Essential Questions in Lesson Plans It’s easy to get swept away in content and forget to include essential questions in lesson plans. This is especially important when teaching reading in ELA classrooms where skill development can overshadow the heart of humanities. Essential questions are the perfect fusion. A questioning reader is a curious reader. Below…
Questions for Book Club I have struggled to succeed with book clubs (or literature circles) throughout my teaching. This year I was able to break through with powerful questions for book club that both enriched my practice and sustained my students. Powerful Questions for Book Clubs in High School What if I set up book…
November 2023 YA New Releases I was pretty selective with these November 2023 YA new releases. I think very purposefully about what my students will actually read–and what may not be available in my school library. I want my classroom library to be a place where students find something special and personal–something that speaks to…
October 2023 YA Book Releases October 2023 YA Book Releases are about more than just Halloween. There’s even a Christmas title that won me over. Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello Let’s get Christmas out of the way first. An African-American boy who works at his family’s bookstore falls in love with a fellow…
How to Do Literary Analysis When I became an English teacher, I don’t think I realized how much of my time would be spent on teaching how to “do” literary analysis. For me, it was something I just did–not necessarily because I was super talented, but because I wasn’t afraid to read something, have an…
Keep your classroom library current with these amazing September 2023 YA new releases. Secrets Never Die by Vincent Ralph An exciting thriller where a former child star’s secrets come to life. Male POV. I can see pairing it with books like We Were Liars by e. lockhart or I Know What You Did Last Summer.…
Thematic Lesson Plan in English There are several ways to organize units of study in classes–a timeline, or by text or skill, but my favorite is a thematic lesson plan in English–and not for the reasons you might think. What is a thematic unit plan? A thematic unit plan is a collection of lessons that…
August YA Book Releases 2023 Get ready for back to school with these fabulous new books! All You Have To Do by Autumn Allen I am so excited for this book. It’s told in two overlapping narratives. The first is set on an Ivy League campus in the wake of MLK Jr.’s assassination. The other…
Professional Reading for Teachers These titles are not new, but it takes me awhile to get through my professional TBR pile as I prefer to go slow and focus on fewer titles. Do you! Literacy as Liberation, Visible Learning for Literacy, and Cultivating Genius Literacy is Liberation by Dr. Kimberly Parker First, I am so…
Back to School Activities for High School As I planned back-to-school activities for high school students this year, I thought long and hard about what experiences and values I wanted to center, using that to drive what we did. The results are so great. First, I wanted everyone to connect with me in some way.…
