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.
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,...
There are so many more interesting methods to writing a character analysis than writing an analysis paragraph. Oftentimes, English or language arts teachers forget that there is creativity in language and we should embrace it while also staying on track to grade based on our standards or curriculum...
I just finished my tenth year teaching high school English and let me tell you, teens like to read… well, most of them. Some of you might be doubting me, but hang on!
The goals of ELA instruction in middle and high school range from developing basic reading comprehension and writing skills to reading and writing critically and analytically. National standards for middle and high school ELA include objectives targeting lower-level skills like explicit text...
Students' favorite streaming services, movies, and video games are all packed with compelling storytelling. To get them more excited about reading, I like to recommend books similar to my students' favorite shows. I have a bulletin board in my school's English hallway with "If you liked ____ try...
We've all been there– you hear endless praise for a book and buy it, fully intending to learn what all the hype is about. But then it sits on your TBR shelf for months collecting dust.
Join us for a conversation in partnership with Simon & Schuster with women YA and children's authors about the experience of being a woman in the publishing space, how identity informs writing, and writing to young audiences.About our panelists:Alicia D. Williams is the author of Genesis Begins...
Whether teaching literature or rhetoric, close reading is an essential and often difficult skill to teach. This note-taking system, which is a modification of the Cornell note system, helps students slow down and examine a text closely through a structured approach that requires them to summarize...
Carmel McDonald walks you through how she walks her middle school ELA students through narrative structure with an interactive plot map. Download her worksheet below!
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