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 book

6 Reasons To Teach With Mentor Texts

Starting a writing unit by examining great examples of the kinds of writing we’ll be doing is one of those ideas that I seem to forget and remember over and over again. Maybe it’s because I rush through writing plans, anxious to get to the assignment so that students can start working. Maybe it’s the effort of looking for good examples. Perhaps it’s the mistake of believing that my explanation is plenty and students shouldn’t need anything more. Or possibly

4 Units to Achieve Back-To-School Goals

As a teacher, you might have just a few goals for the beginning of the school year: set the tone for your classroom; inspire students to work harder; establish rigor and expectations; teach students to think independently. Oh, and don’t forget win over students by showing them how much fun they’ll be having this year, and, when you teach high school, getting to know over 100 new people as fast as possible. Seems simple, right? Every year, I have tried