End of the Year Poetry Unit for ELA: Slam Poetry, Analysis Activities, and an Independent Poetry Project

The last few days before summer vacation can feel like a slow, painful countdown interrupted by bursts of chaos. Students are desperate to check out, the beautiful weather is beckoning, and you really don’t want to plan around yet another poorly announced award ceremony during your F period class. Mustering the energy to drag your students through a full novel or play just isn’t worth the effort anymore—and yet you’re not ready to give up on meaningful learning altogether. That’s

5 Ideas For Fun And Meaningful Creative Writing In The Secondary Classroom

At the beginning of the school year when I let students ask me anything they wanted, I invariably got the question “Will we be doing any creative writing in this class?” Usually, the kid who asked the question felt that they had not been given enough opportunities for creative writing in their other English classes. I think that many teachers have good intentions to give their students opportunities to be creative and experiment with different forms, but after all of

How to Teach a Great Media Literacy Unit: 6 Tips for Media Bias & Fake News Lesson Plans

If you have students over the age of 16, they’ll be eligible to vote in the next presidential election. Will they have the information to make the best decisions for themselves and their country? If they’re making their choices based on fake news—or misinformation and disinformation—the consequences of those choices could hurt us all. You know that you need to teach your students to be more savvy consumers of digital information who are equipped with the correct tools for evaluating

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