One of our favorite ways to grab students’ interest is through contemporary television shows and movies. Visual storytelling, whether as entertainment or on social media, is a big part of our students’ world, and using these other “texts” can be an easy yet powerful way to bring students into the world of a novel or introduce a skill in a way that is non threatening and high-interest.
Are you teaching a course that’s left you thinking, this textbook is the best we could do? Curriculum improvement may…
It can feel overwhelming to sort through the materials provided by your district or textbook publisher. This is exacerbated by looking at a pacing guide that seems to suggest other teachers are flying through every activity in a number of days that seems wildly unrealistic for your students (spoiler alert: those pacing guides are unrealistic for every classroom!).
You’ve been there before: “I’m setting clear expectations. Students know exactly what they need to do on this assignment/essay/test/project.” You’ve…
Most students (let’s be real, most humans) tend to exert the minimum level of effort needed to complete a task. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – we don’t have the time, energy, or resources to go above and beyond on every. single. task. This can become frustrating in our classrooms, however, when students turn in poor quality work on what we thought was a good assignment or earn low scores on a quiz we thought they were well-prepared for.
While assigning homework has long been a part of the middle and high school English class experience, sometimes it’s time…