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Practical, self-paced professional development and college credit
for secondary ELA and general education teachers
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The Creative Nonfiction Essay
Literary analysis can be a fun way students learn how to interpret quotes and identify patterns in writing. However, most students prefer
Apr 22 min read
124 views


How to Use Freud and Psychoanalysis to Teach Literature
Freud had a lot of wild theories, but a simple understanding of the short essay “The Structure of the Unconscious” can help students easily
Jan 312 min read
84 views


Preventing the Use of AI in ELA: 6 Methods
There will always be new tools to help teachers combat the use of AI. A Chrome extension called Origin by GPTZero provides a writing ...
Feb 9, 20243 min read
354 views


Media and Genre-Based Units
Schools and teachers usually organize ELA curriculum by novel, theme, or genre, or some combination of those three.
Jan 23, 20243 min read
295 views


5 Fun Ways Students Find Quotes
Teaching students the value of using quotes in an essay is more important now than ever ...
Dec 21, 20233 min read
371 views


Character Study: A Whole-Novel Activity
Students love to think about how a character develops because they too, because they’re teenagers, experience a lot of change.
Nov 17, 20232 min read
188 views


The Purpose of Literary Devices and Techniques
It’s easy for students to get caught in the trap of simply identifying literary techniques without considering their purpose ...
Oct 17, 20232 min read
634 views


Storytelling and the Personal Narrative
Because I teach seniors, I start the year with a short unit on the personal narrative and college essay. It helps me get to know ...
Sep 12, 20233 min read
202 views


Modern Learning with Free Literacy Blocks
There are many students that love literature for the world it creates, the brand-new world that exists only within the front and back cover
Jul 18, 20232 min read
154 views


The Personal, Philosophical, and Political Response to Literature
It’s spring, which means it’s time to get creative. At this point in the year, students should be close to meeting our expectations ...
Apr 26, 20232 min read
90 views


Mini Writing Conferences: 4 Stages of Feedback
My students write most of their essays by hand in class. There are a lot of reasons for that, but at this point in the year ...
Mar 24, 20233 min read
237 views


5 Ways to Introduce a Novel
Some books, maybe most, don’t require much introduction. Novels, to some extent, exist in their own world.
Feb 23, 20233 min read
1,377 views


Man vs. Machine: AI and ELA
AI is all the buzz lately. No need to teach writing anymore, a computer can do it...
Dec 21, 20223 min read
420 views


7 Ways to Make Learning Personal
It’s difficult to find a book that every child will love. They like contemporary stories that seem similar to their own ...
Dec 6, 20222 min read
177 views


Creative Writing: The Be-All and End-All
I used to get moans when I asked students to write a poem. But in the last few years ...
Oct 17, 20224 min read
934 views


How to Close Read Poetry or Prose: 5 Steps
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 ...
Oct 5, 20223 min read
1,028 views


Academic Success Explained in 7 Steps
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...
Sep 27, 20223 min read
369 views


How to Teach Literary Techniques
Literary techniques make literature, literature. Without them, we’d be left with words and facts...
Sep 15, 20222 min read
368 views


Free Literacy Blocks
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
Jun 16, 20222 min read
533 views


The Creative Classroom
I start the school year talking about how language is all around us.
Jun 1, 20222 min read
378 views


Autonomous, Relevant Learning and Good Conversation
This week, I asked students to connect the literature we study in class to the modern world. We had amazing, open-ended conversations ...
Apr 6, 20222 min read
567 views


The Research Paper Made Easy: 8 Steps of the Writing Process
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 ...
Mar 25, 20224 min read
429 views


How to Make Fiction Relevant
To wrap up my unit on Things Fall Apart, I’m doing what I believe Chinua Achebe would have wanted....
Dec 17, 20212 min read
197 views


How to Write a Meaningful Conclusion
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 ...
Nov 26, 20213 min read
300 views
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