Margin Notes

Last week, we shared the New York Times Learning Network’s new 15-minute lessons. They’re one part of a much larger collection of resources for Grades 6–12 teachers. The Learning Network has also released its 2026–27 writing curriculum.

We’ve highlighted this curriculum before, and this year’s curriculum is worth another look. It brings together writing prompts, mentor texts, guides, student examples, and optional contests.

Here’s what you’ll find in the 2026–27 lineup:

• Writing and Creating in the Age of A.I.: A new three-part introductory lesson asking students why people write and what changes when they use A.I. to help them compose.
• Everyday Practice: Student Opinion questions and Picture Prompts for short, regular writing.
• The Tiny Memoir: A personal narrative of just 100 words.
• The “Coming of Age” Project: A visual piece about growing up in 2026, accompanied by a written artist statement.
• The STEM Video: A short video built around a question and an interview with an expert.
• The Open Letter: An evidence-based argument addressed to someone who can make a change.
• The Podcast: An original audio piece on a topic and in a format students choose.
• Independent Reading and Writing: Responses to something students choose to read, watch, or listen to in The Times.

The curriculum page links to resources for each piece, including guides and examples of student work. There’s also a “Want More?” section with materials from past projects, such as cultural reviews, how-to writing, photo essays, and poetry. Teachers can spend so much time looking for resources online, so we wanted to highlight this as a great place to start.

Summarizing is a comprehension skill that is often misinterpreted as simple. In fact, it requires thinking about what to include, noting the main idea and organizing the details clearly and concisely.

“You Decide,” from Next Steps in Literacy Intervention, is a routine that helps students organize ideas before they write.

The Routine

Give students a set of words pulled from a text:

• key vocabulary
• character traits
• actions
• content terms

Students Task:

• group the words
• name each group
• use the groups to build a sentence or short summary

This process makes thinking visible and helps students organize ideas before writing a full summary. It can also support using new vocabulary that was explicitly taught in the pre-reading.

Example from Next Steps:

Words: hesitant, shrieked, shy, scowled, reserved, fumed

Students might group:

• Character traits: hesitant, shy, reserved
• Communication/actions: shrieked, scowled, fumed

From there, they can write:
The character is shy and reserved, but reacts strongly when others shriek or fume.

Try This Tomorrow

• Pull 6–10 words from a text you’re already using
• Give students the categories (if they need this scaffold)
• Ask them to sort the words and explain their thinking
• End with one sentence using at least 2–3 of the words

Once students can do this with support, remove the categories and have them create their own.

Routine from Next Steps in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessment to Effective Interventions by Deb Glaser and Susan M. Smartt

New York Times Learning Network posted What Teenagers Are Saying About How They Grew and Changed This School Year which, as the title suggests, shares short student reflections on how students changed over the school year. Students write about growth, challenges, friendships, and shifting mindsets.

Use these as mentor texts before asking students to write their own reflections.

1. Read Mentor Texts

Select 4–6 short excerpts from the article with a range of themes (academic growth, friendships, challenges, confidence).

As students read, ask:

• What stands out?
• What changed for the writer?
• What feels specific or honest?

2. Mini-Lesson: 

Model one excerpt with annotation to highlight:

• summary + reflection (what happened + what it meant/what changed)
• Transition phrases that signal change
• Details as evidence of change

Show students how many writers use transition language to signal the change, such as:

3. Discuss to Generate Ideas

In pairs or groups:

• Which reflection feels most relatable?
• What patterns show up across responses?
• What experiences could you write about?

Students list possible writing topics.

4. Write Own Reflection

Prompt:

How have you changed this school year?

• What did you learn about yourself?
• What shifted in your thinking or behavior?
• What do you understand differently now?

Students write more effectively when they first read models of real student reflection, talk about them, and identify possible ideas before drafting. Try this tomorrow or add it to your repertoire of ideas from last week’s post on 10 Ideas for Reflecting at the End of a School Year.

Article: I’m a Typo, and in This Age of AI, I’m the Real Hero by Julie Vick

*preview for language

Using AI in writing is a topic that is on the rise in education communities. It seems like everyone is using AI and students notice and have opinions. This monologue by Julie Vick, written from the point of view of a typo, is a great text to open two classroom conversations: AI and writing voice, and how humor is a craft to be studied.

Using AI to Write:

The argument of this monologue is that AI is taking the life (human) out of writing. The point of Vick’s piece is that AI can produce technically flawless writing, but flawless doesn’t always mean human. Through humor, the typo reminds us that imperfections often signal personality, risk-taking, and authentic voice.

Potential Discussion Questions:

• What does AI do well and what has it yet to perfect?
• What do you think when you see typos?
• Where do you notice people using AI for writing? What gives it away?
• Would you rather read flawless writing or writing with a human voice?

Craft Study:

• What makes this piece funny? Students may notice the exaggeration, comparisons, playful digs at AI, self-awareness etc.
• What do you notice about the personification of the typo? What attitude or personality traits are shown? How?
• How does the typo having a personality play into the message?
• Which line shows the humor or personality the most? Why choose that line?

Maggie Smith’s “The Before Picture”

I was reading Maggie Smith’s new poem “The Before Picture” and noticed how much thinking it demands from the reader. The topic of time/progress/the future is familiar, especially for students preparing for life after high school, but the poem does not explain itself easily. That makes it a complex text for teaching how multiple reads build understanding.

Students should not feel pressure to understand any poem right away. Each read adds another layer. This post models one way to structure purposeful rereads of any complex poem. While I use “The Before Picture” to show what this can look like in practice, the instructional moves are meant to be adaptable to any poem where meaning unfolds over time.

Below is one way to structure purposeful reads, each with a clear instructional focus.

Read 1: Gist Through One Word

Focus: What does this seem to be about so far?

Mini-lesson:
Read the poem aloud. Say something like, I’m not sure what this means yet, so I am trying to pay attention to the words that keep coming up in my mind. One word that keeps coming to mind is “time.” Circle or highlight the word time in the poem and underline a few related words such as before, future, now. Write the word at the top of the page.

Student work (partners or small groups):
Students reread and talk. Each group chooses one word that captures what the poem seems to be about or how it feels (time, change, anxiety, progress, stuck).
They write that word at the top of the poem and lightly mark lines that connect to it.

Emphasize that different words are expected.

Read 2: Imagery and Metaphor Linked to a Word

Focus: How the poet develops one idea

Mini-lesson (teacher models):
Choose one word from Read 1 (for example, time). Assign it a color (blue). Model highlighting imagery or metaphors connected to that word, such as time “dragging…like meat” or the future as “bait.” Add a short margin note with ideas on what those images suggest. Write multiple ideas to show that you don’t have the one right answer, just thoughts worth noting.

Student work:
Each group chooses a different word from Read 1 (for example, anxiety or hesitation) and a different color.
They highlight images or metaphors that support that word and annotate what those images suggest or what feelings they present.

Read 3: Structure and Craft

Focus: How the poem’s structure supports meaning

Mini-lesson (teacher models):
Teach briefly that poets use repetition, line breaks, and pacing intentionally. Model noticing repetition of now or refresh and annotate how it feels repetitive or cyclical, connecting it back to time.

Student work:
Students return to the poem and underline repeated words or phrases, mark short lines or breaks that feel abrupt or dragging and annotate whether these choices may be relevant to their word.

Read 4: Putting It Together

Focus: What the poem seems to be saying overall

Mini-lesson (teacher models):
Model looking across annotations and naming a possible meaning, using phrases like This makes me think the poet is suggesting… Refer directly to imagery and structure without polishing it into a paragraph.

Student work:
Students add final annotations answering:
– what the poem suggests about progress or the future
– why the speaker might prefer the “before”
– what the ending suggests about living in the present

 Read 5: Reader Response

Focus: Moving from thinking to writing

Mini-lesson (teacher models):
Write a short paragraph connecting the poem to your own experience with time or change. Think aloud about choosing evidence from annotations and shaping an idea. You may agree with the speaker’s thoughts or disagree from your own experience.

Student work:
Students use the model to write a paragraph explaining how the poem may connect to teenagers and how they feel about growing up, moving on, facing the future, or whatever message connects to their chosen word.