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Sometimes it seems crazy to be a writer. I sit in front of a computer for hours at a time, all by myself (well, except for Twitter friends, my cat, and the occasional coffee shop barista). It takes months to write one novel, and there’s no guarantee the novel will ever be published. In fact, I have spent years working on several manuscripts that will never be published. I’ve been rejected hundreds of times. I’ve given up sleep and social events to meet deadlines. I’ve battled writer’s block (and lost, badly).

I love to write. Writing makes me feel as though I am plumbing depths of myself that I do not always know exist. I’m often surprised by my writing because the words somehow magically appear on the paper, having flowed not from my mouth but from my fingers, somehow also bypassing my conscious brain.

In my personal life, I write to figure out what I think and feel about things. In my professional life, I write for content marketing, using good stories to support an organization’s brand.

Formative assessment has been around for decades in various programs and practices. Benjamin Bloom, so well-known for his Taxonomy of Learning Domains, emphasized the need for instructional differentiation that matched the needs of each student.

The presidential election will be here before we know it! Even though Election Day is November 8, there are many current events that will take place between now and then that will undoubtedly create an opportunity for teaching and learning in your classroom. To help with that, we have compiled a list of resources that will get your students talking and writing about this important aspect of government.

I love attending writing conferences. It's exciting to come together with other writers and share our experiences. While in New York, I found myself not only learning and growing as a writer, but also thinking about the writing sites and the students and teachers we work with. One of my favorite parts about my job at MI is the overlap between my writing life and my MI life, so I thought I would bring a little of that overlap back to you.

Have you been watching the 2016 Olympic Games? So far, the United States is leading in total medal count, with 32, and gold medal count, with 11. Go team USA!

But there's more to the Olympics than medal count. There are many lessons to be learned from watching the world's top athletes compete (and dominate) in their sport. Even more specifically, we can take some of these lessons and apply them to writing.

The Literacy and NCTE blog recently shared a guest post by Rahul Malayappan, a high school senior who was also a finalist in the 2016 Atlantic & College Board Writing Prize Contest. Rahul's post gives so much insight into the writing process, including his initial lack of interest, the importance of peer review, his moments of inspiration, and the value of what he learned along the way. By the time his experience came to an end, Rahul's entire concept of the writing process had changed.

You teach the lesson, assign homework, and grade assignments. But how do you know it's all working? How do you know that all of your students are benefiting from the instruction? PEG Writing can help answer these questions.