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A community-driven blog providing resources for educators, by educators.

    ELA (2)

    teacher smiling into camera

    Advice from a Veteran Teacher

    To be successful, teachers become chameleons. It is impossible to do our jobs without learning to adapt. As I spend more time in this career, I...

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    middle school students raising hands in classroom

    Think Outside the Bag: Middle School Icebreaker

    What do a wooden spoon, neon vest, ball of yarn, and rubber duck have in common? In my classroom, they become tools students use to solve real-world...

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    High school girl writing on a piece of paper in a classroom

    First Week Writing Tasks Beyond "What I Did This Summer"

    In high school, many students spent their summer working, babysitting younger siblings, or playing video games. Others were at the pool, had their...

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    middle school girl reading a book outside and laying in the grass

    Summer Reading and Writing Challenges

    Before you’re of working age to get a job for the summer, the idea of filling up almost 12 weeks of time is intimidating and can lead to feeling...

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    Middle school aged girl reading a chapter book

    Helping Students Visualize What They Read

    For fluent readers, reading is like having a movie play in their minds. But for struggling readers, they see pages and pages of text. Stopping to...

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    New York city park

    Writing Scenes Using Humans of New York

    This lesson invites students to explore how effective storytelling can distill powerful emotions and experiences into brief, memorable scenes....

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    High school student reading a novel in a classroom

    Webinar: Balancing Literacy Skills and Sustained Reading

    Dr. Brandon Abdon and Jennifer Abramson name the core tension secondary ELA teachers feel: the pressure to “cover” standards and test-prep skills...

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    high school students sitting in group reading novels independently

    Balancing Literacy Skills and Sustained Reading

    If you teach grades 6–12 ELA, you know the squeeze. You are expected to move students toward sophisticated analysis of theme, rhetoric, structure,...

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    High school students reading together

    AP® Literature: Short Story Activities

    In my district, every nine weeks we ask our students at all grade levels to read a work independently and then demonstrate their knowledge of that...

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