A Little Cheese with that Whine?

Participants in my writing workshops have heard me get on my soapbox about the value and power of a good rubric. (In fact – I rarely limit this to my writing workshops, this is how strongly I feel on the topic!) I firmly believe that we need to provide students with explicit criteria for their success in order to give them a fair shot in education. To that point – I have often shared a rubric on whining that I have internalized when working with teachers and students!!

Via A Year of Reading I found this great companion piece to the rubric which would also make a great listening/note-taking exercise for students. NPR recently held an interview on “The Joys and Perils of Whining at Work’ with Renee Montagne. This 3 ½ minute snippet is great for students to use with 2 column notes (Step Up to Writing strategy). I also envision students writing their own “whines” (voice!), writing their own rules for “Whining in the Classroom” (voice, organization, ideas), or making their own “Joys and Perils of (BLANK) in school podcast (ideas, voice, integration of technology!!)

I am still playing with how I might use this myself but the ideas are certainly flowing – look for it in a workshop soon!




Image from The New Zealand Herald, "Work, the horror of it all."