Novel Worksheets Novel worksheets are a common activity when students read a novel together. It can be difficult to create worksheets that actually teach something about novels in general (and the specific novel they’re reading). Why A Whole Class Novel I don’t only teach novels, but a whole class novel has immense value. It allows…
Teaching Complex Text Don’t start from nothing every time you are teaching complex text. Streamline your work with an influential roadmap. How Complex Texts Should Be Utilized in the Classroom According to researchers like Timothy Shanahan, all students should get the opportunity to read complex grade-level text in order to have the best opportunities to…
Why Fluency is Important Many might wonder why fluency is important for high school students, but it is one of those make-or-break skills. The Four Components There are four components to fluent reading. Phrasing and punctuation. Grouping words together in clusters of meaning by phrases, clauses, and punctuation. Expression (prosody). This is the emotion of…
Teaching Sentence Writing Teaching sentence writing is a powerful and under-utilized tool in the secondary classroom. While it won’t cook your dinner for you, teaching sentence writing can help in a variety of ways. Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com 1. Students can apply grammar and vocabulary knowledge to sentence writing. Grammar and vocabulary are…
Vocabulary Building Strategies So many vocabulary building strategies fall short of the goal–creating readers, writers, and thinkers who can understand and communicate through powerful language. There are reliable (and simple!) alternatives to the easy and fruitless common practices. Photo by Zen Chung on Pexels.com Vocabulary Instruction Improves Comprehension When It Focuses On… ….which of the…
High School ELA Classroom Setup We’ve all “crashed out” during high school ELA classroom setup at the start of the year. Instead, let’s do what’s worth our precious time. Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com What is classroom setup? Classroom setup essentials include the physical space as well as key materials that you’ll use…
Daily Routine Slides Who creates the most content? Not the daily news. Not a Tik Tok influencer. It’s teachers. We create daily routine slides, assignments, lectures, activities, curriculum, data spreadsheets, and family newsletters. The school year is a treadmill of content creation, and you can’t adjust the speed. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com You…
English Project Ideas Some English project ideas are better than others. They are fun and authentic while students learn important critical thinking skills. They are also easy (and able) to be taught and graded. Project Based Writing My best experience with English project ideas is through Project Based Writing by Liz Prather. I’m proud to…
Reading Discussion Activities When people think of reading discussion activities, they often imagine a whole class in a big circle, but if you want breakthrough instruction in both the content and discussion skills, the students must take center stage. Discussion as Teaching Method As a new teacher, I was recommended and read Teaching With Your…
Socratic Seminar Questions Examples Before the pandemic, my students worked with Socratic Seminar questions examples to create incredible discussions, but what about after the pandemic? At the start of the 2023 school year, many of my students told me they hated talking in class–until I organized them for Socratic Seminars. Purpose of Socratic Seminar Socratic…
