Plot and Character for 10th graders

I often tell my 10 graders that 10th grade English is 9th grade English on steroids. In fact, from here on out, nothing will be completely new. Literary devices, poetry analysis, how to write an essay, how to use MLA citations – these topics will be rehashed in some form every year until you graduate.…

Socratic Seminar: Best Practices

I didn’t try to organize a Socratic Seminar for a long time because I couldn’t figure out how it works. So here is my list of best practices, especially for beginners: Watch this video: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/bring-socratic-seminars-to-the-classroom Have your students also watch the video (it helps them to see students their own age actually doing this). The best…

Discipline Tracking System

In a teacher meeting one day, we were discussing the ever-increasing difficulty of tracking discipline issues, especially the minor ones – uniform violations, tardies, using headphones in between classes. These are the small actions that teachers most loathe dealing with – who wants to be looking at students’ socks when class starts? Who can remember…

Thesis Statement Formula

Guiding students to write a meaningful and sufficiently profound thesis statement is never easy, but with this formula, my students finally climbed out of the Pit of Vague Ideas, escaped through the Forest of “I Think That”, and soared to the peak of Mount So What. Writing literary analysis essays is almost mathematical, I tell…

The Odyssey Project

The Odyssey lends itself to projects of epic proportions, and I knew my 9th graders were up to the task. It was time for an epic final project. I had the 9th graders plan and design a board/table game based on The Odyssey. We had spent the partial reading Lombardo’s The Essential Odyssey, which was easy enough…

Standardized Test Banners

My school takes MAP tests at the beginning and end of each school year to measure the students’ progress. The school gave me rolls of paper and asked me to guide the students in making a banner about tips for success in taking the tests. I looked all over Pinterest and Google for ideas for…

The Things They Carried – Activities

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is one of those stories from high school lit class that I remember thinking, Wow, I am sure glad they made me read this one. I would have probably never chosen it on my own. But isn’t that what literature class and learning in general is for –…

High School Common Core ELA Standards

It took some time to become familiarized enough with the Common Core Standards to be able to use them properly, but now I love them. Is love too strong a word? I love their flexibility and variety, with the emphasis on tailoring the plans based on the specific needs of each class. I love the…

First Day Ideas for High Schoolers

Meaningful high school activities were hard to find for the first day of school. I was a new teacher to the school, and did not know the knowledge and engagement level of the youth. First, as a warm-up activity and get-to-know-you game, I had students choose an object that represents them. They wrote about themselves…

Honduran Crucible Project

It was fascinating to teach my 11th graders about how Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is still relevant to them today. They are Honduran teens who are vaguely aware of what is going on in their country and definitely not aware of what was happening 30 years ago. The 80’s Cold War era in Honduras and even…