5 Ways to Introduce a Novel
Some books, maybe most, don’t require much introduction. Novels, to some extent, exist in their own world.
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- Aug 29, 2022
- 4 min
How to Inspire Students to Love Reading: The Joy of Reading
The biggest challenge ELA teachers face year to year is how to get to students to not only read the novels we assign ...
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- Jul 29, 2022
- 3 min
Great Books to Teach in High School
Picking a novel to teach is never easy. Teachers must teach what’s board approved, what’s in the curriculum. There’s always the issue of h
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- Feb 17, 2022
- 4 min
Whole-Novel Activities
Early in my career, I remember rolling through a novel chapter by chapter with PowerPoint slides and handouts. It always drove me crazy ...
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- Apr 29, 2021
- 3 min
LGBTQ+ Literature: Opening Up Language
About five years ago, I read an article by a high school student about the way to create a LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum...
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- Mar 12, 2021
- 7 min
Meaning-Making in the Secondary ELA Classroom
It’s easy to say to our students that literature should be meaningful. It’s easy to ask students … what does that line mean?
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- Feb 19, 2021
- 3 min
Magical Realism: Interpretation and Creation
Magical realism goes beyond the place that a metaphor takes us. It goes beyond the realm of comparison.
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- Jan 11, 2021
- 3 min
Teaching the Novel in a Remote or Hybrid Classroom
I’m trying to get as creative as possible when it comes to being flexible with students. After finishing a few units ...
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- Dec 7, 2020
- 2 min
Rethinking Research
I attended the virtual NCTE conference this past Friday and it got me thinking about the research paper, or really, rethinking it. Part...
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- Oct 8, 2020
- 3 min
Homework: Putting Home and Work Together
We need to think about what we’re asking students when we ask them to do homework.
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- Sep 5, 2020
- 2 min
How to Introduce the Value of Literature: Symbolism Show and Tell
The good thing is, this year, our students will be thirsty to know more about the world they live in.
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- May 12, 2020
- 4 min
4 Ways to Simplify Teaching English Language Arts
This is the hardest thing for any teacher. Take a very difficult and complicated topic and make it easy to understand.
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- May 4, 2020
- 5 min
The 4 Essentials of Reading Checks and Note-taking
If we want students to be lifelong learners and readers, we need to make reading as fun and painless as possible.
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- Feb 24, 2020
- 2 min
Literature, A Living Map
Faulkner heard stories from his family and then created a novel, a living map, from those stories.
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- Feb 21, 2020
- 6 min
Virginia Woolf, Wordsmith of the Universe
Why do I think Virginia Woolf is the greatest writer of all time? There are so many reasons.
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- Jan 21, 2020
- 3 min
Opening the Unconscious
Every great piece of literature explores the inner workings of what the character doesn’t consciously know about their own desires and fears
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- Jan 10, 2020
- 4 min
Jane Austen and The Bachelor
ust as Austen imagined a world of romance determined by “age, character, and condition”, The Bachelor asks the same questions. It captures a
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- Dec 28, 2019
- 4 min
A Novel Way to Teach the Novel
Every English teacher works tirelessly to instill a love of reading in their students. We convince them that literature matters.
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- Dec 19, 2019
- 3 min
Why is Hamlet Great?
We’re wrapping up Hamlet this week, and it never ceases to amaze me how it stays relevant year after year.
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- Nov 20, 2019
- 2 min
Boundless Questions, Perpetual Questions
I often think about the importance of asking good, quality questions in class.
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- Oct 21, 2019
- 3 min
Symbolism in Life and Literature
On the first day of class this year, I placed a rock on a desk in the middle of my classroom.
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- Oct 9, 2019
- 3 min
Literature and Free Will
My students, like many people, take free will for granted.
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