As an English teacher, do you ever find yourself in the same creative rut when it comes to assessing your students during a choice reading unit? You know that the focus should be on their engagement with what they are reading and not merely understanding plot points, but how can you assess something so abstract as critical thinking skills? I don’t have all of the answers, but I believe there is a ... Read More about Creative Assessments for Your Choice Reading Program
How to Use a Character Autopsy Activity in Your Secondary English Language Arts Classroom
Using a character autopsy can be an engaging activity that explores the moments, motives, and traits of characters in literature. This meaningful exercise challenges students to analyze and investigate the inner workings of characters so they can better understand their place in a story. This is also an easy way to incorporate the Reading: Literature standard number three (RL3) into your ... Read More about How to Use a Character Autopsy Activity in Your Secondary English Language Arts Classroom
The Best YA Summer Reads Releasing in 2023
Are you looking for your next perfect summer read releasing in 2023? You've come to the right place! I'm super excited about all of these books and hope to get through each one by the end of the summer. Many of them I had the chance to read early, so my reviews are included with the listings below. As a quick note, when you buy any of the books from this blog post, I receive a small ... Read More about The Best YA Summer Reads Releasing in 2023
High Interest Unit Ideas for the End of the School Year or Summer School in Secondary ELA
Are you struggling to come up with high interest unit ideas for your English Language Arts students to complete in a short amount of time? Whether you have a few weeks left in the school year and are looking to go out with a bang or you have a summer session to plan, these ideas will give you the inspiration you need to build something your students will love. Genre-Based Literature ... Read More about High Interest Unit Ideas for the End of the School Year or Summer School in Secondary ELA
5 Novels in Verse Activities for Your Secondary ELA Lessons
Novels in verse are a unique genre that offer a refreshing change of pace for readers who are looking for something different from traditional novels. Not only do they provide a compelling story, but the format of verse adds another layer of complexity to the reading experience. For students, reading novels in verse can be a great way to improve their literacy and critical thinking skills as ... Read More about 5 Novels in Verse Activities for Your Secondary ELA Lessons