Love it or hate it, poetry is unavoidable in the secondary ELA classroom. I, for one, am a HUGE lover of poetry but fully acknowledge that it can be annoyingly cryptic at times. Reading poetry reminds us that not all texts are meant to be beat "with a hose to find out what [they] really mean" like in the Billy Collins poem "Introduction to Poetry."
Satire Through Subtlety-- Using the Comics of Savage Chickens to Teach Satire in High School English
Plagiarism Escape Room: A High-Interest Way to STOP Student Cheating
Engaging Secondary Students in Film Study with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Jack the Ripper + "Mack the Knife": A Nonfiction Lesson on Deciphering Tone and Bias Through Diction
Murder stories are highly engaging topics for secondary students… and for all students alike. But bringing the crime story of Jack the Ripper into secondary ELA is a sure-fire way to keep students engaged and motivated. Crime stories even motivate at-risk students through engaging content. Jack the Ripper is one of those iconic mystery stories that captures the imagination. Crime stories provide an excellent means to engage the writing process.
Famous Love Letters: A Unique Approach to Rhetorical Analysis and Creative Writing for Valentine's Day in Secondary ELA
The Five Most Important Argumentative Essay Topics of 2018
10 Essential Writing Workshop Supplies from Amazon
6 Christmas Commercials to Analyze for Literary Elements and Techniques this Holiday Season
Three Famous Christmas Speeches to Inspire Writing
5 Ways to Show Your Students YOU CARE This Holiday Season
One of the things I feel that I don't take enough time to do is show my appreciation for all of my students and recognize their efforts throughout the year. I find that I spend far more time focusing only on my struggling students rather than recognizing each student's individual journey, success, and growth.
Thanksgiving & Abraham Lincoln: A Rhetorical Analysis Activity
The Logline: A Screenwriting Tool that Helps Students with Textual Analysis in both Fiction and Nonfiction
In screenwriting (writing for movies and TV), the logline is key to brainstorming story ideas and also selling them or "pitching" them to buyers. Crafting loglines can help the writer to flesh out new plot ideas before writing the entire script. It's much easier to revise the logline rather than an entire hundred page script!
Screenwriting: A Creative Approach to Targeting the Common Core
6 Spooky and Engaging Halloween Activities & Lessons for Secondary ELA
Halloween is a season during the school year when we can really engage our students. Secondary students love gothic, horror, and mystery, and Halloween gives us a reason to integrate these literary genres into our curriculums. Halloween provides us an opportunity to target necessary skills with high-interest material.