English Language Arts

Inside this Post: Need to deepen student investment in graphic organizers? Try differentiating. One of the highest levels of choice we can offer is student-created graphic organizers. Find the details in …

TED Talks are videos that present engaging ideas in 18 minutes or less. Their compact, visual format makes them a great vessel for the middle and high school classroom! Truly, …

Looking to teach students about how character development impacts theme? First, you’ll need to model with some specific, high-interest examples. Students need to know what character development looks like from …

Getting ready to begin student-led literature circles? Literature circles are the perfect opportunity to combine reading, writing, speaking, and listening in an authentic way! But, sometimes the broad nature and …

Ever wondered where to start with vocabulary instruction? Sometimes, it can feel like we are throwing darts in the dark. The target has to be out there somewhere, and if …

Does it ever seem like standardized test writing prompts are intentionally wordy and confusing? If you have stumbled upon this post after finishing your testing for the year, enjoy! For …

Looking to improve student-led discussions? While these conversations may be packed with some of the most powerful skills we can teach students, they certainly pose plenty of challenges. Consider, for …

Searching for engaging ways to build students’ background knowledge? Perhaps you need an activity to help students prepare to read a complex text, to write an essay, or to engage …

Inside: Is your choice reading program feeling stale? Are the independent reading activities falling flat? We can engage students and keep book love fresh by weaving in new ideas from …

Inside:  Have reading logs on your mind? Still wildly popular, reading logs have serious negative impacts on our students’ relationships with reading. This post is full of honest answers about …