Carrots and Candy: Letting Go of Rewards in Favor of True Motivation
Pizza for reading, tickets for good behavior, points for participation, stickers for homework completion, marbles in a jar for teamwork,...
Reimagining Assessment for Inquiry in ELA
When we shift from a traditional approach to an inquiry approach in our classrooms, we also must shift how we assess and grade our...
Looking to Literacy Leaders for Hope
The most recent news about the NAEP reading scores are concerning for sure. The headlines are scary: “NAEP Scores Show Large Declines in Reading...
Want More Student Engagement? Hand Over the Controls
I am a recovered Type A secondary English teacher. I used to pride myself on not wasting a single minute of class time. I had a neat...
The Forgotten Strand in ELA: Speaking and Listening
Teachers of English know that the standards for language arts include more than literature and writing. We are responsible for language...
Create a Culture of Literacy
Creating a culture of literacy in the school isn’t just about raising reading scores. Instead, when a community comes together to celebrate...
Do We Need a New Definition of Literacy?
Most educators define literacy as the ability to read and write. And it is true, to be literate we need to know how to read and write. But is this...
Students Are Struggling. We Can Help by Letting Them Read!
The headlines and the frontlines agree on one important effect of the pandemic: Young people are struggling with mental health challenges like...
Want Adolescents to Read? Environment Matters!
It was workshop week at the high school where I teach sophomore English and a ninth-grade literacy course. I was just beginning a year where I...
Maximize Time by Braiding Learning Goals
Working with English/Language Arts teachers on developing highly engaging and intentional inquiry units of study, one of the concerns I...