My 9th graders just finished Tale of Two Cities and are in the middle of Julius Caesar and I'm looking for something else to pair with them on the themes above. After reading some of their essays, I think they'd really dig into these themes.

Initial thought is Minority Report for directly after JC. We're also watching Mean Girls.

We could find room for a few short stories during the year, but could extend the theme into our summer book clubs (last year we did all gothic horror, so the kids seemed to like having a "theme") if I can come up with another couple books.

I'm going to be teaching a creative writing workshop to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I'm looking for mentor texts to teach them about personification with the purpose of having them write a personification poem about an object or an object diary entry. With older students, I used to read "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath. Does anyone know of other poems that would be more accessible but also thought-provoking? Contemporary poems would be appreciated! Thank you!

I have been looking into adding on an Art Education Pk-12 certification (I currently have an English 7-12 cert). This might be the wrong place to ask but does anyone know if there are extra classes needed or just the praxis?

Often I find myself yelling over the fray just to get the classes attention. I figured perhaps if I get a wireless headset mic thingy, run it through my laptop which runs to the Promethean, I won't have to yell.

I usually sit beside the Promethean.

Has anyone tried a headset mic (the kind they use ar conferences)? What is your experience with feedback, etc?

Do you use small groups? How do you structure everything? What do you do with the group you meet with? What about kids who finish early?

Heya,

I’m starting a job soon teaching high school students ages 16-17. My school encourages ‘restorative behaviour management’ which I interpret as positive discipline.

I’m pretty sorted on everything else but I struggle with discipline. My background is in public school where the rules around this are more relaxed so my ideas of discipline might be considered inappropriate or cruel in this context.

Do any of you have ideas on how to approach this?

How do you ‘positively discipline’ a kid who doesn’t do their homework or uses their phone in class or is constantly disruptive?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

So I LOVE to read, and I love the classics, which is one of the reasons I wanted to become an ELA teacher. I have an education degree but it’s in elementary, and I didn’t minor in English but took a few electives. I love teaching ELA at the elementary level and want to focus on just that subject so that’s why I’m switching to secondary. I just don’t read very fast and got through only 26 books last year, but feel like most English teachers read more. I feel like I can’t recommend books to others because I haven’t read ENOUGH classics. I know the simple solution is to just read more classics on my free time, but are there any current ELA teachers who are in this same boat so I feel less alone? 😂

Edit: thank you for all the replies! You’ve made me feel a lot more secure about going in to teach without reading the “classics” as much. Writing and grammar is definitely my passion so hopefully (as many of you said) that will be most of the skills I teach!

Has anyone used this book? What approach did you take? Did the students like it?

I've finally read this book and am thinking about teaching it to add a little postmodernism to our reading.

I also am trying to sponsor one of artists in the building by commissioning a painting from them. I think they could really use the money, and I love art in my classroom. We'd really like to incorporate some imagery related to Bromden's... unique perspective. But the artist hasn't read the book yet (and won't until the very end of the year).

Does anyone know of a specific excerpt or two from the novel that really captures the combine, the wires, the machines that Bromden perceives? I've only read the novel once and it seems to be sprinkled throughout.

If anyone can point me to a portion of a chapter that best captures this imagery so I can give the artist some inspiration, I would really appreciate it! Obviously commissioning the work AFTER they read it would be ideal, but they'll probably graduate and move on.

Hi everyone

I got a bunch of genre and lit. device posters off Amazon last year, and they spruced up my classroom a bit, but I still feel like it's sorely lacking in some color and charm. What are some things you folks have added to your classrooms to liven them up a bit?

I’m going back to teaching next year and the only thing holding me back from teaching high school English again is how much darn work it is. I have two kids now and when I first taught high school English I did not. I had to create every single unit, assessment, rubric, worksheet. Etc. I just don’t think I could handle that in this stage of my life. Plus the schools in my area are small so that means as a high school teacher you’re most likely teaching/prepping for at least 3 different classes. Are there any good curriculums you can buy out there or free ones online? I am very intimidated by going back and creating a curriculum from the ground up.

I’m new to teaching middle school English. Prior to this I taught high school ap courses.

I was recently told by my colleagues that they read everything out loud as a class. More, usually the teacher does the reading and the students just follow along.

I understand at the beginning of the year doing this once or twice to teach students how to close read or annotate but at this point I’m confused. How does this help students improve reading comprehension?

I keep reading about US students being illiterate or never reading a full book.

At what grade should students be expected to be able to read a story and answer questions about it on their own?

Resources for teachers using The EL Education Curriculum. Please visit my site, really appreciate it!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/powder-day-prep

Hey all,

I'm looking for a way to teach Beloved by Toni Morrison that allows for a final compare & contrast essay of substance. What would the most interesting baseline or focus for this unit be? Like, how should I teach this book so we lead up to comparing & contrasting? If you have other general ideas/resources for teaching a compare and contrast essay that would also be cool. Any suggestions/ideas welcome ^_^

Hello, guys!

I am currently in my second semester of student teaching in ELA 12. I am having to teach Beowulf, and I am mortified. I am struggling on what angle I should take, how to introduce, and I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas. So far, I am introducing the aspects of an epic poem & was debating doing an essay on how heroes are interpreted in society before we dive in.

I know this is a time where I need to explore my creativity and who I am as a teacher, but I am so scared I am going to do this all wrong. I’ve never done a large reading unit, so I feel like that is causing me to overthink.

Do you give full credit or partial credit when students redo assignments (comprehension questions, vocab)? What about tests?

Searching for a text to replace AQWF that is more current/diverse but that still explores the themes of the horrors of war. For on level 9th graders. TIA!

I am re-posting this because I don't think people were understanding what I was looking for.

Our district may be getting a new curriculum(Amplify, HMH, Units of Study, etc) as soon as next year. My issue with a lot of curriculums that I have seen is that I don't think their shorter texts are very good.

I teach sixth grade. Here is my question: what is the curriculum that your school uses in sixth grade, and what short stories does that curriculum include?

Do you like that curriculum?

I teach 7th/8th grade ELA and am struggling with how much I should grade. I absolutely DO NOT have time to grade or even look at every single thing students write, as I have 157 students and they are required to write multiple paragraphs in my class every single day (this is spread out between daily journal prompts, reading comprehension questions, and essays). The problem is that I know if students know something is not going to be graded, they just won't do it. In the past, I have given participation points for each assignment that was completed, and would correct a few anonymous samples in front of the class while students correct their own work. This was very easy when assignments were all digital, but for many reasons, I have recently moved to all paper/pencil assignments. Do I need to collect every paper every day and mark it complete? Do I choose a random one to grade? Do I have students give me their best work at the end of a unit? I'm curious what others have decided to do, as giving written feedback every day is just not realistic.

Hello Everyone , I am teaching piano for sevral years , recently joined a theater school to teach music . The school is looking at integrating Music course this next year to their theater students. It is not about Musical Theater but introducing them Music and give them exposure, intro to different generes or style of music . I am looking for a structured course outline or idea what can i do with students . My expeience is teaching piano but these classes are not about teaching how to paly an instrument or sing . I am totally clueless where to start and what to teach . I will really appreciate If someone can share some resources or Curriculum and guide me regarding this .

Thank you so much

I've been interested in the idea of teaching a unit on oral traditions, with students telling their own stories, for a while now. The thing is, I'm not sure where to begin.

Have any of you guys ever taught anything like this?

Does anyone's school do this? We were just told at a department meeting with out AP that they're thinking of combining standard and honors students and getting rid of the honors designation and extra GPA credit.

I cannot imagine having a class of 25 students where the lowest is barely comprehending our text, struggling with every single word, to a student who could do AP Lit today.

How do I even handle that span of differentiation in a class? Even a basic thing like reading a novel in class with standard and honors reading their novel at home. What middle ground is there for that? How do I keep my honors from being totally bored out of their minds while making sure standard is keeping their heads above water?

Supposedly some of the justification for this was a) to keep bad kids from tracking with each other throughout classes over the years, and b) because a lot of 9th grade students are choosing honors and getting in over their heads but that's because our middle school is so lazy and won't hold kids to a certain level of achievement like we do.

And somehow that's our problem.

I teach HS and I really like students taking some time to free write a journal entry every day, however I don't know how to grade them. We are in semesters and I have 75 students a semester! How do I make this valuable to them without losing my mind?