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…
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…
