Marcus Luther 

The Broken Copier - October 3, 2025

Original Article

So here we go: four different strategies I use from time to time, and especially during heavier times, to try and uplift students in the classroom:

Ask if you can take a picture, use it as an example

As I shared a month ago with Jennifer Gonzalez’s The Cult of Pedagogy, I continue to be a huge fan of finding ways to center the work of students in the classroom. With student writing, I frequently showcase anonymous high-quality and innovative exemplars—with the added benefit that the student who wrote it knows that their own work is being affirmed in front of the entire classroom.

However, the downside of showcasing anonymous examples is that it removes the opportunity for the request to share those examples.

Seriously: sometimes a student’s entire body reacts when you walk over, take a look at their work, and then kindly ask, “Can I take a picture of this to use as an example for others?”

The question really does the work by itself.

Why I love this move? This move puts the ball in the student’s court in deciding if they’d like to share it or not—and it can also be a written note on a returned assignment (see example of a written request at the beginning of this section).

Just like the first move, too, I think the praise lands more substantively when you attach it to the rationale that their work is high-enough quality that you want to use it to help support their peers as well as potential future students.