This post is written by Eric Rovie from Brookwood High School in the Atlanta area. While Eric framed these materials for an AP class, they will work for English classes in general. For more on Eric, check out his bio at the end of the post. In the AP Lit CED, Unit 4 is a … Continue Reading
My AP students enter my class having read Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade… and that’s it. No Othello in 10th. No Julius Caesar. No Hamlet. It’s the hand I’m dealt and rather than lament this, I have to get to work building skill as quickly as I can. This isn’t an easy task because Shakespeare’s language … Continue Reading
There are a bunch of lines in Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Shoulders” that have stayed with me ever since I discovered it a few years ago. Like many good poems, it takes something small and simple — a man is trying to cross the street in the rain while carrying his son — and turns … Continue Reading
If you could somehow transcribe the first poetry unit that I taught this year, the word that would appear most often would be “complex.” In each of my classes we define complexity as something that has things connected in complicated ways. We apply that definition to poetry, looking for the parts that connect to the … Continue Reading
Marking time is important because the practice allows us to step back and reflect on the world spinning (seemingly out of control at times) around us. I like to provide opportunities in the classroom to mark time as well modeling to my students the importance of carving out to to stop, catch our breath, reflect, … Continue Reading
Each calendar year, I carve time out to write a teaching manifesto. This serves not only as good midyear reflection but also provides an anchor for me to return to time and time again when my circumstances seem out of control or exhaustion sets in leaving me second guessing myself. I encourage you to do … Continue Reading
Erik Powell is in his 29th year of teaching, most of them at Ferris High School in Spokane, WA. He loves working with passionate, intelligent, … Continue Reading
I had 12 tabs and applications ready for my first day of hybrid teaching. Google Meet, Google Slides, Google Classroom, attendance, email, Jamboard, a PDF, four internet tabs, and SmartNotebook were all at my disposal. I thought I was prepared for anything. What I wasn’t prepared for, though, was how digitally uncoordinated I would feel. … Continue Reading
I want to tell you why I am so hopeful for this school year. But first, let me share with you a bit about my first two days in the classroom. For the past 14 years I’ve taught the same first-day lesson. Actually, it is the same first two-day lesson. I don’t do this syllabus. … Continue Reading
I am an English teacher, so my ears perk up when writers talk about their process. I’ve found the advice handy for lesson planning, too. That’s because both writing and planning deal with craft. In writing, you want your audience to be absorbed. You want them to care about your characters. You want them be … Continue Reading
