Want to see what a war zone of a teacher in the midst of curriculum writing looks like? Imagine a scattered mess of handouts, binders, magazine tear-outs, calendars, textbooks, novels, and notes. Notice the trail of stray highlighter streaks on a poor page careless enough to stray from the pile as its owner frantically marks up yet another idea. Don't mind the scribbles on ten different notes and pages written in a code not even the author can remember. Glance over the to-do-list with a hundred items, all written in earnest yet most never achieved because there is just not enough time in a semester.
Using Google Forms to Write a Literary Analysis Essay
My favorite element to teach my students is writing, but my students struggle the most with writing their literary analysis essay. After trying numerous methods and tweaking my curriculum each semester, I feel that I have found a better way to teach my students how to write their essay: Google Forms. If you have never… Continue reading Using Google Forms to Write a Literary Analysis Essay
T. SWIFT Poetry Analysis
"Guess what guys! We are going to start a new unit today... Poetry!" "Mrs. Rice, are you kidding me? I HATE poetry?" " Are we going to be reading sappy love poems?" "I don't understand poetry." "Do I have to write a poem?" I feel that the conversation above is a classic staple in every… Continue reading T. SWIFT Poetry Analysis
How to Build Better Discussion with Socratic Seminars
My favorite days of teaching are when I don't have to do any of the work, and I can sit at my desk and just observe my students doing the hard work. One of the best ways to have an "easy" day in the classroom is to hold a Socratic Seminar. Socratic Seminars add so… Continue reading How to Build Better Discussion with Socratic Seminars
Teaching Theme with “The Sneetches”
The Importance of Theme and Literary Analysis The most important unit that I teach in my English 10 class is my Theme & Symbol unit. Themes are something that students have learned before but this unit is the first time that they will have to apply literary analysis to theme in a formal essay. I… Continue reading Teaching Theme with “The Sneetches”
How to Incorporate Student Blogs
With the high pressure of state mandated standardized testing , teachers are in need of ways to have their students write more in preparation for these tests. Instead of turning to the practice prompts, I allow student choice in my classroom. Every other week for the entire semester, the students create a student blog and… Continue reading How to Incorporate Student Blogs
Spirit Week: Showing Your Students How to Take Risks
A few weeks ago, we had the most energetic week of the school year: Homecoming Week. This time each year, the students get to be a little unfocused as they get ready for the main event of the week... The Homecoming Dance. Our school allows us to have a Spirit Week to put teachers and… Continue reading Spirit Week: Showing Your Students How to Take Risks
Making Inferences: The First Step in Literary Analysis
As we embark on our first unit of study and tackle writing our first literary analysis essay, my students always struggle with how to elevate their writing from summary to analysis. In order to help them understand this concept, we start at the very beginning with making inferences and drawing conclusions. In order to engage… Continue reading Making Inferences: The First Step in Literary Analysis
First Day Escape Room
It's that time of year again... August has begun and it's time to plan your first day activities. Being the cool teacher that you are, you want to engage your students. However, you are tired of the ice breaker activities such as give an adjective to describe you or everyone take a piece of candy… Continue reading First Day Escape Room
How to Make Independent Reading Engaging
Want to know how to suck the joy out of reading... Make it a required grade with required teacher book talk time. The Fail Last year, I wanted to focus on getting my students to read every day and start increasing the amount of reading that they do as a whole. All the research supports… Continue reading How to Make Independent Reading Engaging
Where Did the Summer Go? The Unavoidable Time Suck of Curriculum Updating
A week before teacher in-service begins, I look back on the two and half months of freedom I had this summer. Where did it go? What did I do? I think that I feel victim again to the time suck of curriculum updates. I love changing my curriculum and utilizing new ideas and I become eager to tackle all of those projects during that expansive time I have from June-August. However, while I did go on a vacation or two, I don't think I gave myself enough time to relax. I spent most days at some point in the day in front of my school computer at home working on at least one of my classes. Creating semester plans, new resources, updated assignments, improved instructional days, etc. took up the better part of a morning almost every day this summer.
theteacherrewrite.wordpress.com 