Literacy for All How do we create an inclusive world with literacy for all? 54% of U.S. adults read at or below the sixth grade level. These adults (and you know them) can experience anxiety, confusion, and embarrassment with adult-level reading tasks. They can miss opportunities for advancement. They can become easy targets for those…
Narrative Structure How would Gustav Freytag, a 19th century playwright, feel about the proliferation of triangles modeled after his narrative structure analysis of the five-act play? I don’t know, but there are a lot of products for it on TpT. Ah, the legacy of Freytag! The theory itself, that narrative structure consists of 5 parts…
Teaching Text Structure I haven’t always focused on teaching text structure as a reading comprehension and writing skill, but now I will never not teach it. Teaching text structure allows me to teach writing skills and then transfer them directly to reading texts to see how published authors use the skills we are learning while…
Literary Examples It’s time to return my classroom to the literary. The literary examples of teaching are the ones I fell in love with first as a student, and then a teacher. Getting lost in a book. Stunning discussions. Laboring in love through drafts of my writing to get every word just right. Right now,…
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…
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…
