Are your students moaning and groaning over taking another test or writing another essay? While these are tried and true methods for assessing many skills, I have been on a mission to find more innovative, unique ways of assessing student growth and learning.
Best Practices, Close Reading, Essay Writing, Lists, Writer's Notebook
One of the best ways to teach students how to integrate literary and rhetorical devices into their writing is to imitate the style of great writers. Here are 20 Great Literary Quotes to use as Mentor Sentences in Secondary ELA...
Best Practices, Essay Writing, Literature Articles, Reflections on Pedagogy, Writer's Notebook, Freebies
Contrasting literary movements as a pedagogical approach to teaching literature is a debatable method, but I have found that juxtaposing literary movements...
Lesson Planning, Writer's Notebook, Holidays, Close Reading, Poetry, Bundles & Units, Best Practices
This winter season, I found myself missing the snow for the first time in my life because we made a big move from a cold climate where we have lived for the past six years to a warm climate where there is no snow. I never fully realized...
First thing is first with a blog title such as this! I have to admit that it is most definitely a case of calling the kettle black that I am writing this blog article. Why? Well, because if there is a cookie, I will eat it. If there is cake...
The Writer's Notebook is an essential tool for the ELA classroom as a facilitator for the writing process. It makes the teacher's job easier and more efficient to assign and assess work, and it helps...
The Writer's Notebook has become a cornerstone of the ELA classroom as a tool for facilitating the writing process. The Writer's Notebook not only helps students have a central database for their ideas and drafts, but it also...
It took me about four or five years of my teaching career to figure out an efficient system for navigating make-up work. And as the technology got better, so did my ability to keep up with my absent students...
Understanding by Design is one of the most fundamental texts and philosophies for planning a lesson and being a teacher. We all know the importance of planning lessons around the skills objectives and learning targets...
The Writer's Notebook has become a cornerstone of the English classroom over the past decade and has been touted by NCTE, The College Board, The National Writing Project, The Young Writer's Project, and others as a necessary component in the writing process...
Writing commentary is undoubtedly the most difficult part of writing any essay. All other parts of the essay are more formulaic in nature. But when it comes to commenting on evidence...
As I was driving home today, I listened to an interview with Jonah Berger on WNYC about his new book entitled Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior. It fascinated me, and...
It's finally almost here! SUMMER!!! You're grades are turned in, you've said goodbye to your students, and all that remains is a war-torn classroom with the remnants of the life that was once there...
As a teacher, I am always seeking out ways to do things effectively and CHEAPLY. I know you know what I mean. That includes creating awesome covers for my TpT products. While there are...
Whether you are new to Teachers Pay Teachers or consider yourself a veteran, there are some standard questions to consider before creating new products and posting them...
What I've come to realize in my years of reading and writing literary analysis essays is that all literary elements and devices come down to one primary element: characterization. This is where I would disagree with Aristotle's Poetics in that...