Tag: language arts

great gifts for english teachers

Great Gifts for English Teachers

If you have an English teacher on your gift list, I’ve provided some suggestions below that are WAY better than gift cards. Or if you ARE an English teacher, here’s a list you can conveniently leave open on your laptop for your significant other to find. Or treat yo’self! No judgment.

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Word, or sentence? Teaching Theme

Theme. It’s one of the most difficult topics to teach students in language arts classes. And theme is never something they master. They have to work hard to get better at it every year. But is a theme a word, or a sentence? The goal of close reading and annotating

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Student Project Think Tanks

Student Project Think Tanks

We all know the benefit of surrounding ourselves with others whom we can ask for advice. I’m fortunate to work with a bunch of English teachers who are terrific sounding boards for ideas. But it’s also good to take advantage of those who don’t work in my building. I’ve been

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student created essay prompts

Have Your Students Create Their Own Essay Prompts

Sometimes the best lessons come not from great planning and preparation, but out of desperation and necessity. I had my students create their own essays prompts, and it definitely came from a spot where I felt like my back was up against the wall. However it was one of those

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Find Yourself Fridays

Find Yourself Fridays: Character Education in the Classroom

This year I’ve incorporated what I call Find Yourself Fridays. I’m giving my students something inspirational to read or watch. Sometimes it’s something quick, sometimes it takes up a good chunk of the period. But that’s ok. I have to remember I’m hear not just to teach students about literature

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Adding Creativity

Adding Creativity Into Literary Analysis

Preschools are hubs of creativity. When my children were in preschool there wasn’t a day that went by that they didn’t bring home some piece of artwork they made. We accumulated a lot of paper rapidly. Once students get into high school, however, a lot of the creative activities that

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moving from knowing to doing

What Should Students Know How to Do in Language Arts?

I know Othello really well. I have taught it for the past fifteen years and can recite entire passages from memory. I have read extensively about it – everything from scholarly articles to blog posts – and have seen at least three different movie versions of it and a stage production. I

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