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.

Unlocking Bi-Literacy Potential: Nurturing Linguistically Diverse Middle School Learners

Congratulations! You’re well into the first semester now. You’re developing new and solid relationships with your learners and creating a classroom culture of inclusion and learner safety.

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.

AP Euro: Catherine The Great–Englightened Or Not?

One of the greatest rewards of teaching history is when students are able to show that they can think in a complex manner and recognize that history is often muddled with differing interpretations and controversies. Catherine the Great is one of the more complex rulers that students must study in AP

Hispanic Heritage Month: 6 Books to Add to Your Classroom Library

Back in college, an older Latino gentleman asked me, “When you have kids one day, are you going to raise them as Mexican or white?” The question threw me for bit because of how out of the blue it was, but I answered, “I’ll probably raise my kids the same way I was raised.” He immediately responded,...

ELA Activity: Practice Annotating Texts

Annotation is a life skill, especially for our college-bound students. Reading something with a purpose, a strategy to comprehend at a higher level, and interact with a text are all things every person needs to function in our society. It is our job as educators to help nurture that skill as we...

Top 5 Takeaways From the 2023 AP® Language Exam

While the 2023 AP English Language and Composition exam represents year 4 of assessment using the analytic scoring guide and year 3 of the changes to the multiple choice section, for me personally, it truly felt like the 22-23 school year was the very first “normal” instructional year since the...