Keeping writing fresh in high school can be a real challenge. We all have a variety of tips and tricks for teaching writing; in fact, we’ve written a bunch of them on this very site! But what about how to take writing to a next level? There are additional aspects of style and rhetorical elements …
This semester I decided to change my approach to teaching poetry from covering a stand-alone poetry unit, to sprinkling poetic activities throughout the course. For example, creating a blackout poem using pages from a short story or novel study, or pairing a text with a poem of similar theme or devices. Another way I included …
The ELA Matters team has collaborated to bring you a range of fantastic back-to-school activities. These activities are not only designed to help you get to know your students on a deeper level but also to foster a sense of community.
Poetry can often be a polarizing topic to teach with half your students grinning from ear to ear, ready to show off their lyrical prowess, and the other half staring down in dread. I recently finished up poetry units with my tenth and twelfth graders and there were a few warm-up activities I tried that …
Mentor texts are one of the most powerful ways to teach writing because they offer students both a model to follow (in other words, build in scaffolding) as well as inspiration for what to say. If you’re looking for fun and engaging ways to incorporate mentor texts into the secondary ELA classroom, read on for …
It’s Mid-November and many students are already counting down the days until winter break. While it’s natural for students to get excited about the prospect of a few weeks away from school, it’s important to keep them engaged in learning throughout December. The ELA Matters team has come together to bring you some ideas to …
Do your students struggle with compare and contrast activities? Maybe they rely on the obvious at the expense of analysis? Are thesis writing, constructing outlines, and plagiarism a problem? If you answered yes to any or all of the questions, you’re not alone! My students struggled big time with comparative essay writing, so I had …
Do your students utilize your classroom library or has it become an expensive decoration in the back of the room? We here at ELA Matters understand the importance of having a classroom library, not just pretty books on shelves, but a library where students find books they want to read, they can relate to, they …
This year for Teacher Appreciation week, we here at ELA Matters want to THANK YOU for your commitment to your students. We are gifting to you several ideas and freebies throughout this post to help you finish the year strong!
We’ve all had this experience: You hand your students a copy of the text and invite them to “annotate the text.” You’re expecting to see margins filled with student writing – making their thinking visible to both you and them. Instead, you see clean crisp margins. Not a written comment in sight. If you’re lucky, …
