6 YA Books to Put You in the Holiday Spirit
Light the menora, hang the mistletoe, and slip on your fuzzy socks—here are 6 YA books that will help get you in the holiday spirit!
ELA: Beyond Sentence Writing for Vocab Comprehension
Teaching vocabulary—integrated in a text or in isolation—can be tricky when it comes to thinking of engaging ways to create meaning. We fall back on the old “write a sentence that shows the meaning of the word” assignment. But we all know that when students are developing an understanding of a...
ELA Activity: Eavesdropping Poetry
In this creative writing activity, secondary ELA students will use what they overhear in the hallways to write poems! Download the lesson template and hear from ELA teacher Jennifer Nash how she implemented this activity in her classroom!
Reflections from the 2023 AP Literature Reading
This summer, I had the privilege of scoring Question 2 at the AP Literature Reading. I had not been to the reading in a few years, taking off the summer of 2021 and serving on the standard setting panel in 2022. I was reenergized by seeing all of our collective efforts in motion. After my hiatus,...
What's Trending? 5 YA Fantasy Books Teens Love
I’m a #BookTok-er. It’s basically my entire For You Page (#FYP). And when you’re on BookTok, you come across repetitive recommendations.
ELA: Instagram Activity for Learning Vocabulary
For this activity, students are tasked with creating an Instagram post imagining that their assigned vocabulary word was a person posting on social media. All aspects of the post should relate to the meaning of the vocabulary word. It is more than okay if more than one student is assigned the same...
Middle School ELA: Words of Doom
"The “Words of Doom” were an addition to our spelling instruction in middle school ELA. They could easily be adjusted or modified for upper elementary classrooms.
AP Literature: Character Layers Analysis Activity
We are all constantly practicing the skill of character analysis. I remind my often insecure students of this fact before we dive into a difficult text. We are constantly asking ourselves questions like—Why did I just say that to my mom? What motivated my friend to get back with her jerk boyfriend?...
Practical Tips and Strategies for Welcoming English Language Learners into Your Middle School Classroom
It’s that time! The school year is beginning and you’re ready to welcome up to 180 new learners into your classroom. Whether you’re in your first year of teaching or your thirty-fifth, the first day of school can bring both excitement and trepidation.
