How to Make an Assignment with Clear Expectations
We’ve all been there. You created what you thought was a great assignment. Your creative juices were flowing, you actively…
Lesson/Unit Planning
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An Easy Introduction to Interpretation Using the Art of Norman Rockwell
We projected images of Norman Rockwell paintings and asked students to make claims about each painting’s meaning as well as how specific details in the painting led them to make those claims.
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Picture Books in High School? Try This Introductory Lesson Idea
Getting started might just be the hardest part of, well, pretty much anything. Sometimes we (or our students) need to…
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Stop Lecturing! Try These Engaging Activities Instead
Neither of us is great at just sitting and listening. Steph has to take copious notes or load up her…
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How to Write a Reading Quiz That Actually Works: Lessons from Years of Mistakes
“Uggghhh . . . rivets.” Steph still remembers hearing about the notorious AP Lit reading quiz for Heart of Darkness—two…
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Why Build a Cultural Toolkit with Your Students?
We came to believe we had an obligation to provide our students with what we call a “cultural toolkit.” What authors (for better or worse) once presumed to be a common body of knowledge is increasingly less common: Greek and Roman mythology, the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, and even fairy tales written by the brothers Grimm, not Disney.
