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Dead White Poets Society
Scads of English teachers have shown the movie Dead Poets Society in class to either begin their poetry unit or to try and inspire an appreciation...
In this creative writing activity, secondary ELA students will use what they overhear in the hallways to write poems! Download the lesson template and hear from ELA teacher Jennifer Nash how she implemented this activity in her classroom!
Exploring Identity Through Narrative Writing
During Pride Month, everyone expects coming out stories or rainbow flags to take over their social media profile pics–and honestly, I love those...
ELA Activity: Character Analysis Diagram
Analyzing complex characters in a novel or a short story requires students to look at many things such as how they’re described physically, but also...
Rock Star Poets
The “Greatest Hits” album. All the greats do it—Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty, Elton John, Madonna, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mariah Carey—so it only...
Middle School ELA: Words of Doom
"The “Words of Doom” were an addition to our spelling instruction in middle school ELA. They could easily be adjusted or modified for upper...
Does Gatsby Really Matter? Combating Apathy in the ELA Classroom
Given that lately I am as burnt out as they come, I found myself wanting to do something unusual.
ELA: Instagram Activity for Learning Vocabulary
For this activity, students are tasked with creating an Instagram post imagining that their assigned vocabulary word was a person posting on social...
What if we taught composition like Bob Ross teaches painting?
Back in my hometown, it was a rite of passage at the age of twelve to get a paper route. There was no status associated with it, nor did it come with...
Aggressively Poetic
Leaves caked my front yard, suffocating the burgeoning grass below as I sat on the couch and told myself only one more episode of Law & Order and...
My Red Pen Is Dusty, and I’m Glad
Over the course of my career as a middle school ELA teacher, I’ve graded more writing pieces than I can count. I’ve graded late into the night, on...
Inaugural Poetry Discoveries
Like lots of others, I didn’t discover Amanda Gorman until she graced the country with, well, her grace, her presence, and her poetry at the...
Interview with a Character (ELA Activity)
There are so many more interesting methods to writing a character analysis than writing an analysis paragraph. Oftentimes, English or language arts...