Summer break is running out for many school districts around the county, and teachers are slowly starting to get back into planning mode. For secondary ELA teachers, that means digging out the short stories they will be teaching this year. Many teachers use short stories to teach Reading standards with the idea that students can […]
Literacy
Posted inInstructional Strategies
Getting Students to Write (Part 1)
Getting students to write can be difficult. For students who don’t like writing, being confronted with a lengthy writing task will turn down the will and up the resistance quick. Think about it: they are uncomfortable for a reason. Who knows why: unsure of their skills, confused by the task, maybe just uninterested in that […]
Posted inAdult Learning
Teaching With Minecraft EDU
I’m one of those crazies that actually enjoy professional development workshops, at least the ones that we don’t have to do every single year like blood-borne pathogens and diabetes.  Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the best professional development: Minecraft EDU. This session was based on the popular game Minecraft but with an educational […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching Romeo and Juliet to Beginning Level English Learners
Guest Writer: Karissa Knox Sorrell Teaching English Learners who are new to the country and are non-English speakers is a challenge at every grade, but it can be particularly challenging at the high school level when students have to earn credits, pass multiple state end-of-course exams, and engage with complex texts on a daily basis. With […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Dissing the Family Crazies: A Christmas Story
Ahhhh… the two weeks teachers wait for that never seem to get here fast enough. I was so ready to be done with 2018 I had a collection of white flags hidden in my desk that I found myself waving ever so slightly throughout that last week of school. So as I got off of […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Book Talks
Over the past five years, I have built my classroom library from just 104 books to over 1100 high-interest young adult literature spanning from realistic fiction to nonfiction to fantasy & sci-fi to historical fiction. While I routinely do Book Talks each week–among other things–to get kids interested and engaged with my classroom library, I […]
Posted inLiteracy
3 Reasons to Burn Reading Logs
On Twitter recently, I came across a post by Nicholas Emmanuele about reading logs.  He posted: I’ve seen the distaste for #reading logs recently.  Can someone define them for me? Is it the reading duration?  The regularity? The deadlines? The assignments attached to them? I’m genuinely curious what counts as a reading log and what […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
180 Days: Writing and Reading Maps and Mentors for A Year in ELA
As an ELA teacher, I do a lot of reading. During the school year I try to read as much Young Adult Lit as possible so I can share it with my 8th graders, but during the summer I read more adult titles and I try to squeeze in at least one professional title. Last […]