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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getting started with romeo and juliet

Getting Started With Romeo and Juliet

For many students, Romeo and Juliet is the first experience they have with Shakespeare. And it’s a huge leap for them from what they’ve read in school before. The language is difficult, the cultural context is foreign, and the material looks indecipherable. However, as a teacher, there are steps you

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annotations

Getting Started With Annotation

Annotation is an important skill for ELA students to master. But where do we start? When I rent a movie I’m a sucker for the bonus features. I recently watched “Mission Impossible: Fallout and then spent the next hour watching how all the stunts were done. I was amazed to

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Nine Tips For New Teachers

If you’re reading this, I hope you are one of the lucky who get to be a teacher. It’s a great job and very rewarding, but I’ll tell you that the first year will be no picnic. You’ll be working hard to establish the type of teacher your students will

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2 Ways to Analyze a Passage From Literature

All ELA teachers want to develop their students into good readers. That not only involves building the love of reading but also involves developing critical reading skills in the classroom. We want our students to be able to read critically and analyze a passage, which involves taking a passage apart

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