Student choice. Genuine investment. Low-stakes writing practice. Poetry analysis. Digital citizenship. Personal engagement. Empowering student voice. A few years ago in the nascence of #TeachLivingPoets, I (Melissa) was brainstorming ways to get students invested in not just poetry, but poets. Reading individual poems wasn’t offering the kind of long-term appreciation I was hoping to nurture. … Continue Reading
True confessions of an English teacher: I am not a Shakespeare lover. Shakespeare is not on my syllabus yearly, but this year when I took Frankenstein out of this year’s curriculum, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to bring back Hamlet. This was confirmed when I got a call from Peggy O’Brien at … Continue Reading
When I read “The Art of Reading Less” by Brian Sztabnik last week, my reading soul resonated with so much of what he wrote – the pressure to set reading goals and track books, the desire to want to read more, and the ability to have a meaningful experience with a book. Like Brian, I … Continue Reading
Greetings from the Columbus airport where I’m awaiting my flight home from NCTE. By the time this is sent out, Thanksgiving plates will be cleared, the Iron Bowl will be decided (Roll Tide), and our thoughts will be turning to Monday morning. Before time gets away, I wanted to leave a few observations from this … Continue Reading
This post is written and shared by my friend Cindy Dixon who could not stop raving about how amazing her class discussions are. I begged her to share with me – with us – her method and she generously agreed. Thanks, Cindy! – SB I’ve always had big hopes for my students to discuss texts … Continue Reading
I’ve finally brought back to life one of the most popular posts on APLitHelp with updates of how the unit has grown since its conception (see what I did here). I’ll first share an introductory activity that Melissa Smith created that was included in the original post then jump into my activities and resources. Using … Continue Reading
Much of the real work of writing is done in the revision stage, but getting student buy-in can be challenging. Since I only teach AP Lit, my students are primarily writing timed essays which is a quick pass at literary analysis, but the far majority of writing is not done in a timed setting. In … Continue Reading
Today’s post is written by Brian Hannon. If you’re familiar with Brian through LMS Curriculum, you already know the quality of his resources are AMAZING, and this unit is no exception. The entire unit is linked at the end of his reflection on it. Thank you, Brian!! Pretty much every year prior to this one, … Continue Reading
In response to Brian’s post a couple of week’s ago on writing commentary, I invited Melissa Smith to share her method of giving feedback. Her feedback is quick and individualized. Thanks, Melissa! I’ll be following up in a couple of weeks with how I handle feedback and revision. I have 100 students in 4 sections … Continue Reading
Thanks to Brian Hannon for sharing his resources at LMS Curriculum with us this week. This is one of my go-to sites for inspiration and ideas, and these new materials are AMAZING! – SB As much as I champion the use of poetry in our classrooms, I do admit that I, too, struggle with implementing … Continue Reading
