After conversing with a friend on social media, I told him I would recommend some readings that would lean into the reasons for the current protests after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. I have included my recommendations below in two segments: •My Top 15 — Placed in an order that I thought was…
Back on March 13th, 2020 we all left school. I remember that day. It was Friday the 13th. It was the day I walked out and reasoned that it was possible I might not be back during the school year to teach in my classroom. We all left that day thinking that we’d perhaps be…
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne is the central character in the novel The Scarlet Letter. For those of you less-familiar with this story, Prynne is accused of committing the sin of adultery and required to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her outer clothing as a mark of shame. Dr. Seuss employed a similar labelling scheme in…
Those N95 masks we all hear about, the ones that were hoarded and often resold for multiples of their previous price, likely aren’t enough to stop COVID19 from finding your nasal and bronchial passages. This also means that regular medical masks and definitely ones made from simple cloth won’t stop invasion either. Just this morning,…
I have compiled here, to the best of my ability at this time, a list you must follow this weekend as you occupy your dwelling: 1.) Get a good night’s sleep. 2.) Eat well. 3.) Stay away from other people, especially those who are ill. 4.) Watch boring TV. 5.) Read — Oh, got you…
Is it the foxtrot or the tango? A waltz? A flapper dance? None really fit, but the dancing is daily and in full-force. Living in the United States is a whirlwind blur of movement. Everyone moves rapidly and all at once. Everyone stays confined to their circle. There is no crossing over. None is acceptable.…
Here is a letter I sent today to our Hamilton Southeastern School Board Members in reference to their recent 4-3 vote to not include specified wording in Board policies recognizing often marginalized groups. Final vote by the board will be taken at the May 8 board meeting: Dear HSE Board — I am writing in…
Pearce Writing Guide For High School Students *I use a series of symbols to mark your paper. In the text of your paper, you’ll see the symbol. It is then your job to reference this guide to improve on the error made. Grammar & Mechanics Areas: RO = Run-On Sentence If you have RO…
Originally posted on Pearce Writing:
Too many times students make thesis statements much harder than they should. Students seem to think that complexity equals clarity which is about as far from truth as they can venture. What students need is a clear, concise thesis statement that leads the reader where the student writer wants that…
Team comes before individual. Always. Period.
Thesis statements are a key to academic writing.
Here are the books I have fully enjoyed reading in 2018! I hope I haven’t left any out! CLICK ON EACH BOOK AUTHOR/TITLE TO SEE MORE ON AMAZON. Agrawal, Ajay, Gans, Joshua, and Avi Goldfarb Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence Albright, Madeleine Fascism: A Warning Arsenault, Raymond Freedom Riders: 1961…
In high school and college writing, students are often asked to write using evidence from texts they are reading during class. As part of that process, they are asked to justify a position using a piece or pieces of quoted evidence as backing of that position. There are several segments that must be formed in…
So this is where it begins. I get this email from a student who was in my class about eight years ago. In the email, the student states that she finished her aeronautical engineering degree and is employed now at Boeing. She’s not writing, though, just to tell me she works at Boeing. Pretty quickly,…
Welcome to the 20 minute rant! Rules of the 20 minute rant are simple: 1.) Write for 20 minutes. Just 20 minutes. No more, no less. 2.) Write about something current to today that was in the mind. That’s it! Simple rules! Schools today are so afraid. They are afraid of parents, they are afraid…
Pearce Writing 