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Jul 222 min read
3 Types of Interviews and Conversations in ELA
One of the most rewarding things about being a teacher is watching my students continue the conversation as they leave the classroom.
172 views
Feb 93 min read
Preventing the Use of AI in ELA: 6 Methods
There will always be new tools to help teachers combat the use of AI. A Chrome extension called Origin by GPTZero provides a writing ...
347 views
Jan 233 min read
Media and Genre-Based Units
Schools and teachers usually organize ELA curriculum by novel, theme, or genre, or some combination of those three.
260 views
Jan 102 min read
Creating Relevance in a Modern Classroom
Sometimes I find myself trying to think of ways to create connections between literature and the real world.
215 views
Aug 2, 20232 min read
More Fun, Less Stress
July has come to an end and it’s that time when the thought of school starts to plan its seed in every teacher’s mind. What will this year
140 views
Jul 18, 20232 min read
Modern Learning with Free Literacy Blocks
There are many students that love literature for the world it creates, the brand-new world that exists only within the front and back cover
154 views
Apr 14, 20233 min read
The Basics of Film Interpretation
Teachers want their students to be readers, and not just readers of words. We want them to read the world around them: the streets ...
442 views
Feb 16, 20232 min read
Short Story Adaptations
Creating a short film used to be a long and difficult process, so I gave up on it. But then it became much easier to shoot and edit video.
292 views
Jan 11, 20233 min read
Teaching Media Literacy With Short Stories
It’s not easy to find literature that gets students to talk about the world they live in. It can be done with any novel ...
155 views
Dec 21, 20223 min read
Man vs. Machine: AI and ELA
AI is all the buzz lately. No need to teach writing anymore, a computer can do it...
415 views
Sep 9, 20222 min read
8 Video Poems to Watch in Class: Performance and Poetry Film
Most students treat poetry like a highly academic art form meant for scholars. Most people feel the same way about visual art ...
1,325 views
Apr 6, 20222 min read
Autonomous, Relevant Learning and Good Conversation
This week, I asked students to connect the literature we study in class to the modern world. We had amazing, open-ended conversations ...
563 views
Jan 24, 20224 min read
Filmmaking Made Easy: 10 Tips
After I taught the elective Filmmaking for the first time a few years ago, I realized how easy it is for students to quickly create a ...
749 views
Aug 23, 20213 min read
Teaching Shakespeare Using Film: Romeo and Juliet from PBS Great Performances
There is no challenge quite like teaching Shakespeare. Early modern English always poses challenges for teenage readers, and ...
148 views
Aug 17, 20213 min read
5 Ways to Have a Drama-Filled Classroom
No, not that kind of drama. Performance. Few people know how to act, but everyone knows what a good performance looks like. The words...
188 views
May 30, 20213 min read
Graduation 2021: Love and Stories
Every year, I complete the final assignment that I give my seniors. I ask them to talk about how it feels to graduate, what they've...
238 views
May 25, 20213 min read
New Year, New Ideas
It’s hard to imagine that anything positive will come out of this year, but I’ve been thinking about what, if any, lessons I’ve learned ...
296 views
May 7, 20213 min read
Where to Find Real Stories on the Web
We’re finishing up a unit on Exit West by Mohsin Hamid this week so I’m asking my students to listen to a personal narrative of choice....
163 views
Feb 8, 20213 min read
Screencast: The New Essay?
It’s pretty typical for a teacher, or anyone for that matter, to feel like they are swimming in new tech tools. But this year, it’s...
241 views
Jan 31, 20214 min read
Teaching Media Literacy
A lot of what we deal with in English language arts relates to strangers, people we don’t know. We read novels and non-fiction to immerse...
109 views
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 ...
628 views
Dec 23, 20206 min read
10 Creative Projects for Remote Learning
My colleagues and I recently had a conversation about the rest of the year and what we could do to keep our students engaged....
225 views
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
Nov 10, 20202 min read
Sketchnoting in the Digital Age
Last week, I told my students to create sketchnotes on the poems we studied in class. I didn't really specify what I was looking for, I...
246 views
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