Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire: Chapter 4

This chapter was extremely important because it was about writing – and, as Rafe explains, “writing might just be the key that unlocks a child’s heart.” He lays out 4 ways to create good writers: daily grammar, weekly essays, monthly reports, and yearly books.

            Rafe explains that grammar should be worked on every day, and that it’s all about practice, practice, practice. He says his students actually enjoy grammar and wish to succeed for 3 main reasons: 1. English is the second language for all of them, and they want to use it correctly, 2. They don’t want to take work home, and 3. They don’t want to have to rewrite their grammar. In his classroom, students don’t get a bad grade on their grammar assignments, they simply have to redo the work until they achieve at least a 90%.

            He also assigns weekly essays and monthly book reports. These help teach children about time management, and also allow him to spend the necessary time helping with and grading assignments.

            Perhaps most importantly, he assigns a yearlong project called “The Young Authors Project”. This is an assignment I’m excited to incorporate into my own classroom: each child spends a year carefully writing a story of their own, and including illustrations. They work on them mostly in class, and he meets with them individually to help. Many of Rafe’s students told him later that this was the one assignment they could never get rid of. These books are very important to them.