It’s frustrating when we have what feels like hundreds of standards to teach and little time to do it in. How do you fit it all in? Everyone wants to…

The new distance learning format has sparked a shift in how educators are connecting with students. Now, more than ever, we need ways to connect with students, build community, and…

It’s the end of the school year, and you’re tired. Not to worry! This post will save you time. Use these student reflection questions to spark critical thinking about learning…

If you’re not personally experiencing it, surely you can sense it. Teachers are stretched thin. Distance learning has brought a whole different level of questions and kind of stress. This…

Are you looking for meaningful, standards-aligned strategies to have students respond to reading with distance learning? Digital one pagers can be an engaging way to simplify literary and informational text…

Did you arrive at this post after googling something like “Best ELA PD Books”? If you’re a secondary English teacher, whether you’re here on accident or on purpose, this post…

The bottom of reality as I knew it fell out. As I read the email at 8:30 the evening before remote learning began, the pit in my stomach expanded. We…

School closings can feel a lot like being stuck in the middle of a whirlwind. Remote learning is becoming more common, but that doesn’t mean that planning for eLearning days…

Inside this post: No matter the age, if you’re supporting struggling writers, there’s one key ingredient that is a game changer for building confidence and increasing achievement. During a writing…

As a new teacher, I had no idea how to engage students in learning. That’s not to say my class was a bore, but there were definitely days I knew…

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…

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music” (Aldous Huxley). Think about the last time you felt truly inspired. Was music a part of the experience?…

It’s hard to find a student that doesn’t like some form of art. Incorporating art in ELA classes is beneficial for several reasons. For one, it gives students who like…

Looking for high-interest young adult novels to add to your classroom library? You’ll find some of my favorites here. Closing in on the end of 2019, I was scrolling through…

If you’ve arrived in search of ELA blog posts, welcome! You’ll find a helpful roundup here. Education is a funny thing. As teachers, we are immersed in what we are…

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…

Knowing how to help a reluctant student create a habit of reading is a game changer. Cultivating a reading lifeone of the most important lessons we can share the next…

With the rise of independent reading and workshop approaches, many secondary ELA teachers are looking for mentor text recommendations. How can we encourage students to connect whole-class lessons to independent…

When I think about student writing, one of the most difficult concepts to teach is sentence fluency. Much of excelling at fluent writing revolves around students’ background with literacy. Certainly,…

For the longest time, I thought anchor charts were for elementary classrooms. I’d see photos floating around on social media, but I never gave them a second thought in terms…