The Joys of Teaching Literature

Catch-up days allow your students to conference with you about their writing, make sense of their notes, or make up missing work.

A list of ten creative writing projects for the end of a unit.

Put students in charge of their own learning by asking them to set goals when they receive feedback on an essay.

It's easy to change a text-based question into an essential question and it will make learning about the topic much more meaningful and interesting for students.

Learn how to assign a visual one-pager and celebrate the creativity of your students.

Learn how to categorize literary techniques to make them easier to learn.

Learn how to ask students to discuss music like you would a poem or story. Create a fun project or assignment related to music.

Students appreciate it when there's less academic rules and expectations for writing. Here's how to assign a creative nonfiction essay on a topic of choice.

It's easy to get distracted at work so here are some tips to stay focused and not bring work home.

These five simple methods will help you create a positive and welcoming classroom environment where students feel comfortable sharing their ideas.

Instead of getting upset about kids and their phones, let's teach stories about how and why people consume media.

Let's talk about the moving parts of the psyche and how students can use Freud to make a better interpretation of a character's behavior.

Give your students six options to create graphic organizers and track the patterns, topics, and motifs of a poem, short story, novel, or play. Posters are a great way to get students out of their seats by collaborating, presenting, organizing their ideas and quotes.

Learn five techniques that will help you teach The Bard.

Reading blocks held during class time may help students read challenging novels.

Let's think about how to get kids off their phone and tuned into the conversation.

Here is my list of 9 contemporary novels to teach in high school.

Students can present their thoughts in front of the entire class or they can record an interview by using their phone or computer. Here are three types of interviews and conversations that students can record.

If we want students to read and do the work, they need to constantly be in the process of meaning-making. Here are three ways I try to make things meaningful for my students.

Your students will love studying Serial, Season 1 with Sarah Koenig because it's real and relevant.

Give your students options when assigning a podcast. I'll review some techniques that will make creating a podcast easy.

There are a lot of things to consider when asking students to close read a passage in a novel. Learn some fun activities I do to make it manageable.

Here are six activities to keep on your desk to mix things up when interpreting a novel with your students.

There are all kinds of things English teachers can do to prevent the use of AI, but the most important is to provide verbal feedback while they write.

Instead of unit and thematic-based units with essential questions, you could try media and genre-based units where students study and then create podcasts, poetry, video essays, short fiction, and personal essays.

I used two modern short stories to open up conversations about violence, technology, gossip, and surveillance. Students posted links to make connections to two different short stories.

Preparing to write an essay means finding as many quotes as possible to help answer a question, but it can be a fun activity with these five activities.

Bring a new energy to your class with a year-long project that will inspire all of your students and get every hand up in the air. Students deserve a chance to express their thoughts about the world without the pressure of academic analysis. My new online course just opened and you can find it at Teacher's Workshop.

ELA teachers have a ton of work including grading essays, class notes, reading notes, and quizzes, not to mention lesson planning, emails, and meetings. Let's think about how to handle it all.

Students love to talk about how a character grows and changes because they also experience a lot of change in high school.

It seems like it's getting harder and harder to get students to speak in front of the entire class. Learn some strategies to make it easier for kids to share their thoughts.

Instead of listing literary techniques, students should focus on determining their purpose and function. I reduce it to three main purposes to make it easy.

Start the year with a personal narrative and your students will understand what makes a great story. Or maybe it will help them get into college.

Start this school year by having more fun and experiencing less stress. I have three main techniques to get you on your way.

All of your students may not be as obsessed with novels as you are. Free Literacy Blocks will rope in the kids who want to talk about modern topics.

End the year with a creative podcast project instead of a traditional essay.

Students want to find meaning in literature, and they can do it with the three P's of relevance: the personal, the political, and the philosophical.

Learn how to close read film like you close read a poem. Your students will love it and it's an important life skill.

Mini conferences gives your students time to research and write and get verbal feedback as they plan their next steps. Hear about my latest writing assignment.

Teachable moments should be part of our daily approach to teaching fiction, but what are they and how can we talk about them?

Novels don't have the same visual pizzaz as social media, so we have to find ways to convince students why they should read. I'll go over five ways to introduce novels that should make the idea of reading for such a long time a lot less scary.

Film adaptations are a great way to get students to imagine how a story could unfold in today's world. I'll describe an assignment I give with Dubliners, by James Joyce.

It's easy to keep students focused if they have guide that will lead them to a complete comprehension of the topic. In this episode, I'll describe how I ask my students to take notes in class.

Students wake up when they read a story about technology and the media. They have plenty to say about how the media presents reality and in this episode, I'll talk about a small assignment I gave to get those conversations going.

The epic battle of man vs. machine goes on and this time, it's the ELA teacher against AI. Listen to my thoughts on what we can do about the robot that writes stuff.

While it might be difficult to inspire students to love great novels, it's easier to ask them to think and write about things that are personally meaningful. I'll go over different activities and projects that help make learning more personal for students.

Dr. Reed started Walkabouts, an educational technology that teaches students while they exercise. This is an interview that should raise the eyebrow of any teacher looking for a new way to transform their classroom.

There are so many reasons to get stressed out at work, so here are a few ways to avoid burnout.

Working outside school with students in sports and activities can be very rewarding but also demanding.

Creative writing allows students to be free of all the rules and rubrics and now with modern technology, there are many ways students can express their view of the world.