How To Beat The Online Summaries

One of the main reasons why I love teaching literature is because I get to witness my classes experience the joy of reading great books. When students grapple with a text, analyze exquisite writing first hand, discover universal themes in classic works, and experience the accomplishment of finishing a challenging text for themselves, they truly grow as students and as people. Often, though, kids deny themselves of their own education by choosing to read online summaries rather than actual

How To teach a Gatsby Unit Your Students Will Remember

Just about every American Literature class in the country will read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American Dream, but that doesn’t mean that your unit on Gatsby should be like all the others. It’s one thing to fulfill a requirement or simply “cover” the book and it’s quite another to teach an impactful unit on The Great Gatsby that will really make a difference in the way your students view their world. I’ve been teaching this classic

7 Ideas For Experiencing Poetry

April is national poetry month, which means that teachers all over will feel obligated to dust off their ancient books of rhyme. But poetry doesn’t have to be full of archaic words and stuffy meter. With some engaging and innovative lessons, poetry can be fun and challenging and the best part of the year. Here are 7 ideas to experience poetry this month. Do some Madlibs. One of my favorite low-key ways to get students experiencing poetry from the inside

How To Get your Students to Work Independently

The best piece of advice that I ever got as a teacher was from a principal way back in 2004. He told me that at the end of the day, my students should be more tired than I was. I took that as permission to give myself a break, not martyr myself for the kids, and get them to do the work, not me. The second best piece of advice I ever got as a teacher was from a freshman

6 Reasons Why Your Students Need Close Reading

When I think about my goals as a teacher, I think about how I want to empower my students to go out into the world and think for themselves. Creating independent, confident, life-long learners who aren’t afraid to try to new things is really the ultimate dream. But figuring out how best to spend the limited time that I have in class in order to achieve those dreams is not always easy. I have found, over the years, that teaching