Classroom Management: Why We Freewrite

It’s kind of funny that as a teacher I can relearn the same lessons over and over again—I’ll forget how affective a strategy is or how crucial one step is—until I am brutally reminded when a lesson falls flat or an assignment turns out terribly. One of the lessons that I learn over and over is how important the freewrite is. Last year I was grading the midterm exams from my junior honors American Literature class, and there was one message that

Opium Dreams and Author’s Intent: Romanticism Poetry Lesson Plan

You know you have a good poetry lesson when it grabs students in the first days of school. One of my favorite and most effective poetry lessons of all time is my two-day lesson on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment.” It’s a great lesson because I get to employ some of my favorite comprehension strategies, and because I get students writing and thinking about big questions early on. (You can

Classroom Management: The Perfect Bellringer

Those first few minutes of a class are always hectic. Someone needs to go to the bathroom, someone else needs to get their missing work, and someone else needs to show me their newest poem about a fight they had with their mom this weekend and how they incorporated an extended metaphor to explain their pain. I’m expected to take attendance and submit it electronically ASAP. Not to mention checking homework, reviewing due dates and upcoming projects and tests.

Troubleshooting Writing Workshop: Three Common Questions

I have recently created a comprehensive resource to help teachers who would like to start doing writing workshop with their classes–or for teachers who’d like a little more structure and guidance with the workshops that they have already conducted in class. It includes 30 pages of handouts, how-to’s, and tips including 11 common writing workshop problems and solutions. One of the greatest things about creating resources for other teachers is that I can help them to learn from my (many many) mistakes

Poem of the Week: Shakespeare Death and Old Age

Poem Of The Week: Death and Old Age with Shakespeare

Not sure if it is the almost-bare trees outside the window or the dying embers of the warm winter fire in the fireplace that reminded me today of one of my favorite poems to teach. William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, usually known as “[That Time of Year Thou Mayst In Me Behold],” has been a go-to poem for me for years. (You can find a ready-to-go lesson plan on this poem by clicking here.) It’s a typical Shakespeare sonnet in many ways: an

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