Category: language arts

why students hate annotation

Annotation: Why Students Hate It (And How To Fix It)

  Annotation is a common reading strategy used to promote active reading. Annotation is a skill that helps students comprehend what they are reading and leaves a trail of “bread crumbs” for students to follow if they have to respond to the text in writing. Ideally, it will help students

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Suspenseful Stories in Language Arts: Writing the Story

Writing suspenseful stories in the Language Arts classroom can be a fun way to teach students how stories work. In previous posts I shared model texts that I use to teach kids how suspense works.  In another post I discussed how you can teach literary devices while creating the suspenseful story. In

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suspenseful story writing

Suspenseful Story Writing in Language Arts: Model Texts

Students love to write suspenseful stories, especially around Halloween. They can be a fun diversion in a secondary Language Arts classroom which can sometimes be dominated by essays. But if done properly, they can also teach students a great deal about how stories are constructed using suspense and imagery to

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What Makes a Book Great?

If you’re a high school English teacher – especially of the AP variety – it’s easy to get smug about books. We believe that some books are better than others and that every student should believe that Hemingway is a better author than Sparks or Rowling. We may not believe

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