Sean Ziebarth, Teacher at Fountain Valley High School, Orange County, California

Student writing is the focus of this session of Educator to Educator. Sean Ziebarth, a high school English teacher at Fountain Valley High School, shares how he has his students engage in the writing process. He shares strategies about the writing process, how he approaches feedback on student writing, and how he has students use technology to facilitate their writing.

Sean mentioned several resources during the session. These have been provided below.

Resources Mentioned.

• Lo-fi Technique for writing: Question Formulation Technique lesson plan: http://bit.ly/BOLDqft
• Thinking Framework developed with his buddy (David Theirualt): SQUIDD framework lesson plan: http://bit.ly/BOLDsquid
•  Want to know more about Single-point Rubrics?

Books.

• Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon (Editorial: I highly recommend you follow Austin Kleon on Twitter and subscribe to his weekly email blog summary).
• Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite & the Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz
• English Composition as a Happening by Geoffrey Sirc

Sean’s sketchnotes (what is a sketchnote?) on Twitter #sircsummer

What if we used these as criteria for student writing? Does it pique curiosity, raise awareness? #sircsummer pic.twitter.com/hudmp2nZtE

— Sean Ziebarth (@MrZiebarth) July 9, 2015

• Reading the Way of Things  by Daniel Coffeen

YouTube Video. Sean mentioned the following video: Can skateboarding save our schools?

You can find Sean on Twitter @MrZiebarth

Bio.

After working in the music industry for sixteen years, as a disc jockey and later as an A&R rep, Sean began his teaching career at his alma mater—Fountain Valley High School. Sean teaches AP English Language and Composition and journalism as the adviser of both the student newspaper (Baron Banner) and video broadcast (BBN). He also launched and continues to co-ordinate a teacher-led Instructional Rounds process at his campus. In 2015 Sean was recognized as the Huntington Beach Union High School District Teacher of the Year. He rides his skateboard in empty pools.