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Practical, self-paced professional development and college credit
for secondary ELA and general education teachers
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Feb 132 min read
Stories About Modern Media
If we are being honest, most students interact more with modern media than with literature.
68 views
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Dec 4, 20243 min read
A Spatial Approach to Literary Analysis: 6 Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers help students that think logically like scientists and mathematicians.
204 views
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Oct 19, 20243 min read
Reading Blocks for Secondary ELA
I recently encountered an article in the Atlantic titled “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books.” It scared me a little ...
126 views
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Aug 23, 20244 min read
The Best Contemporary Novels to Teach in High School
I have a love for most the literature I read in high school and college. I’m sure you’re familiar with the writers ...
520 views
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Apr 19, 20242 min read
Close Reading Passages in Novels
There’s nothing like close reading. A bunch of colorful annotations on a poem is a beautiful thing. Close reading is a valuable skill and
228 views
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Nov 17, 20232 min read
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.
188 views
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Nov 1, 20233 min read
10 Whole Class Discussion Strategies
With every passing year, it seems harder and harder to get students interested in whole class discussions. But there are creative ways ...
392 views
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Feb 23, 20233 min read
5 Ways to Introduce a Novel
Some books, maybe most, don’t require much introduction. Novels, to some extent, exist in their own world.
1,280 views
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Aug 29, 20224 min read
How to Inspire Students to Love Reading: The Joy of Reading
The biggest challenge ELA teachers face year to year is how to get to students to not only read the novels we assign ...
1,296 views
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Jul 29, 20223 min read
Great Books to Teach in High School
Picking a novel to teach is never easy. Teachers must teach what’s board approved, what’s in the curriculum. There’s always the issue of h
720 views
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Feb 17, 20224 min read
Whole-Novel Activities
Early in my career, I remember rolling through a novel chapter by chapter with PowerPoint slides and handouts. It always drove me crazy ...
1,402 views
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Apr 29, 20213 min read
LGBTQ+ Literature: Opening Up Language
About five years ago, I read an article by a high school student about the way to create a LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum...
393 views
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Mar 12, 20217 min read
Meaning-Making in the Secondary ELA Classroom
It’s easy to say to our students that literature should be meaningful. It’s easy to ask students … what does that line mean?
212 views
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Feb 19, 20213 min read
Magical Realism: Interpretation and Creation
Magical realism goes beyond the place that a metaphor takes us. It goes beyond the realm of comparison.
250 views
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Jan 11, 20213 min read
Teaching the Novel in a Remote or Hybrid Classroom
I’m trying to get as creative as possible when it comes to being flexible with students. After finishing a few units ...
629 views
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Dec 7, 20202 min read
Rethinking Research
I attended the virtual NCTE conference this past Friday and it got me thinking about the research paper, or really, rethinking it. Part...
363 views
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Oct 8, 20203 min read
Homework: Putting Home and Work Together
We need to think about what we’re asking students when we ask them to do homework.
141 views
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Sep 13, 20204 min read
Introduction to Literature: The 6 Values
What’s the point of English class?
668 views
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Sep 5, 20202 min read
How to Introduce the Value of Literature: Symbolism Show and Tell
The good thing is, this year, our students will be thirsty to know more about the world they live in.
375 views
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May 12, 20204 min read
4 Ways to Simplify Teaching English Language Arts
This is the hardest thing for any teacher. Take a very difficult and complicated topic and make it easy to understand.
579 views
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May 4, 20205 min read
The 4 Essentials of Reading Checks and Note-taking
If we want students to be lifelong learners and readers, we need to make reading as fun and painless as possible.
367 views
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Feb 24, 20202 min read
Literature, A Living Map
Faulkner heard stories from his family and then created a novel, a living map, from those stories.
22 views
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Feb 20, 20206 min read
Virginia Woolf, Wordsmith of the Universe
Why do I think Virginia Woolf is the greatest writer of all time? There are so many reasons.
40 views
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Jan 21, 20203 min read
Opening the Unconscious
Every great piece of literature explores the inner workings of what the character doesn’t consciously know about their own desires and fears
41 views
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