If your students’ eyes glaze over halfway through a lesson, it may be time for a quick brain break. Brain breaks for middle and high school students help reset attention, restore energy, and get students ready to learn again. The best ones take only a few minutes and still reinforce ELA skills. … [Read more...] about How to Use Brain Break Activities for Middle and High School
Teach thinking and writing in the age of AI
How do we stop students from using AI to do their writing? I know that many of you are super-frustrated with the number of students who are just clicking a button rather than engaging in meaningful thinking and learning. But AI is not going away, teacher friends, and we must find ways to deal with … [Read more...] about Teach thinking and writing in the age of AI
Prevent students from using AI in their writing
We thought we had a plagiarism problem before, but AI has taken it to new heights, hasn't it? It's now a never-ending task to try to detect whether students have actually written something themselves. If you want to stop students from using AI in their writing, you can try to educate them of the … [Read more...] about Prevent students from using AI in their writing
Get students to pay attention
If you've been pulling out your hair, trying to get students to pay attention in class, you are not alone. There are many obstacles that are in the way, and I've got some classroom-tested solutions that you can try. There are three big issues that tend to pull students' attention from the tasks … [Read more...] about Get students to pay attention
Should students use AI for a first draft?
If you're looking for a short answer, I say absolutely not. My not so humble opinion, I will add, does not come from research on the use of AI. Instead it comes from many decades of studying how students learn and think and write. And my experience tells me that students should NOT use AI for a … [Read more...] about Should students use AI for a first draft?
Color coding makes learning visible
I tried a lot of things during my years as a teacher. Some flopped and some worked so well they became a go-to strategy in my tool kit. One of these was color coding. It became clear it was a game-changer the very first time I used it, and I started to build it into as many activities as I could. … [Read more...] about Color coding makes learning visible
Strategies for teaching theme
As far as I'm concerned, most roads lead to theme in a middle or high school English classroom. Yes, we teach students about many literary elements, but we do so to help them understand the life lessons that writers want to get across. We also teach them to have a message in their own writing, … [Read more...] about Strategies for teaching theme
When your students don’t know what to write
You are an English teacher, so I know you've heard this phrase many times: I don't know what to write. It comes from a student who is staring at a blank page, unable to start an assignment. This can be due to a lack of attention or effort but, most often, the student is sincere and really doesn't … [Read more...] about When your students don’t know what to write
Three ways to teach students to make inferences
I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I used to love teaching students to make inferences. Learning to analyze an author's purpose is a key skill for middle and high school English students, but many of them see it as a mysterious process that's hard to do. That's why I loved teaching it … [Read more...] about Three ways to teach students to make inferences
Teach writing by showing not telling
It's something that we teach our students all the time: you need to show your reader, not just tell them. But do we always practice what we preach? I know that during the first part of my career, I did not. And no matter how well I "told" my students what to do for writing assignments, they didn't … [Read more...] about Teach writing by showing not telling
Teaching writing with short assignments
If you're teaching writing and are wondering how to begin the overwhelming task of getting students engaged in the process, I've got a tip for you: use more short assignments and fewer long ones. Is this less rigorous? Absolutely not. In fact, teaching writing with short assignments leads to better … [Read more...] about Teaching writing with short assignments
3 ways to transform the first day of school
Looking for ways to make the back-to-school season less exhausting? Wondering how to get your middle or high school English students engaged on the first day of school and make them happy to be in your class? Instead of going through the typical back-to-school routine of explaining the syllabus and … [Read more...] about 3 ways to transform the first day of school