Middle School Books Recommended by Teachers
Looking for books to challenge middle school students while also retaining an element of “appropriateness” in terms of content? Try this list of teacher-recommended texts.
Why Reading Levels Don’t Work in Secondary, and What to Do Instead
Google “reading levels,” and all sorts of things will come up. Leveled reading charts, assessments, parent guides, frameworks, you name it. For good reason, the concept of leveled texts can…
Scaffolding a Booksnap Lesson: Amplify Reading Comprehension
Looking for a fun booksnap lesson? Booksnaps are one of the newer trends in reading education. They originated with Tara Martin on Twitter and have steadily grown in popularity in…
Re-Reading with Color: A Reading Strategy for Older Students
There’s a reason why social media is so popular – many reasons, actually. But one of the most important reasons is because it gives us a snapshot into other people’s…
6 Ways to Assess Comprehension without Making Students Hate Reading
Searching for ways you can assess comprehension without making your students groan? You want to hold students accountable and assess their understanding, but you don’t want to make them hate…
Fun Ways to Use Mentor Sentences
Mentor sentences have so many potential applications for the secondary classroom. If you’ve never used them or aren’t quite sure about their value, here’s a quick run-down. What are mentor…
Short Story Unit Ideas for Secondary ELA
A short story unit is the perfect way to begin a school year. Short stories are quick and applicable to so many learning standards. Yet, they are versatile, so you…
Movies in School: Using them Meaningfully
We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the burnt out teacher. Mrs. Jones is so exasperated with her students and her job that she has completely given up. Instead of…
Short Films and Poetry for Paired Text Analysis
Ready to engage students in a fun paired text activity by marrying short films and poetry? Read on for five poetry and short film pairing options your students will enjoy….
How to Use One Pagers with Literature and Informational Texts
Are you googling one pagers because you’re trying to avoid grading yet another stack of essays? I don’t blame you. That’s how I started, too. Or, maybe you are wondering…
Nonfiction Reading Response Activities for Secondary
Common Core Standards have required that English courses for older students have a heavy emphasis on informational texts. The problem with this mandate? Informational texts aren’t always enticing to reluctant…
Improving Reading Fluency in High School
Do you have students sitting in your high school class who struggle to read fluently? Sure. We all do. The problem is that most teaching programs do not prepare secondary…
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