High school English teacher | Exploring dialogue & classroom conversations | Writing about educational practice at https://xitter.gq/t.co/8vSPBkOi9U | Music, books
Bayou Gauche, LA
Joined November 2016
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Rod retweeted
Agree 100%. Be tight on the principles but loose on the practices.. true for teaching-learning and many other domains
I deeply appreciate Christian Moore-Anderson's argument that education shouldn't force a choice between total teacher freedom and rigid lesson scripts. He shows how England's recent push for "consistency" actually made things worse by turning teachers into script-followers. Over time, this created a trap where teachers lost their teaching skills and became dependent on pre-written lessons.
Moore-Anderson explains the key difference between handing teachers complete lesson plans versus giving them high-quality raw materials. When everything is scripted—what to say, when to say it, which worksheets to use—teachers can't adapt to their actual students in real time. They can't have real conversations about learning because there's no room to adjust.
His recommendation: give teachers shared principles (like basic game rules) plus quality resources, then let them decide how to use them. Think of chess—simple rules but endless possibilities. Teachers keep their professional judgment, can adapt to their students' needs, and benefit from collaborating with colleagues. Everyone wins: teachers, students, and schools.
christianmooreanderson.com/t…
Rod retweeted
Let's take a break from all the science.
@rodjnaquin offers a Tagore poem to start the year:
bit.ly/4zfYDlu
Rod retweeted
I am probably in the minority here, but I am teaching my 14 year old how to write effective ai prompts and when not to use vs when to use AI for school.
It isn’t going away and I assume future employment will include using AI. I mean current employment low key already does.
Greg Toppo reports on a Common Sense Media survey of 1,017 U.S. teens ages 13–17. It found 70% use AI for schoolwork. Many use it to brainstorm, get feedback, or understand material, but 63% also said they sometimes go straight to chatbots for answers instead of working through problems on their own.
The article says many teens think AI is affecting how they learn. Some say it reduces original thinking or makes them miss out on learning. School bans often fail because students switch devices. Greg Toppo also notes that few students get teacher guidance on AI safety or on checking whether AI-generated information is accurate. the74million.org/article/sur…
Rod retweeted
Don’t forget the capitals!
Lauren S. Brown, a 7th grade history teacher, argues students should memorize the 50 states—but should already know them from elementary school through puzzles, songs, and geography lessons. After a student couldn't identify Texas, she created three geography quizzes and found all students could master them. She emphasizes public schools must bridge knowledge gaps between students with travel experience and those without. open.substack.com/pub/lauren…
Rod retweeted
When you seek out nuanced wisdom about the curriculum (or anything else in schools), @RodJNaquin's perspective is always a good place to start.
bit.ly/4nw4azf
Rod retweeted
Spinning (literally) the new Kurt Vile album tonight. It’s no Zola, but it’s probably something my buddy @rodjnaquin would be interested in. 😉
(And Philly’s been good to me too)
open.spotify.com/album/5AfEL…
Rod retweeted
I find that the RAND survey is generally being discussed at a surface level, including Robert's column.
The nuances here really matter—both the ones in the RAND report and the ones beyond it.
I wrote about both here:
curriculuminsightproject.sub…
Rod retweeted
In medio stat virtus
I appreciate Korbey's investigation—she documents real problems like students tackling subtraction without fluency or recent practice. Her teacher interviews reveal legitimate curriculum failures. But my friend Andrew Watson would gently note she's treating "productive struggle" as the enemy rather than asking when struggle becomes productive versus counterproductive.
Watson's insight reframes Korbey's findings: the issue isn't struggle itself but struggle without foundation. Both camps want hard thinking; they disagree on sequencing. Korbey shows when "struggle first" fails badly, but Watson reminds us this means we need better timing and scaffolding—not debates over terminology.
learningandthebrain.com/blog…
Rod retweeted
We have a strong culture of writing at @socraticexp because we spend 2-4 hours in intellectual dialogue daily.
I’m following @rodjnaquin because he clearly gets this. And extensive dialogue reduces AI cheating because students come to care about their own ideas, their own convictions, by having them challenged by others and challenging others in turn.
My blog argues that quality writing flows from rich conversation, not vice versa. Schools focus downstream on fixing poor writing instead of upstream on conversational poverty. Drawing on Heath, Bakhtin, and Cabell, I show that humans think dialogically—consciousness emerges through extended dialogue. Classroom exchanges typically die at turn three; real learning happens in turns four, five, six. In an AI age, genuine dialogue is irreplaceable. open.substack.com/pub/rodjna…
Rod retweeted
To my mind, the most powerful question in education (and it can be asked at a classroom level, school level, district level, and state level) is: "Your kids are doing better than mine--what are you doing?" That is the question that drives improvement. But for educators to
Rod retweeted
Really insightful comments about the importance of sequencing in writing instruction.
Check out my convo with Gene Tavernetti on his Better Teaching podcast! We discuss my return to the classroom after years in coaching, why I prioritize dialogue before writing, and how I'm rethinking argumentation instruction. I share the reality of teaching teens with devices and why talk—not templates—builds better writers.
open.substack.com/pub/rodjna…
Rod retweeted
This article supports in person surveying I've done with Ss. They don't want AI grading their work; they want someone with whom they have a relationship, someone that knows them, to provide feedback to help them grow as individuals.
I'm closely following new research showing a troubling gap in AI education tools. A 2026 MIT study gave students identical feedback—some told it was from their TA, others told it was AI. Both groups said the feedback was equally good, but students who thought a real person wrote it worked significantly harder afterward. The takeaway: even high-quality AI feedback fails to motivate students the way human attention does. Students need to feel seen by a real person to stay engaged and persist through challenges.
open.substack.com/pub/drphil…
Rod retweeted
“Schools need to do fewer things better”
Check out my interview with Holly Korbey where I discuss the "systemic incoherence" plaguing schools today. After returning to teach, I saw firsthand how teachers' days are consumed by administrative busy work—learning new digital platforms, incorporating various initiatives, checking boxes—instead of focusing on real teaching and learning. Students face wildly different expectations from class to class with little instructional leadership unifying the direction. There's almost no time dedicated to solving the "problems of practice" that actually affect all teachers. Research shows teachers in supportive, focused environments improve 20% more over five years. Bottom line: schools need to do fewer things better and create space for teachers to tackle fundamental instructional challenges.
open.substack.com/pub/hollyk…
Rod retweeted
‘If students are expending significant cognitive effort on text processing, they simply don’t have the mental resources available for the kind of deep analytical work we want them to do.’
My blog explains how spending 15 minutes daily on reading aloud helps high school students better understand difficult books like The Great Gatsby and Macbeth. I read passages aloud, students practice with partners, and we use professional recordings. This simple routine helps students write better essays, remember quotes, and notice how authors craft their sentences—all while closing the gap between strong and struggling readers.
open.substack.com/pub/rodjna…
Rod retweeted
I do an improv warmup where students craft a summary one word at a time that emphasizes close listening & narrative building. I really like the written examples explored here and am remixing with an exercise today on American Empire.
(The anti-icebreaker brigade is now furious).
I love this idea from Angela Stockman: "ephemeral writing"—small, temporary pieces like notes or postcards—can rebuild trust in classrooms. Students are burnt out writing for grades. Low-stakes, imperfect writing that prioritizes genuine connection over performance can re-engage them through purpose rather than polish. angelastockman.substack.com/…
Rod retweeted
“We have collaboration time. We have norms for meetings. We’re nice to each other. But we’re not systematically solving shared instructional challenges together. We’re being collegial without being coherent.”
My third most popular blog this fall argues schools are incoherent systems where students experience contradictory worlds across classrooms and teachers receive fragmented support. Research shows professional development and evaluations—designed to help teachers—are least connected to actual practice. Real coherence requires aligned priorities, sustained joint work on shared problems, and multi-level support systems working together consistently.
rodjnaquin.substack.com/p/wh…
Rod retweeted
Are AI the most amazing dialogic representation of the human cultural other?
Rupert Wegerif argues we're not isolated individuals but inherently collective beings shaped by shared language, perception, and culture. He defends dialogic engagement with AI as externalizing our collective intelligence rather than anthropomorphizing machines. Using the Earthrise photo and Christmas themes, he suggests education should expand the "we" through dialogue that transcends narrow individualism.
open.substack.com/pub/rupert…
Rod retweeted
For education leaders, "Untimely questions," by @rodjnaquin," and that inquiry, leader as coach and fellow traveler seeking transformation style: open.substack.com/pub/rodjna…