It doesn’t matter if you’re fresh out of college, back from a career hiatus, or a teaching veteran: teaching new students is always nerve-wracking. I’m about to enter my 17th year of teaching and I still get nervous on the first day of school. I don’t get nervous with my upperclassmen, however, but ...
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Breaking Down the 2022 AP Literature Open Question Titles
It's time to analyze the titles listed for question 3 of the 2022 AP English Lit exam! Many AP Lit teachers use this list to inform their purchases for classroom libraries, student reading suggestions, and of course, personal reading ideas! The 2022 exam included 17 titles included that had never ...
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10 Engaging Poems for Students Who Hate Poetry
I write this knowing there are tens of thousands of poems for you to choose from when planning your poetry lessons. However, in my 16 years of teaching poetry to 9-12 grade students, I’ve identified some that are too tough, unrelatable, or just plain boring. These poems are the opposite: some that ...
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The Best of William Shakespeare: My Top Ten
I’ve been teaching Shakespeare’s plays since I was first hired as an English teacher, 16 years ago. In that time, I’ve taught his works in several English classes, but now most of my Shakespeare texts live in my popular elective, Shakespearean Literature.In my 15 years of experience, I’ve grown to ...
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March Madness Poetry Brackets in the Classroom
If you haven’t noticed already, many teachers are embracing students’ enthusiasm for the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament and bringing tournament-style activities into their classroom. Since the tournament runs from March to April, and since April is National Poetry Month, many of us have ...
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Tips for Creating a Strong Thematic Unit
There are uncountable ways to create and design a unit for literature. Lately, I’ve been incorporating more thematic units in my courses, such as my Honors/Pre-AP course and my World Literature class. This blog post walks you through some tips to create your own thematic unit or enrich one you ...
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