I invite you to view this TED Talk-Education clip featuring Sir Ken Robinson’s insightful and inspiring take on the future of education in America. Then, encourage you to reflect on your practice and decide what you can do over the summer to be prepared to nurture a climate of change built on curiosity and creativity [...]

Reading and Writing a Literary Critique Use the Nine Yardsticks of Value Chart to show how you rate the autobiographical novel Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao. Also, carefully read the following critique and use the chart to indicate what you believe to be the values of the author, “Monkey Bridge,” Cao has a distinctive style [...]

Viewing and Writing about Photos from Around the World   Preliminary Activity:  Direct students to a website similar to 24 Hours in Pictures .  Let them explore the most recent photos, choose three of their favorites and write one sentence response/reaction to those three. They can copy and paste the photo onto a Word document [...]

Spend some time reading poetry and deciding which poem you like well enough to share with the class. (Please select a new poem; one not done for previous assignments or projects). Steps to Selection 1. Select a collection of poems (a collection by the same or by different authors).  See our class anthology, Poems 180, [...]

Propaganda, Persuasion and Play-writing Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee Adapted from McDougal Littell Conversation: Lessons of History Includes links to Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Download Inherit the Wind Lessons  Though based on the famous Scopes “Monkey Trail” where William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow clashed over a [...]

While the Nine Yardsticks of Value originally were written for use in evaluating fictional works, they can be adapted for deeper reading of more kinds of writing.  Take a look, then download Responding to Reading for use in your classroom to aid students in reaching Common Core Standards in reading, writing, and discussing published works. [...]

Here are samples of the Six Traits © Rubrics for Writing that has been customized to highlight specific requirements for specific assignments. When using the General Grading Guidelines for Writing, it’s important to show students what is required to earn each letter grade. Customizing the familiar rubric makes those requirements clear.  Students can self-check before [...]

You can begin now and ensure that your students will be ready to do well on the semester exam.   First, write in your own words specifically what plan to measure.  Consider these ideas.   (1) How well students recall what you’ve taught about ______________. (2) How well students can use vocabulary. (which?) (3) How [...]

Now that more schools are considering ways to teach and utilize literacy tools to enhance instruction and increase learning across the content areas, many English Language Arts educators are being viewed as the repository for such strategies.  Remember, while schools are implementing the Common Core Standards, all educators are responsible for helping students to meeting [...]

I love to share ideas from others that I wish I’d thought of myself.  Here’s one from Joe Bellacero who writes: I know that, as an English teacher, I wanted my students to read things outside of class so we could spend our time in class in more fruitful discussion and analysis. One of my [...]