Ideas from the Blog

Do you love teaching English, but the grading is dragging you down? Me too--if I let it.I had a bad week last week, but I learned (re-learned, really) something that I thought I'd share with you. In my "wisdom", I had two different classes pass in major essays, and I needed to get them graded … [Read more...] about Three Ways to Beat Grading Stress

Imagine your students engaged in deep discussions about literary analysis? That's what happens with this author purpose jigsaw activity! When we discuss theme in my classroom, I often compare it to doing a jigsaw puzzle: when you do one, you shake out all of the pieces, then look for the corners and … [Read more...] about Author Purpose Jigsaw Puzzle Activity

It's something I've been guilty of for many years. I'd assign a speech or seminar and teach students about how to create content only. I would remind the kids that they needed good pace, volume and eye contact, but I didn't devote any time to teaching the speaking process. The irony of this is … [Read more...] about Teaching the Speaking Process

The longer I teach, the more I come to believe that the slower we take things, the more our students learn. Because of this, my students now create fewer "good copies" than they have in the past, so we can spend more time on the process of learning. One process I've been spending more time on is the … [Read more...] about Teaching Teens to Read and Respond Critically

Do your students struggle with the concept of metaphor sometimes? Perhaps they need the metaphor challenge! Last week I took my twelfth graders outside for an activity. It was called a writing scavenger hunt, and they had to go to different locations around the school grounds to "find" … [Read more...] about The Metaphor Challenge

Despite what many of our students believe, writing is not all about that end product, the one we take in and grade. "Good Copies" are often whipped up the night before they are due, and passed in full of errors and lacking thought. Sometimes, though, this is the result of our own practice. Rushed to … [Read more...] about Teaching students the habit of revision

Yesterday, I shared my long range plans for assessment and the weekly schedule for my blended workshop. Today, we're going to get into the nitty-gritty. (I will also be mailing out a lesson plan as part of my Five Days of Workshop Freebies, so be sure to sign up for the mailing list.)Every … [Read more...] about Blending Reading & Writing Workshop: A Closer Look at My Lessons

Yesterday, I wrote about the reasons why I'm going to blend my reading and writing workshops this year. Now, as promised, I'm going to share more of the specifics for how I'm going to do that.Let me start at the end. Before I can get too far in planning my blended workshop, I have to know where I'm … [Read more...] about Blending Reading & Writing Workshop: Organization & Assessment

I get a lot of questions about the best way to balance reading and writing workshop; it's something that I've struggled with myself on my journey with this approach. However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder: why do we want to separate them at all?Reading and writing are closely … [Read more...] about 5 Ways to Blend Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop

It's taken my two decades of fighting against my type A perfectionist self to realize that one of the most important things I need to do to have a good year is to take care of myself.  It doesn't matter if I have the most engaging, mind-blowing lessons if I can't maintain the pace all semester. … [Read more...] about If Teacher Isn’t Happy, Nobody’s Happy: Five Things to Take Care of First

Some of you are going back to school soon, while others have a month of summer left. Whether you're setting the alarm or still dreaming of better ways to engage your students, you might find something for you here. I've rounded up some of my favourite back-to-school posts in the hope of … [Read more...] about Back-to-School Ideas for Middle & High School English Teachers

A few days ago, I wrote about my favourite activities and strategies from the last school year, but I left one out: conferencing with my students. This strategy has totally changed my life as a teacher and I can confidently say it has improved the learning for my students. I wrote a post last year … [Read more...] about PLANNING FOR BACK TO SCHOOL: MY FAVES FROM LAST YEAR (Part Two)