Every teacher is familiar with the kind of student who struggles to pay attention for a long period of time...

For me, stress always hits at the end of a marking period. I suddenly realize how much I need to grade . . .

When I look back on my teaching career, some of my favorite moments actually happened outside the classroom. For some reason ...

I used to get moans when I asked students to write a poem. But in the last few years ...

Close reading may be the most important skill taught in an English class. It’s the heart and soul of what we do: uncover the world ...

It’s becoming more and more common for students to think that they shouldn’t have to work for an answer or a solution to a problem...

Literary techniques make literature, literature. Without them, we’d be left with words and facts...

Most students treat poetry like a highly academic art form meant for scholars. Most people feel the same way about visual art ...

The biggest challenge ELA teachers face year to year is how to get to students to not only read the novels we assign ...

I love to start the year with a month of poetry. The unit gives students the time to read the first novel independently and it functions ..

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

There’s no feeling quite like when you discover a small classroom routine that makes your life easier.

I’ve been thinking a lot about all the challenges of this past year, but also trying to learn from it. I tried book clubs for the first time

I start the school year talking about how language is all around us.

It is the objective of many novels to bring history back to life. The history in textbooks focus on the powerful, the decision makers.

As the school year winds down, it’s good to think about all the adjustments we’ve made to keep kids engaged and interested in learning ..

This week, I asked students to connect the literature we study in class to the modern world. We had amazing, open-ended conversations ...

It’s that time of year to assign a college-style research paper to my seniors and I’ve found myself giving more and more time in class ...

I like to end every year with a project on a relevant topic and this year, or at least this spring, seems to be the spring of hope...

Teachers have a lot on their plate right now. So let’s think about how to scrape some off for the dog ...

Early in my career, I remember rolling through a novel chapter by chapter with PowerPoint slides and handouts. It always drove me crazy ...