Category: Literacy / ELA

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...

Prioritize Helping Our Students Fall in Love With Reading (Again)

When working with ELA and literacy educators to increase students’ engagement and achievement in reading, I often run into a set of common...

It’s Not Too Late! Identifying Older Students for Literacy Intervention

I was sitting in my doctoral quantitative research class feeling overwhelmed and frankly, stupid. I didn’t understand numbers. I was an English...

Inquiry in ELA: 10 Ways to Make it Work

As an English and speech teacher for mostly sophomores, I found myself frustrated when students seemed to be just going through the motions,...

Valuing Inquiry Over Opinions in the Classroom

When complex social issues are discussed in our classrooms, we often default to a “both sides” framing. However, this approach can leave our...

Complex Books, In Context #6: Milo Imagines the World

Today, we’re digging into one of my favorite picture books, Milo Imagines the World, written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by...

Ideas for Engaging Students in End-of-Year Reading Reflections

It’s that time again when we will be saying goodbye to this year’s students. Whether they are moving on to a new grade, new school, or...

Complex Books, In Context Series

In our quest to provide diverse and inclusive texts to our students, we must also be intentional about how we use texts that address...

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...

Complex Books, In Context #5: Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

Today, we’re zooming out Dreamers by Yuyi Morales. This is the fifth post in the “Complex Books, In Context” series. Check out the other...

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