Curriculum & Lesson Design

As a new teacher, I didn’t fully grasp how to best engage students in learning. That’s not to say my class was a bore, but there were definitely days I…

What if you could blend differentiation, brain-based learning, collaboration,  and student engagement all into one power-packed lesson? It’s possible! In this post, you’ll find ideas for how to create learning…

Do you ever feel like there is something missing from your vocabulary instruction? Traditionally, students are given a list of words, and they memorize the definitions. Lists of words are…

Structuring an ELA curriculum is similar to wardrobe shopping. We all have our personal preferences, our go-to pieces, and our timeless shirts, skirts, or pants. Yet, shopping with friends is…

And today, class, we will be talking about William Shakespeare and the Globe Theater. Please get out your notebooks and pens while I pull up the slide show. Are you…

Preparing to go back to school? Whether you’re a veteran, a new teacher, or somewhere in between, heading back to the classroom can be overwhelming. In this post, you’ll find…

Nearing the end of the school year? Keep students engaged. Try these end of the year activities for secondary ELA. Sometimes teachers feel guilty about incorporating fun lessons at the…

Whether you’re helping students prepare for a unit assessment, mid-terms, final exams, or standardized tests, effective exam review strategies are important. I’ve written about maximizing review time previously. In this…

Figurative language is easy to make one of the most engaging aspects of an ELA class. By nature, it is playful. Because it can be paired with pretty much any…

Wondering how to teach sentence structure? We’ve all seen plenty of student writing where sentence fluency issues abound. Teaching students to be aware of various sentence types as well as…