Category: Uncategorized

independent reading

6 Benefits of Independent Reading in High School

Independent reading allows students time to read whatever they want to every day. You might remember it as SSR or DEAR, catchy acronyms that originated in the elementary grades, but there are tremendous benefits to allowing students time to read books that they select themselves at the high school level. Here’s

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Make Socratic seminars sizzle in your classroom.

Make Socratic Seminars Sizzle In Your Classroom

Socratic seminars have been an effective teaching strategy for years – I’m guessing since the time of Socrates! The format is simple: the students lead a discussion with questions they have generated themselves. The teacher stays out of the way. They discuss a question until no one else has anything

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classroom library

Adding Free Choice Reading to Your Classroom

In a previous post I discussed the reasons why you should add free choice reading to your English class – even if you teach upper level AP classes like I do. There’s a good chance that over the course of their high school careers they have lost a lot of

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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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Alternatives to the Essay: Infographics

In my English classes I’m always looking for assessments that aren’t essays. Here’s why: Our district is really big on alternative assessments and allowing students more choice in how they display knowledge I like finding new ways for students to display their understanding. I don’t need another stack of essay

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Clip Art – Muslim student reading

I have never seen a girl wearing a hijab in any educational clip art. The results of a search for “Muslim children clip art” and “Muslim children reading” were entirely religious in nature. Since I have so many Muslim students, I felt like they needed to be represented doing regular

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