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 [...]

Current Events on Issues of Prejudice You are to find news articles about a current issue of interest to you that reflect prejudice, tolerance, or intolerance in modern society. Follow the progress of the issue during the next few weeks, clipping, copying and pasting into your print or digital journal as many articles about the [...]

With or without using technology, book reports don’t have to be same old, same old, same old thing.   See the NY Times Learning Network for alternative ways to engage students in reading, then writing and talking about books. Remember to include non-fiction titles on your lists of suggested books.

Assigning students to write notes that include reasons for their responses to discussion questions along with page numbers from the text prepares them to have deeper more substantive discussion.  While these questions include direct responses based on the text, feel free to add questions that prompt students to connect issues in the book to their [...]