Language & Literacy A Writing Life

The Map

Every piece, placed by what it's about — not when it was written

Nearness means kinship. A machine read the whole archive and set each piece down next to the ones it resembles, so neighborhoods form on their own: the literacy essays, the travel chronicles, the years of arguing with school reform, the grief. Drift across it. Hover to peek, click to read. Toggle a color to isolate a family of writing, or turn on the constellation names to see the shapes the archive falls into.

EducationIdeasInner LifeCraft & World
The Reform WarsStandards, Data, and DoubtIntegration and Its EnemiesThe Poetry YearsThe Political DiaryInterconnectionFragments and FreewritesMoney and PovertyCaptions and LinksAgainst ComplacencySchools as Ecosystems, LiterallyLanguage and LiteracyFear and PerceptionThe Classroom InteriorThe Writing Life ItselfThe Physical Environment BookFamily, Fire, and AftermathThe Influence of Acoustics on Learning — 2020 · Schools as EcosystemsThe Influence of Greenery on Learning — 2020 · Schools as EcosystemsGuidance Through the Storm — 2014 · Published ColumnsPhineas Gage (draft) — 2019 · Fiction / New TalesComplilation — 1998 · College PoetryFreewrites — 2018 · Fiction / New TalesBeyond Profiling: Deepening Classroom Discussions About Race — 2015 · Published ColumnsSociology 2 Frontier — 1998 · College EssaysOp-Ed on Reading — 2021 · Essays & Op-EdsLanguage—like reading—may not be innate — 2023 · Language & LiteracyWhy I Left My School — 2012 · Published ColumnsWhat is the problem with “sight words”? — 2022 · Language & LiteracyAssessing and Supporting Word-level Reading — 2019 · Schools as EcosystemsHow Can We Mitigate the Errors in Our Minds? — 2015 · Schools as EcosystemsI think I was wrong about Phonemic Awareness — 2021 · Language & LiteracyThe Science of Reading Across Languages — 2021 · Language & LiteracyWhole to Part to Whole — 2021 · Language & LiteracySpecial Education: An Introduction (series post one) — 2013 · Published ColumnsOn Threshold Concepts and Experiences — 2016 · Schools as EcosystemsOur Brains Were Not Born to Read…Right? — 2021 · Language & LiteracyReplacing SESIS Is Just a First Step to Improving Special Education — 2019 · Published ColumnsLow floor, high ceiling, wide walls in ELA classrooms — 2016 · Schools as EcosystemsLLMs, Statistical Learning, and Explicit Teaching — 2024 · Language & LiteracyGas1 — 1994 · High SchoolHow to Fight Poverty: Provide Options — 2014 · Schools as EcosystemsWhat will it take to improve the conditions for learning in our schools? — 2020 · Schools as EcosystemsOn Depression — 2006 · BubblePhonology: How it Relates to Language and Literacy — 2021 · Language & LiteracyThe Tragedy of the Unsaid — 2014 · BubbleThe Roots of Educational Warfare — 2015 · Schools as EcosystemsA High Quality ELA Block — 2023 · Language & LiteracyThe Riches of Speech-Language Pathology — 2020 · Language & LiteracyResearch Highlight 2: The Language Teachers Use Influences the Language Students Learn — 2023 · Language & LiteracyChristianity — 2007 · Early BlogVictories: Self-Control in the Classroom (GothamSchools) — 2011 · Published ColumnsFuture Building — 2007 · BubblePolitical Shifts — 2008 · Early BlogThoughts On Money & Poverty: Part III — 2008 · BubbleA Finale: Learning to Read and Write is a Remarkable Human Feat — 2022 · Language & LiteracyMusic Now — 2001 · College EssaysSpecial Education: Inclusion or Specialized Intervention — 2017 · Schools as EcosystemsSocial Relationships, Ecology, and Schools — 2014 · Schools as EcosystemsRemote Learning / Social Distancing — 2020 · Schools as EcosystemsWick And The Carpenter — 2007 · Old Docs & MiscThe Myth of the School as Savior of All Social Ills — 2014 · Schools as EcosystemsSnippets of NYC — 2008 · BubbleThe Federalist #10: The Role of Faction — 2013 · BubbleIt Takes More Than a Team — 2022 · Language & Literacyurban stories — 2001 · BubblePublic Schools as Ecosystems: Part III: Open Source Curriculum — 2011 · BubbleOn Video Gaming — 2006 · BubbleEdward — 1994 · High SchoolHappy New Year: An Exorcism and Onward to 2016 — 2016 · Bubble¡Happy New Year's from Medellín! — 2008 · BubbleSpeaking Ourselves into Being and Others into Silence: The Power of Language — 2023 · Language & LiteracyLanguage, Cognition, and LLMs — 2024 · Language & LiteracyA Painful Memory — 2021 · BubbleEnglish 10C — Wiflred Owen Essay 2 — 1999 · College EssaysPhonics is just 30 minutes a day. C’mon! — 2023 · Language & LiteracyComplexity and Community: Beyond Control — 2015 · Schools as EcosystemsWhat is Love? — 2007 · BubbleColor Awareness — 2009 · BubbleEnglish 161 — Percy Shelley — 2000 · College EssaysA New Approach to Sustainable School Reform — 2013 · Schools as EcosystemsOn Segregation: Forcing Integration — 2015 · Schools as EcosystemsThe Toughest Gamut — 2010 · BubbleHow Did New York Become So Segregated? — 2017 · Schools as EcosystemsThe Algebra of Language: Unveiling the Statistical Tapestry of Form and Meaning — 2024 · Language & LiteracyThat D-Day on the Event Horizon — 2011 · BubbleEngagement — 2008 · BubbleScaling Our Capacity for Processing Information — 2024 · Language & LiteracyHow you interpret “the science of reading” depends on how you think of “science”: Part II — 2022 · Language & LiteracyThe Magic of the Rime: Mapping Sounds to Letters — 2019 · Schools as EcosystemsTrivial Mundanities, aka TMs — 2008 · BubbleWhy assessing bilingual children in two languages is just a start — 2023 · Language & LiteracyLessons for both liberals and conservatives from Flint — 2016 · Schools as EcosystemsLoneliness and Our Connection to Others — 2012 · BubbleInside — 1994 · High SchoolRewrite — English 10a Sir Gawain Essay — 1998 · College EssaysThe MLK Memorial and Me — 2012 · BubbleTravel Story — 2008 · BubbleLooking Beyond Election Day — 2008 · BubbleHow to Fight Poverty: Play the Long Game — 2014 · Schools as EcosystemsThe Symbiosis Between Scaffolding and Differentiation — 2018 · Schools as EcosystemsThe Bigger Picture, Based on Our Current State of Affairs — 2008 · BubbleSomewhere — 2007 · Fiction / New TalesWhole — 1993 · High SchoolTime Tells The Best Stories — 2009 · BubbleReflections On My First Year As A Teacher of Special Education — 2010 · BubbleWhere I Am, Virtually Speaking — 2020 · BubbleMore Productive Than an Hour of Instruction? — 2025 · Language & LiteracySES and Permaculture — 2007 · BubbleWe Need Charter AND District Systems: On Private-Public Partnerships — 2015 · Schools as EcosystemsWhy do Americans want to kill themselves and each other? — 2006 · BubbleBuilding an Instructional Core for Student Literacy: Part II — 2018 · Schools as EcosystemsThe Influence of Air Quality on Health and Learning — 2020 · Schools as EcosystemsAccepting the Bad — 2007 · BubbleBuilding an Instructional Core for Student Literacy: Part I — 2018 · Schools as EcosystemsI Wouldn't Have Had It Any Other Way — 2009 · BubbleAn Interlude: What do we mean when we say learning something is unnatural? — 2022 · Language & LiteracyPublic Schools as Ecosystems: Part II — 2011 · Language & LiteracyWar — 2007 · Early BlogSchools & Ecosystems Proposal — 2017 · StandaloneAdvancing Literacy for Black boys — 2022 · Language & LiteracyOn Segregation: The Good and the Ugly — 2014 · Schools as EcosystemsBabel — 2007 · Old Docs & MiscPrivilige — 2007 · Early BlogShortst — 1994 · High SchoolYou Just Have to Let It Go (GothamSchools post 1) — 2011 · Published ColumnsAn Editorial on Societal Culpability for Have-Nots — 2014 · Schools as EcosystemsRain — 1993 · High SchoolEpilogue: From Tahoe to The Bronx — 2017 · Schools as EcosystemsPolice And Use Of Force — 2014 · StandaloneGun Reversal — 2008 · Early BlogMeditations — 2003 · Fiction / New TalesHaircuts — 2018 · Fiction / New TalesIn The Night — 2014 · Fiction / New Talescompilation for Bedient submission — 1998 · College PoetryNew Year'S Post 2018 — 2017 · Fiction / New TalesNostalgia — 2007 · Early BlogI will fill this space — 1998 · College PoetryGrappling With This — 2007 · Early BlogNot A Half Stepper — 2002 · Fiction / New TalesSpectacle — 2001 · Fiction / New TalesStreamflow — 2015 · Fiction / New TalesModern Music for the Divergence draft 4 — 1999 · College PoetryNight I — 1998 · College PoetryNote to God — 1998 · College PoetryCosmogony — 1998 · College PoetryWords — 2003 · Fiction / New TalesTree — 1998 · College PoetryWhen the hills are burning bright draft 2 — 1998 · College PoetryLines in the Concrete draft 2 — 1999 · College PoetryIn this I know — 1999 · College Poetry
The archive, arranged by meaning · 134 pieces Drag to pan · scroll or pinch to zoom