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for secondary ELA and general education teachers
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How to Use Freud and Psychoanalysis to Teach Literature
Freud had a lot of wild theories, but a simple understanding of the short essay “The Structure of the Unconscious” can help students easily
Jan 312 min read
75 views

A Spatial Approach to Literary Analysis: 6 Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers help students that think logically like scientists and mathematicians.
Dec 4, 20243 min read
222 views

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 ...
Feb 9, 20243 min read
353 views

Media and Genre-Based Units
Schools and teachers usually organize ELA curriculum by novel, theme, or genre, or some combination of those three.
Jan 23, 20243 min read
295 views

5 Fun Ways Students Find Quotes
Teaching students the value of using quotes in an essay is more important now than ever ...
Dec 21, 20233 min read
366 views

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.
Nov 17, 20232 min read
188 views

The Purpose of Literary Devices and Techniques
It’s easy for students to get caught in the trap of simply identifying literary techniques without considering their purpose ...
Oct 17, 20232 min read
586 views

Storytelling and the Personal Narrative
Because I teach seniors, I start the year with a short unit on the personal narrative and college essay. It helps me get to know ...
Sep 12, 20233 min read
200 views

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
Jul 18, 20232 min read
154 views

The Personal, Philosophical, and Political Response to Literature
It’s spring, which means it’s time to get creative. At this point in the year, students should be close to meeting our expectations ...
Apr 26, 20232 min read
89 views


Mini Writing Conferences: 4 Stages of Feedback
My students write most of their essays by hand in class. There are a lot of reasons for that, but at this point in the year ...
Mar 24, 20233 min read
232 views

5 Ways to Introduce a Novel
Some books, maybe most, don’t require much introduction. Novels, to some extent, exist in their own world.
Feb 23, 20233 min read
1,328 views


The Best Engagement Strategy: Scaffolding and Guided Notes
It feels like it’s getting harder and harder to keep the attention of our students. Every teacher knows that if a student doesn’t use ...
Jan 24, 20233 min read
634 views

Man vs. Machine: AI and ELA
AI is all the buzz lately. No need to teach writing anymore, a computer can do it...
Dec 21, 20223 min read
420 views

7 Ways to Make Learning Personal
It’s difficult to find a book that every child will love. They like contemporary stories that seem similar to their own ...
Dec 6, 20222 min read
177 views


Creative Writing: The Be-All and End-All
I used to get moans when I asked students to write a poem. But in the last few years ...
Oct 17, 20224 min read
934 views


How to Close Read Poetry or Prose: 5 Steps
Close reading may be the most important skill taught in an English class. It’s the heart and soul of what we do: uncover the world ...
Oct 5, 20223 min read
998 views


Academic Success Explained in 7 Steps
It’s becoming more and more common for students to think that they shouldn’t have to work for an answer or a solution to a problem...
Sep 27, 20223 min read
369 views

How to Teach Literary Techniques
Literary techniques make literature, literature. Without them, we’d be left with words and facts...
Sep 15, 20222 min read
368 views

The Creative Classroom
I start the school year talking about how language is all around us.
Jun 1, 20222 min read
378 views

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 ...
Apr 6, 20222 min read
567 views

The Research Paper Made Easy: 8 Steps of the Writing Process
It’s that time of year to assign a college-style research paper to my seniors and I’ve found myself giving more and more time in class ...
Mar 25, 20224 min read
420 views

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 ...
Jan 24, 20224 min read
751 views

How to Make Fiction Relevant
To wrap up my unit on Things Fall Apart, I’m doing what I believe Chinua Achebe would have wanted....
Dec 17, 20212 min read
197 views
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