How to Teach Figurative Language (Or Any Other Literary Element)

How do you teach students to actually understand how figurative language or other literary elements function to create meaning in a text? In my experience, the higher the level of thinking you require from your students, the more they’ll benefit by a breaking down of the steps to get there.  Sure, every once in a while you’ll come across a kid who can just naturally and effortlessly analyze a literary text, but honestly that’s like one in a thousand.  

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How to Teach a Harlem Renaissance Unit: Lesson Plans, Discussion Questions, & Activities

There is so much incredible art to explore from the Harlem Renaissance that it might seem overwhelming to do the movement justice. This fabulous period in history is often taught as a side note to the Roaring Twenties or briefly paired with Gatsby, but there’s so much to teach—from music to fashion to essays to poetry to fiction to fascinating debates around what it meant to be a Black artist at the beginning of the 20th century. When I first

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16 Native American Literature Units: Short Stories, Essays, Poetry, and Film for High School

Ready to integrate more Native voices into your curriculum this year? While trickster tales, creation myths, and other traditional stories definitely have their place in an American literature curriculum, it’s important that your students don’t get the message that Indigenous literature is only something from the past or something to read about in their history books.  That doesn’t mean those works—or the past itself—aren’t important. But some of the most powerful and accessible ways for students to understand that past

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End of the Year ELA Activities: Fun Independent Projects for High School English

It’s the end of the school year—how can you possibly get your ELA students excited about learning when summer vacation beckons? If you’ve spent any time around teens, you know the ticket to success in their learning is giving them as much choice as you can.  When they choose what they will learn and the stories they will tell, they feel empowered and engaged.  And they know that you care about their interests.  But you also need to have some

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Drop Everything and Read: Ten Tips for Successful Reading Workshop Lesson Plans

I have come to admit that my students get more out of the books they choose to read on their own than almost anything I assign to them.  I also know that their lives don’t always allow them time to get lost in a book while they are surrounded by a quiet, calm atmosphere.  So when I can, I structure in some time for independent reading workshop including writing regular reading responses based on one of two different structures.   

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Why You Need to Teach “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston

I’m always on the lookout for a great new text that will impact my students and also be enjoyable to teach.  And when I do find that gem that has for some reason been hidden from me, I want other high school teachers to experience it as well.  I can get kind of excited about new discoveries, especially when they add diverse voices and views to my curriculum.  I created this unit on “Sweat”  and now I want everyone to

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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

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Teaching The Great Gatsby: Discussion Questions, Unit Plan Ideas, and Historical Context

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 lesson plans 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.   II first started teaching this

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Lesson Plans for Teaching Poetry: Fun Activities and Ideas for Poetry Month

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 engaging and innovative unit plans, poetry can be fun and challenging and the best part of the year. Here are 7 ideas to experience poetry in April or any month. Do some Madlibs.  One of my favorite low-key ways to get students experiencing poetry

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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

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