​This is gonna be quick. Is it just me, or is it starting to seem silly to teach paragraph indentation when no one uses it anymore? Think about the last time you indented a paragraph. Was it in the last 5 years? Emails, blogs, and news articles are usually written in business letter format, skipping a space between paragraphs. It looks better and reads easier than indenting. I think indenting was probably once better than skipping a line because it saved paper. But guess what? Nobody uses paper anymore!

Anyway, I’m going to keep teaching the indented paragraph, but I think soon the conversation about leaving a line between paragraphs and the change that seems to be happening with formatting would be appropriate. English teachers–is it just me?!

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Ariel Sacks

Ariel Sacks began her 13-year teaching career in New York City public schools after earning her master’s degree at Bank Street College and has taught and coached in grades 7-9. She is the author of Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach (Jossey-Bass, 2014) and writes a teaching column for Education Week Teacher.

Ariel’s work as a teacher leader with the Center for Teaching Quality involved her in co-authoring Teaching 2030: What We Must Do For Our Public Schools – Now and in the Future. She was also featured in the CTQ book Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead Without Leaving.

She is currently working on a book about the role of creative writing in equitable, 21st century schools, and she speaks and leads workshops on the whole novels approach.

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