Teachers! What’s your plan for next school year? Hybrid? Online Learning? Next year is still up in the air for a lot of us. And it could change a couple of times during the school year. However, it does appear that many students will spend the start of the year in online learning, and many students will be in a digital classroom for most of the year. It also appears that we may not have spent enough time learning from our mistakes with online learning in the spring because we thought this would all be over by now. We’d be back to something resembling regular school. But here we are in the mos ..read more

If you’re a high school English teacher, you’re probably teaching Shakespeare. You also know that it can be difficult to get kids interested in reading him before they even start. This happens for a couple of reasons: The word on the street is that Shakespeare is difficult. It will probably be the hardest thing they’ll read all year. He’s a dead white guy that might not have anything to say to kids these days. Shakespeare doesn’t look like the books that students are likely to read, so his plays don’t feel familiar. Teachers geek out on Shakespeare so much that student think they are really ..read more

Shakespeare presents an exceptional challenge for struggling readers. All the plastic swords and bad student acting will help get students interested in the content. But it won’t be enough for those who find everyday reading a significant challenge. Below I’ve outlines some steps that will help struggling readers get a handle on Shakespeare’s plays. I am working from the basic premise that we want ALL students to experiences Shakespeare in the original language. And furthermore that ALL students can read and understand it. It just might require some a little more time than others! So here are ..read more

For many of our students, annotating is like making their bed. Annotation is something they do because someone in charge tells them to do it, not because it makes sense. After all, if you’re just going to get back into the bed at night, why bother making it at all? Fair enough. I don’t always make our bed, even if a NAVY Seal tells me to.  Of course the answer the question in the title is YES! We want our students to be able to annotate. Not everything they read, but those things for which annotation is an important part of the process. But in order to do that, we need to make annotation ..read more

We all want our students to develop important skills when they leave school. They should know how to write a good essay. We want them to be able to annotate something they’ve read. They might also develop the ability to take care of themselves physically and emotionally. However, there are other life skills that students will need when they go to college that we don’t teach them, and that they may not have acquired yet. Some students still have their laundry done by their parents and have not cooked a dinner that doesn’t consist of ramen noodles or grilled cheese. Their lives may have been so ..read more

Digital learning has been rough on all of us – teachers, parents, and students and it’s difficult to stay positive. It can be very discouraging. We don’t get a lot of feedback from our students. It’s difficult to find much joy in seeing our students solely through the lens of worksheets and essays and the occasional text message. Even digital conferencing, which allows you to interact with your student, may actually deplete your energy. It can all be very discouraging. This isn’t what we got into teaching to do. However, it’s important to stay positive during these times. Here are some things ..read more

Many teachers have found out that we are doing distance learning for the remainder of the school year. There has also been some talk of doing something similar in the fall in a lot of districts. It’s been hard. Hard on the students, the teachers, and the parents. And for those of us used to being in the classroom relishing the variety and unpredictability that the school day provides, the remote learning environment can seem like a foreign land. We get over a hundred assignments every day. And get very little feedback. Plus no contact with other humans. Here are some suggestions for bridging ..read more

In a virtual learning environment, cheating is inevitable. We aren’t around to monitor students’ progress and honesty. There’s a temptation to get wok done as quickly as possible so that they can do something else. Or, to be fair, some students are watching their younger siblings all day and are struggling to find time to do their school work. But the problem persists, and more so than in our regular classrooms. Here are some things your students are likely doing: Giving work to other students to copy Crowd-sourcing work by having each student answer one study question and then distributing ..read more

Even though teaching Shakespeare in a digital learning environment is a difficult task, it can be done! Below are some tip for getting set up to teach any Shakespeare play. Which Version of Shakespeare Should You Use? The first thing you have to decide is which version of the play to use. It’s likely that your students don’t have a copy of their own, so you’ll want to find a good online version that provides that with plenty of support. Shakespeare is a struggle for most students, and we can’t assume that they’ll be up for reading it in the original format on their own. Many online versions d ..read more

As remote learning has quickly become the new normal for students and teachers, it has been tough to come up with meaningful lessons for ELA students. Will they read the book I assign them, or just pretend to read them? How can I keep the level of rigor where it needs to be? Because of the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in, it might be time to do some poetry. Poetry is a terrific option for students engaged in distance learning. Here’s why: Students can’t fake read poetry. We all know fake reading will be a huge problem with novels. However, if you give a student a poem, especially a ..read more