All posts filed under: teaching

Ideas to Teach Poetry to Students

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I love poems.  There’s just something amazing and profound that comes from such simplicity.  Perfect words, said succently. However, not everyone shares my enthusiasm and I get that.  When I first started teaching, I followed what I was taught in school–you learn poetry through a poetry unit.  After many years of lackluster participation and ho-hum student-written poems, I had a change of heart. If your students struggle with analyzing poetry, here are three tips to try. 1. Filter poetry in with a unit you are already teaching Now when I teach poetry, I filter it in.  Have a writing lesson working on figurative language and imagery?  Read and discuss a poem first.  They are filled with them.  Teaching a novel and finding evidence to support a theme?  Read and discuss a poem that focuses on the same theme.  (When my students read The Secret Life of Bees, we focused on the theme of social injustice.  I paired that theme with the poems “Harlem” and “I, Too,” by Langston Hughes, and “Alone” by Maya Angelou.  Students made …

15 Ways to Bring More Reading Into the Classroom

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Independent reading is at the core of my teaching.  As a class we read 3 texts together–two novels and one Shakespeare play–and the rest of what students learn center around books of their choice. I had this shift in perspective about 5 years ago when I realized that my students were reading very little, including the required books that the district set forth.  I wanted students to fall in love with reading, to see just how rewarding it could be.  Once independent reading was implemented, my students read more than I ever imagined.  If your students are struggling with reading, or they read but you know they should be reading more, give any of these ideas a try. 1.  Speed Date Looking to have students try different genres and authors?  Try this. I do this at the beginning of each year and when we begin book clubs. It’s a fun way to have students try new genres and authors. 2.  Book talks / book trailers Every Monday, I book talk a book or two that I …

Responding to Non-Fiction Texts

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My students have an easier time writing about fiction texts than they do non-fiction texts.  The initial thought was that, at least in English class, students read more fiction.  But in their day-to-day reading throughout the school day, they read more non-fiction.  So why were my students struggling to write about non-fiction texts when most of their day was spent reading it? Looking at the curriculum, students read poetry, short stories, novels, novellas, and a lot of choice books.  The hole was staring at me in the face.  There was very little devoted to reading non-fiction. That was when my teaching partner and I spent some time figuring out how to help our students respond to non-fiction texts and settled on the acronym RACER.  The idea of this is not new.  You can conduct an internet search for RACE or RACER and see lots of ideas out there.  In my school, when students write about fictional texts, they use the CER format.  Acronyms help in memorization, and I wanted students to think CER = fiction; …

How to Encourage All Types of Readers

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We’ve now been in school for one month.  One month! I can’t believe it.  It seems like just yesterday I was putting my classroom back together.  Now that all the nitty-gritty has been taken care of (syllabus, classroom expectations, where to find things in the classroom), class has settled in and there’s the slow hum of students reading and writing. By the end of the first week of school, students understand that independent reading is a big component of my class.  Many smile, as they love books, but there’s always a small handful that dread finding books to read, let alone reading them. The following strategies have worked in my classroom with all kinds of readers, voracious and limited and everywhere in between.  And if you think about it for a minute, don’t we all have ups and downs in our reading paths?  I know for me, there’s been times that I have read book after book, created piles of completed books and piles of what-to-read-next books in my house.  There has also been times …

The Beginning of the Year

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You’ve probably already heard this before, but setting the right tone at the beginning of the school year is very important.  For me, it’s important to create an inviting and safe classroom, establish expectations and routines, develop a reading and writing culture, and build a place of community trust.  None of this could be possible if I didn’t invest the time and energy specifically the first few weeks of school.  (And as veteran teachers know, you continue to reinforce those expectations throughout the year.) Here are six things that I do, within the first two weeks of school, to set the right tone for the school year. I take my class roster, a clipboard, and a pen and stand in the doorway.  Students cannot walk into class without passing me first.  I introduce myself with a big smile and ask their name.  If it’s pronounced different than it looks on paper, or a student goes by a nickname, I jot that down next to their official name. Not only does it help me know exactly how …