Sarah M. Zerwin

Sarah M. Zerwin is a high school English and language arts teacher at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, with roughly two to three decades of classroom experience in secondary English education. She holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction (Secondary Literacy) from the University of Colorado Boulder (2009), a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction (Secondary Literacy) from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (2003), and a BA in English language and literature from the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2014, she received a High School Teacher of Excellence award from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Zerwin is the author of Point-Less: An English Teacher’s Guide to More Meaningful Grading (Heinemann, 2020), a book that outlines ways for teachers to move away from traditional, points-based grading toward feedback systems that better support student learning. She has also written Step Aside: Strategies for Student-Driven Learning with Secondary Readers and Writers (2024), extending her focus on student-centered literacy instruction. In addition to her work in the classroom, she has served as an instructional coach, taught university methods courses, and worked as a teacher consultant with the Colorado Writing Project, sharing her assessment and literacy practices with educators nationally.