is Paige Pennock. I have almost twenty years of experience teaching all levels of high school English: I’ve worked in public schools and private school, developed curriculum, and taught both standard-level and AP courses. I hold a B.A. in English and Studio Art from Dartmouth College, and a M.S. Ed. from Northwestern University; I am a San Diego Area Writing Project Fellow.
A couple of things led me to this project. One: I found myself dreading assigning literary analysis essays, mostly because I dreaded grading them. But I love teaching literature! I wanted students to love writing about it. And I wanted to be excited to read what those students wrote. Two: I wanted to assign students writing prompts that were fresh an un-plagiarizable--something that has become increasingly significant with the recent rise of AI.
Throughout my career I’ve been working to be a better teacher of writing. I am still working on this—I likely always will be—but the assignments detailed here represent some of my successes.
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