For the second year, I assigned a Thematic Art Project as the summative activity for Night. I have to admit, when I first assigned it, I was super nervous about what the kids would come up with. This year, I was just excited because the last group did such an amazing job. Well, they did… Continue reading Thematic Art Project: Teach Your English Students to Speak Without Saying a Word
Category: Classroom
Gettin’ My Learn On- Part Three of a Week of Professional Development
An English Teacher's Rock ConcertI would like to thank whatever English teacher fairy blessed me with the knowledge of the existence of the TALE Conference. TALE is the Texas Association for Literacy Education, and before this school year, I had never heard of it. How is that possible? I've been a secondary English teacher in… Continue reading Gettin’ My Learn On- Part Three of a Week of Professional Development
ELA Student Handbook for Middle School
The Struggle is Real Do you ever begin a lesson and realize your kids have no idea what you're talking about? Even though they should have background knowledge from previous school years? Yeah, me too. The biggest problem we have had at my middle school lately is the serious lack of grammar knowledge. I mean,… Continue reading ELA Student Handbook for Middle School
Annotation Academy- Teaching Your Secondary Students to Annotate
My Introduction to Annotation Several years ago, I was attending AP conference at TCU and heard the term annotate for the first time. I say several years, it was probably more like a decade ago. Of course, as an English student, I knew what interacting with a text was, but I don't remember hearing the… Continue reading Annotation Academy- Teaching Your Secondary Students to Annotate
Anchoring Your Instruction: Using Anchor Charts in Secondary English
Do you ever go on Pinterest (of course you do) and see some of the incredibly adorable anchor charts for the elementary classroom? They are so colorful, and they have little drawings of people and fish, and they rhyme and stuff. Can you imagine hanging something like that up for your middle or high schoolers… Continue reading Anchoring Your Instruction: Using Anchor Charts in Secondary English