How to Use Visual Texts in the ELA Classroom Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! I’m sure they’re out there, but I have yet to meet the student who insists on reading the book rather than watching the movie version of a story. That said, […]
English Language Learners
Over 11 percent of students in the United States—more than 4.8 million kids—are English language learners (ELLs), and the number is on the rise. Though these students do not learn differently than their native-English-speaking peers, they do have particular educational needs.
Posted inTechnology
How I Use Apps to Improve Family Engagement
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Parent communication is one of the most critical aspects of teaching. Without it, parents will not be informed about what is going on in the classroom, and teachers can feel less supported. It can also get easily pushed aside […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Students Deserve the Right to Fail
Jonah Simcha Chaim Muskat-Brown, MSW The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word failure in 3 ways: A lack of success in some effort; A situation or occurrence in which something does not work as it should; An occurrence in which someone does not do something that should be done. A quick Google search revealed other […]
Posted inCulturally Responsive Teaching
My Twenty-Five Minute Lunchtime Lesson on Humility
I went to Google during my lunch break to look up the phone number for our pediatrician. While searching, I came upon a different pediatrics practice that sports this as their logo: We’ve lived in Germany for a long time, and I’ve grown accustomed to (but certainly not accepting of) the use of blackface and […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
In Protest – Picture Books to Read with Your Students before Someone Tries to Ban Them
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! By Julie Letofsky A Tennessee school board bans Maus, Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust because of two curses and “its depiction of violence and suicide.” A Texas woman wants to ban a Michelle Obama biography from school […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
“This Book Saves Lives!” Why You Should Teach The Stars Beneath Our Feet.
In my eighth-grade English Language Arts classroom, reading was an experience. It was an opportunity to connect, express, discuss, motivate, and debate. No book demonstrated this more than The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore. There will be NO spoilers in this piece (well nothing that you can’t find out by reading the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Assigning a Research Paper? Think About Rigor, Responsibility, and Relevance in English/Language Arts
As English language arts teachers, we need to teach the language of doing business along with the literary arts. Thesis We teach literary research and other standard ELA concepts because students will be able to transfer the skills. Simply put, if students can research the imagery of Emily Dickinson’s poems, they can, likewise, research blood-alcohol […]
Posted inEnglish Language Learners
Paving the Way: Teacher Modeling to Improve Student Writing
by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, Ed.D. Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar is an associate English professor at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania teaching first-year writing and secondary education English classes. She previously worked for fifteen years as an English teacher in Delaware public schools. She received her Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership with a Literacy Specialization from the […]