There are dozens of blog posts out there on activities and assignments that help build community with your students. I’m happy to offer those ideas, but it made me wonder: are there any texts that work to build community when you read them as a group?I was asked this question a few months ago and ...
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13 Ways to Teach a Poem
There are many things I struggle with as a teacher, but one thing that always seems to come naturally is thinking of different ways to approach a text. I get bored easily, so I try not to do the same method or activity too often. You might think this adds up to a lot of planning work for me, but ...
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How Chris Hemsworth Can Help You Teach Growth Mindset
Recently, my family and I were watching the new Disney + show Limitless. The miniseries features Chris Hemsworth and a variety of experts as they discuss elements to living a long life, including fasting, strength-training, and battling stress. The first episode discusses stress, and so far I’ve ...
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Rehashing: How to Use it in the AP Lit Classroom
When I was a new AP Lit teacher I attended a one-day AP training, as many teachers do. During one of my trainings a brilliant veteran AP teacher was going over a writing skill, then mentioned offhand that she had recently spent a whole writing rehash working on that skill.After seeing our puzzled ...
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7 Titles Ideal for Use in World Literature
Last year, I was given the opportunity to teach World Literature for the first time in four years. In returning to the course, I decided to reorganize my course approach, moving it from a chronological approach to a thematic approach. I also spent my summer reading new titles and selecting new works ...
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8 Tips for Facilitating Ethical Research Practices in the ELA Classroom
I've been teaching research for my entire career. It began horribly, and honestly, it was because I was downright lazy. I demanded citations for everything but did little to teach my students how to make them. More importantly, I never instructed them why ethical research was important.After a few ...
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