I was looking through my notebook where I scrabble out ideas so I won't forget them and I discovered two things of interest. The first was the words UNSEEN POEM written at the top of the page, but there was nothing else on the entire page, so I guess that poem will remain unseen.  :)   I have no idea why I wrote that in my notebook.  I am sure it was a genius idea that, alas, is gone forever. The second was this idea for Odd Man Out.  Full disclosure, I don't remember if I thought this up and wrote it down or if I heard the idea from somewhere and wrote it down.  ..read more

 Here are two annotation practices you are welcome to make use of in your classroom.  If you would like to share a practice of yours with me, I would be delighted to see it and potentially use it in my class.  Just send it to me in an email.   The first one is the first poem I use with my AP Lit students when we start our poetry unit (they've gotten other poems, but this officially starts our poetry section.  It is "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, one of my favorite poems of all time. https://docs.google.com/document/d/14q5wdaJYzZTZvA3f5BKqHqlGGpcbpObfdd_6 ..read more

Something you to think about trying that I stumbled upon that turned out to be a major motivating factor in my class is giving the option to live forever (or at least until I retire) on the Wall of Glory. The names on the wall go back to 2015, but only because one year the humidity was so high over the summer that the names fell off and the custodian helpfully threw them away.  They have since travelled with me to my current school.   I originally did it without thinking about long-term effects, but man has it paid off.  When a student wins Survivor (English IV) or the ..read more

Teaching ACES step-by-step Do you have a solid plan for getting your students to answer the constructed response section of state tests or to just be able to form the basic elements of a short answer question?  If not, consider below: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/XET-Teaching-ACES-for-Constructed-Responses-12163122 ACES provides a formula for students to think about when formatting a constructed response or short answer question. It is the basic structure for organized writing and is often used to set students up for larger works that will require thesis statements and pa ..read more

 This was designed for AP Lit, but the frame works for any multiple choice activity. I get tired of just plain old individualized reading passages with multiple choice questions (though there is a place for that). Since my class is already in teams for a class game of Survivor, I decided to let them complete this in their teams (though you can just put them into groups). Group work for multiple choice is a great idea as long as your groups with talk amongst themselves.  This way they explain why they thought it was A or C or whatever and bounce their ideas off one another.  This ..read more

 Short post today, but a handy dandy trick nonetheless!  Store your videos on a Google Slides presentation.  This does three things: 1. Makes it easy to find your favorite video clips from semester to semester. 2. Gets rid of annoying ads!  When you embed a video into a Slides presentation, it does not play the ad at the front nor does it interrupt the video with ads in the middle. 3. By using the video format tools, you can choose where to start and stop the video as is most befitting for your lesson. I usually try to put notes in the speaker notes section to remind me w ..read more

As you may have heard, we have a new word added to the English dictionary: Dahlesque Here is the Oxford English Dictionary's definition: Dahlesque: Resembling or characteristic of the works of Roald Dahl - Dahl's writing, particularly his children's fiction, is typically characterized by eccentric plots, villainous or loathsome adult characters, and gruesome or black humor. The word had been around since 1983, but been recognized as an official word just the past several years. So your homework is to use the word today.  Just drop in conversation like it is a word that you always use ..read more

Character Analysis D&D style!   The idea came to me when printing off some character sheets for my daughter's D&D group - this is the perfect platform for dissecting character!  So I started tweaking and realized that while the idea is sound, just modifying the existing D&D character sheet is not going to work for my purposes.  So I started just making one from scratch.  Here are a few partial screen shots - I think it came out pretty good! So the whole thing is a page front and back, along with a detailed walk-through student instruction sheet.  I plan ..read more

 Just a quick one for those of you who teach mythology - A guy by the name of Mark Weinstein created a whole comic strip of Prometheus getting his liver eaten each day by the Vulture.   Here is an example: Had to share! You can read all of them online at The Whole Enchilada ..read more

When starting students off with annotating, they often struggle for what is important enough to write down or how to probe the text for deeper meaning. An easy text to start with is "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin.  Specifically, use this online text by Anne Woodlief: https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/storyofhour.html Woodlief has gone through and linked certain words and phrases that have more meaning than others.  She doesn't just give the meaning away, she posits a question to the reader to help them focus on why this may be important to the meaning ..read more