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 […]

Posted inEnglish Language Learners

English in America: Is English Really our “Official” Language in Schools?

English, the “Official” American Language  Although the United States does not have an official language, everyone knows that English is the language of the land. Despite our history of multilingual immigrants who later became Americans, English has always been the “American language.”  Our school system has reinforced this idea and has caused many challenges for […]