About Holly |
Experience
Holly has spent the last 30 years serving students, teachers, and administrators. She has assumed numerous roles throughout her career, Middle and High School English Teacher, Advanced Placement Coordinator, Instructional Coach, Content Director, Professional Learning Coordinator as well as Director of Strategic Planning. With this variety of roles, Holly has a deep knowledge of literacy as well as leadership, federal and state policy, accountability, and coaching for both teachers and administrators.
Holly is passionate about the teaching and learning of patterns that allow students to become better writers and readers - teaching grammar in a way that sticks and builds from where students are, not where we hope they will be. She also has a passion for curriculum and lesson planning that infuses reading and writing to ensure that secondary classrooms use time effectively and efficiently in order for students to gain skills and bridge gaps in learning.
Author
Having been a fan, and friend, of Jeff Anderson for many years, Holly was thrilled to become part of the Patterns of Power family
by co-writing the High School book. Having Middle and High School experience, she enjoys opportunities to support secondary schools with implementing effective grammar instruction. The process differentiates learning to include all learners as well as offers a different way to approach grammar, as many secondary students have experienced worksheets, Grammar Boot Camp, and a variety of online programs.
by co-writing the High School book. Having Middle and High School experience, she enjoys opportunities to support secondary schools with implementing effective grammar instruction. The process differentiates learning to include all learners as well as offers a different way to approach grammar, as many secondary students have experienced worksheets, Grammar Boot Camp, and a variety of online programs.
Patterns of Power, Grades 9–12: Teaching Grammar Through Reading and Writing Jeff Anderson, Travis Leech, and Holly Durham In this detailed look at how the Patterns of Power invitational process supports the specific needs of high school writers, Jeff Anderson along with veteran literacy leaders, Travis Leech and Holly Durham, show teachers how to create an environment where writers study and appreciate the beauty and meaning of grammar and conventions, rather than memorizing what is always wrong or always right. Aligned with common standards and full of use-tomorrow resources, this extension of the acclaimed Patterns of Power series, will help you tune your high school writers into the powerful patterns in language that inspire us, affect us, and makes space for growth and meaning to unfold. |
“Up early one morning, I thought I’d skim this book while sipping that first cup of coffee. The skimming stopped almost immediately as I began reading slowly to catch every idea, to understand each teaching move, to jot my own notes in my journal. My coffee grew cold and was forgotten. I was watching master teachers Jeff, Travis, and Holly make things such as colons and commas, apostrophes and appositives, phrases and fragments become more than things to be learned; instead, they were turning conventions of language into conversations I wanted to have with kids. Filled with the well-designed lessons that show you how to move kids from noticing to naming to using, this is a book that won’t sit on your bookshelf. It will stay beside you as it guides you through lessons that actually help kids think about how they write.”
—Kylene Beers, coauthor of Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading and Forged by Reading: The Power of a Literate Life
—Kylene Beers, coauthor of Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading and Forged by Reading: The Power of a Literate Life