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 ...

Some of the most challenging questions I’ve faced in my career have to do with race and culture.

After I taught the elective Filmmaking for the first time a few years ago, I realized how easy it is for students to quickly create a ...

It’s a new year and this will be my 100th blog and podcast, so I’ve been thinking about reflection, the mental process of looking back and t

Narrative mode is what makes fiction different from essays, history, and art forms like video and images. Without fiction ...

To wrap up my unit on Things Fall Apart, I’m doing what I believe Chinua Achebe would have wanted....

If you’ve ever listened to a fellow teacher deliver a presentation about their favorite project or unit, you know how creativity and passion

I’ve long held the belief that we’re doing conclusions all wrong. Traditionally, it’s a moment in the essay where the writer wraps ...