I know for the first five years of my career, I was bound by the idea that in order to be a great teacher, I needed to be great at teaching the curriculum and checking all the little boxes the administration and state put before me. During my first year,…
One of the most important goals of any English class should be to help students learn how to express themselves to an audience -- how to tell their own stories, how to provide much-needed information, and how to convince others to see things from a different perspective. Below are some…
Are your students struggling with the concept of making inferences in their reading? Show your students that they already know how to make inferences with these videos! http://youtu.be/QmeL6I9Gt10 To those of us who love reading, making inferences from text seems easy enough. But to students who struggle with reading because…
Note: The following list is ever-growing. If you have any sites you think should be added, please suggest them in the comments below and I'll update the list. As public school teachers, we receive students in our classes who show up with varying degrees of interest in reading. Some of…
One of the most important goals of any English class should be to help students learn how to express themselves to an audience -- how to tell their own stories, how to provide much-needed information, and how to convince others to see things from a different perspective. Below are some…
In other words: Ditch that five-paragraph essay right now! Yes, I'm talking to you, elementary and middle school teachers. (Apparently, some high school teachers are "guilty" as well, so I'm including you, too!) Nothing is more frustrating for me as a writer and a writing teacher than to spend hours…
[prettyfilelink size="115 KB" src="https://www.rethinkela.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Ep12-Hugh-Hunter.pdf" type="pdf"]Ep12-Hugh Hunter Transcript[/prettyfilelink] Knowing their reading audience helps authors to craft their books and create their story arcs. Understanding the pain points of their audience and the problems they struggle with the most helps to identify which topics should be included in the manuscript. Similarly, teachers…
Episode Transcript So much scrutiny is placed upon teachers and the classroom these days, especially when it comes to how students are learning critical thinking skills - or IF they're learning critical thinking skills. Sometimes the "old school" ways of teaching simply don't work and new techniques need to be…
I should have said something a long time ago. I didn't because I felt powerless, like other people had more right to say something or had better ways to say something than I did. But then George Floyd was murdered. Amy Cooper threatened a Black man. And as those stories…
When I started my first job as a professional newspaper reporter (This job also served as an internship during my junior year in college -- I just didn't leave for about 6 years.), I quickly realized that all my experience, and all my years of journalism education had not been enough…
Listen as we explore the use of AI writers like ChatGPT in English class, including the benefits and challenges of incorporating artificial intelligence into the writing process to help students develop critical thinking skills and improve their writing.
Note: Check out our slam poems for middle school, too!Every year I want to write posts sharing my favorite poems for National Poetry Month. But unfortunately, every year, April is also national testing month and I get so caught up in juggling testing and grading and planning and taking care…
If you are looking for short films to use in ELA lessons that challenge, inspire, and engage your students, then this blog post is for you!
KNITWEAR
Imagine: It's early August, you're sitting at home in your comfy chair, coffee in hand and a laptop nearby. Your school district has listened to its teachers and instead of making you earn your professional development for the year by sitting in sweltering (or freezing if they like turning the…
Looking for short stories for middle school? Or high school? This list of 40+ short stories includes access to video and audio adaptations, paired texts, and more.
By The Daring English Teacher Task cards might just be one of the most underrated and undervalued assets for middle school ELA and high school English teachers. Task cards are not only versatile and engaging, but they are also a great way to shake things up in the secondary ELA classroom. A task card is essentially its namesake - it is a card, usually about the size of a quarter sheet of paper, with some sort of task or question on it. Task cards come in sets that focus on a particular skill or standard. Using task cards in the middle school ELA or high school English classroom is an excellent way to practice new content and review before an assessment. For example, my parts of speech task cards resource includes two sets of 40 task cards for 80 task cards total. Since these task cards are all about the parts of speech, each task card contains a task that requires students to identify a part of speech. Task cards can be a secondary ELA teacher’s best friend because of their ease of use and versatility. Task Cards Ease of UseMost task cards come as complete sets with multiple cards per pack. Each set includes numerous tasks for students to complete. Once you complete a little bit of prep work before the first use, task cards are very simple to implement in the classroom. One of the best ways to prep task cards for their initial use is to print the card on bright white cardstock and then laminate the cards for longevity. I have several sets of task cards in my classroom that I’ve used for several years in a row now. I keep them all stored together so that there is very little prep required when it is time to use them next year. On task card days, there are two ways I facilitate my class. One way is to place my students into groups of four to five students and provide each group with an entire task card set. Using this method, students work collaboratively in the group as they complete each task, and they do not move around the classroom. Another way I like to organize task card day in my classroom is to have set stations placed throughout my classroom. When I use the station approach, I place several cards at each station. Student groups then rotate from station to station as they complete the tasks. However you plan to include task cards in your instruction, once you prep them, they are good to go for years to come. Task Card VersatilityTask cards also offer a lot of versatility in the classroom because of all of the different kinds of task cards and how many different ways you can incorporate them into the classroom. One way to use task cards in the classroom is to use them as one station in a stations activity. For example, one of my favorite ways to introduce a new novel to my students is by including the pre-reading set of task cards from my Response to Literature Task Cards set as part of a station activity. I use the pre-reading task cards for one of the stations and have several copies of the book displayed. For another station, I provide students with some brief contextual information and instruct my students to do some quick research to become acquainted with the historical and social context. For a final station, I have my students respond to some book-specific reflection questions, kind of like an elaborated anticipatory guide. Another way to use task cards in the classroom is to use them as a class warm-up or bell-ringer exercise. Rather than provide students with the entire set of task cards, simply provide table groups or rows with a few cards from the set. Again, this is a great way to focus on a particular skill throughout the week. For example, if you are working on pronoun-antecedent agreement, spending a week using these pronoun task cards as a bell-ringer activity is a great way to sprinkle in some grammar work into your lesson plans. Benefits of Using Task CardsUsing task cards in the classroom has a few benefits. First, task cards offer a break from the standard practice worksheet. So just because it is something new, students will be more engaged. Also, students benefit from the repetition of completing multiple related tasks in a brief amount of time. The increased engagement and repeated practice of the skills will help students with retention. Free Task Card Download To help you get started using task cards in your classroom, I've created this sentence combining task card starter kit as a free download. To use these sentence combining task cards in your classroom, print them out, cut them into four cards, and have your students begin working on them! These sentence combining task cards also work well with my sentence combining bell ringers. Types of Task CardsThere are so many different types of task cards that teachers can use in their classrooms. From analysis to skill-specific, there are task cards for all sorts of ELA-related activities. I mainly use three types of task cards in my classroom: generic analysis task cards, skill-specific task cards, and literature-based task cards. Generic Analysis Task CardsSome of my favorite task cards are the text analysis task cards: literary analysis, rhetorical analysis, and poetry analysis. I love these task cards because they can be used with any text, and they are a simple addition to the curriculum that helps students practice and build critical-thinking skills. Skill-Specific Task CardsAnother type of task cards is more skill-specific task cards. These skill-specific cards provide students with the practice they need to master a new skill. Some of my favorite skill-specific task cards are my parts of speech task cards and my coordinating conjunction task cards. Literature-Based Task CardsFinally, there are literature-based task cards. These literature task cards are ideal as an and-of-novel review and analysis type of activity. Each literature-based task card set includes six essay-level questions that will require students to reflect on the novel and use critical-thinking skills. Some of my literature task card sets include Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, and Animal Farm. Like task cards? Check out these links! How to Use Learning Stations in a High School Classroom by Room 213 Creative Reading Task Cards by Nouvelle ELA Poetry Task Cards by Tracee Orman Poetry Task Cards by Addie Williams
The guardians of America’s young minds rethink the old classics.
Can a white writer speak for our students of color?
Rosie Perez in White Men Can't Jump What do you do when you're 12 years old and your friend's world comes to a screeching halt? Heather and I had met at the beginning of the school year and quickly became friends. We talked about our families. She told me that…
Independent reading has been a huge part of my classroom practice since I started teaching in 2011. That first year in the classroom, I insisted students spend every spare minute reading books of their choice, either from the school's library or from the small classroom library I inherited. Since I…
Every once in a while, I'll see a post on Twitter by a teacher that speaks to who we are as English teachers and how we impact our kids. I first saw this conversation back in June when a teacher in my Twitter PLC retweeted it, and it made me…
Download Immediately!An entire year of quickwriting has been planned for you! Not only will you have the first five to 20 minutes of class taken care of, you can also extend each mode of writing into a longer text by guiding students through the writing process. Students will build writing…
As a reader, I have used most, if not all of the reading comprehension strategies I'm about to discuss throughout my years as a student, as I'm sure all of you have. As a teacher, I have guided students through using these strategies during whole-class reading units. Until last week…
Halloween may be a month away, but this year, our students can use a distraction -- or a way to make a literary connection to events we are seeing in the world right now. Two of the stories in our bundle can make spooky distractions from the everyday world that…
[prettyfilelink size="115 KB" src="https://www.rethinkela.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Ep12-Hugh-Hunter.pdf" type="pdf"]Ep12-Hugh Hunter Transcript[/prettyfilelink] Knowing their reading audience helps authors to craft their books and create their story arcs. Understanding the pain points of their audience and the problems they struggle with the most helps to identify which topics should be included in the manuscript. Similarly, teachers…
As a writer and English teacher, I want my writing to be perfect. Many of our students want the same thing. We all want what we see or hear in our heads to be exactly what we put onto paper, and this is doubly true for the writing we put online…
Both in my own experience and in listening to other teachers, I have learned that many of us are looking for help moving away from prescriptive writing and towards more project-based, writing workshop, student voice and choice options in our classrooms. But with admin pressures, 25+ students (many of whom…
Looking for short stories for middle school? Or high school? This list of 40+ short stories includes access to video and audio adaptations, paired texts, and more.
Both in my own experience and in listening to other teachers, I have learned that many of us are looking for help moving away from prescriptive writing and towards more project-based, writing workshop, student voice and choice options in our classrooms. But with admin pressures, 25+ students (many of whom…
If you’re looking for some fun reviews to mix into your lessons this year, here are a few ways to use these ELA Digi-Games to mix things up a bit!
ARE YOUR STUDENTS STRUGGLING TO APPLY GRAMMAR CONCEPTS IN THEIR WRITING?Already a customer? Login here…Teaching Grammar Doesn't WorkOne of my best writers, a student with stories to tell and an ear for parallel structure, emotionally relevant details, and surprise endings, sat next to me one day at a table in my…
A college writing center consultant shares her tips on how to write like a college student, so you can ace your college essays and papers.
Over the past several days, I've watched on Twitter and Facebook as groups of people have heralded the National Football League players as they've taken a knee to protest social and racial injustice while opposing groups have accused the players of disrespecting the national anthem, the American flag, and veterans. President Trump suggested that players who kneel during…
Download Immediately!An entire year of quickwriting has been planned for you! Not only will you have the first five to 20 minutes of class taken care of, you can also extend each mode of writing into a longer text by guiding students through the writing process. Students will build writing…
I recently had the opportunity to read an essay written by another teacher which sought to refute my positions on antiracism work. While I have addressed the issue with the original writer, one of the things I noted about the essay was that the arguments are the same ones I…
Curated Short Stories Library members: Access your resources here.Download A Free Copy Of Charles And Print For Your Students Or Upload Directly To Google ClassroomCharles is a short story by American author Shirley Jackson. In her story ‘Charles,' the main character, Laurie, and his alter ego, Charles, are loosely based…
There are different ways to differentiate instruction. Which is the best one for math teachers? Which will have the best impact on your students?
With a new school year upon us, here is a look at 10 must-use secondary ELA teaching units, lessons, and activities for your classroom. These units are
Using ELA Mysteries in your classroom will bring an engaging take on ELA review and skills. Your students will love these!
Whether your students are lethargic or super-charged, adding movement to your lesson plans will help to solve both issues. Not only is it healthy to move throughout the day, but it can also help students focus and become more engaged with the content they are trying to master. Due to the nature of English classes, ELA ... Read More about 10 Ways to Add Movement in the ELA Classroom
Prentenboeken zonder tekst zijn ontzettend leuk om in de klas te gebruiken. In dit artikel geef ik je een aantal tips hoe je dit kunt doen.
EXPLODE THE MOMENT!Every student has a story waiting to be unlocked. Our "Explode the Moment" Personal Narrative Writing Project contains the mentor texts and writing tool instructions your students need to find their stories in the everyday moments of their lives. "What I love best about this narrative unit, is…
Student choice is a cornerstone of student engagement. When students can take charge of their learning and can pursue topics of interest, they will be more engaged and more inclined to do the work, and their work will become more meaningful. This blog post explores different ways to integrate studen
Are you looking for some fun ELA activities to make planning engaging ELA lesson plans a little easier? This list has you covered!
Looking for short stories for middle school? Or high school? This list of 40+ short stories includes access to video and audio adaptations, paired texts, and more.
One of the most important goals of any English class should be to help students learn how to express themselves to an audience -- how to tell their own stories, how to provide much-needed information, and how to convince others to see things from a different perspective. Below are some…
