What do you do with your newcomer ELLs in your general ed class? I have several. They are at various levels, but all are low (some just arrived here within the last two months).

What are your go to strategies? What do you do when you have group work? Independent reading? Please share everything.

I’ve been given the pleasure of spearheading a Lord of the Flies unit as a student teacher for a Freshman Pre-AP. Do any of you have some fun ideas to spark student engagement and keep students interested? Anything is welcome!

The situation for social studies at my school is dire--the American History teacher just puts films on non-stop and does unit tests largely based on them, and when he does do note-taking or other activities it's crosswords and fill-in-the-blank.

As a result of this and other poor Social Studies teachers, the average kid--even honors and AP students--come to me with virtually no background knowledge in core areas. I have AP Literature students who are utterly blank on what World War 2 is, the Holocaust, American Revolution, etc. They have absolutely no global history and this heavily impacts their ability to write and respond.

Since I also teach English II and have leeway, I am wondering if anyone knows of any curriculums out there that background knowledge focused in these areas to allow me to sneak a social studies education in parallel with English instruction? I already do plenty of things like court cases to engage civil rights, with ample background knowledge building, but I'm sure I can't be the only English teacher flabbergasted when students don't know what Europe is.

I am a 5th grade teacher and I have several students who are at a Kindergarten-Second grade level. There is one student in particular that only knows 14 letters and sounds of the alphabet. She is completely illiterate. I hate that she has been continuously passed down despite not having even the most basic fundamental skills. I have never taught lower elementary, so I’m struggling with knowing what to do for her. While there’s realistically only so much I can do, I want to try and help in someway. Do I start with alphabet and sounds? What would be the best way to help her learn that as a 10 year old? She’s very embarrassed by her lack of reading ability too, which only makes this more challenging.

Tips for implementing this? I'm in my second year, last year it was obvious that many used AI and I had them rewrite in their own words. Mainly, how can they cite evidence if they are not using a device? Our school does not have a functional library at this point. What is your process of teaching and assigning an essay from start to finish?

Does anyone have a good way to do it? I use springboard (preap) curriculum for kids who are reading more than 4 grade levels behind. I can't change the curriculum. I'm told to scaffold and pull small groups like math does. But the preparation is a nightmare especially when working in a coteacher. How do you do small group instruction?

I have the choice to use either in my classes. What are the pros and cons of each, and which is your overall pick?

I teach 9th and 11th grades.

Something like Noredink or Quizlet, etc. that has the students make poems. Mad lib style? Poem writer? Etc.

Hey! Basically the title. One of my students just read Farenheit 451 and Allegory of the cave and loved them! Can you think of any plays that are similar/have similar themes? Thank you so much!

This is the elementary reading curriculum in my district. I teach middle school reading intervention and my students have a lot of gaps in background knowledge, vocabulary, and decoding (but we only started implementing it in 2020, so maybe I just need to wait longer until I see kids who can decode). Does anyone teach it? If so, what do you like/dislike?

We just read "what love isn't" by Yrsa Daley-Ward as part of our 7th grade unit on The Alchemist. Students lOVED the poem. They performed it and then wrote their own poems about love.

I want to recreate that experience. Does anyone know any spoken word poems (it doesn't have to be though) poems by the same author (or others) that talk about dreams, success, failure, grit, resilience, love, trust, gratitude, learning, etc.?

Thank you to all who respond !

Hello everyone!

My team and I are developing a new platform (and eventually, an app!) designed to transform the way kids learn and practice their skills, all while making life easier for teachers and parents.

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Separate Accounts and Classroom Functions: We offer separate accounts for teachers, parents, and kids, ensuring privacy and a tailored experience. Teachers can even create virtual classrooms, assign simultaneous tests, and manage their entire class through the platform.

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Any suggestions on what to name this project?

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I would love to know more about UFLI (The University of Florida Literacy Institute) program. Has there been an increase in state or county-wide adoption of UFLI?

Also, is anyone having success using Lexia for differentiated instruction? Pros? Cons?

Thank you!

I am a first year teacher that was hired with another first year teacher, so we have formed a great friendship while navigating our first year.

When we get informally observed our department head will come into my room during my plan and debrief with me about my observation. She does not seek my co-worker out to debrief with her so she never gets direct feedback from our boss about her informal observations.

I know I am overthinking, but do you think it is good that she finds me to give me feedback or should I be concerned.

For context, my last informal observation she really liked so she found me to tell me she was really impressed. So the feedback is not all bad

Hello! I am a second year English teacher currently seeking to revamp my persuasive unit.

My grade level team kicks the year off by introducing students to pathos, ethos, and logos. Students are expected to understand how to (a) identify the appeals and (b) use these appeals in their own writing. Last year my students engaged decently with rhetorical appeals, and their summatives (an argumentative speech) showed a decently strong use of pathos, ethos, and logos.

My ninth graders this year are struggling, and I’ve already done a lot of extra stuff with them this year that I did not do with last year’s crowd. This year’s ninth graders are lower academically than last year’s group. I am very unsure with how to proceed. They can identify appeals correctly with an accuracy rate of 70-90% (which I’m happy with). When it comes to using appeals in their own writing, however, they’re lost. Pathos is a particular struggle with this crowd.

Any ideas for activities? My ninth graders do not tolerate lectures well, so I’m looking for a “mini-lesson” paired with some kind of activity. Students write journal entries daily. They also wrote a persuasive letter to a public figure of their choosing a few days ago — results ranged from okay-ish to a very flawed grasp of pathos, ethos, and logos.

I teach 9th and 10th grade. The program at our school requires independent reading every single day. I love the concept in theory, but a lot of our ninth graders this year struggle to read, and so SSR is not enjoyable to them because they’re being asked to read a book. I take time at the beginning of each semester to try and help each student find a book, but I have many students who end up disliking their chosen book and then dance around at the library trying to find a new one. I spend the entirety of the ten minutes telling kids they have to open their books and read — or waking kids up.

If you do SSR, how do you ensure that kids are reading WITHOUT making it into a points system? I don’t want to put a grade on SSR as I believe it defeats the purpose of reading for enjoyment (which is why we do SSR at my school). But I also don’t want to keep fighting the same battles every day… it’s growing tiring.

I’m teaching a unit on environmental literature and I’m looking for any suggestions on short stories, comics, zines etc that are eco themed. I’m planning on covering parts of Silent Spring and Walden, but I would love some more modern or “non traditional” works. Thank you!

Hi! I'm a (23F) high school English student-teacher. My mentor and I just started reading TKAM with our 9th graders, it's safe to say they're bored. They participate when asked questions but they aren't interested in the actual reading. Does anyone have any ideas on what we can do to get them more engaged/interested with the reading?

Before we started TKAM, we read "The Odyssey" and "And Then There Were None", which they loved a lot. We didn't change the style of reading so we're kind of at a loss but I do understand that this is a complete shift in genre.

We're currently using an audiobook but we're thinking of showing the beginning 18 minutes (don't want to spoil) of the movie to give a visual aspects of the book.

*EDIT 1/29: Thank you so much for all the suggestions!!! I appreciate all the help!! I really do! I was able to get some more help from other ELA teachers in my school from our PLC meeting today as well since I knew some others where in the same boat as me. I have one of my observations tomorrow but I'm hoping afterwards I can share with my mentor all the different suggestions so we plan different stuff for the rest of the book. I should have put that our school district's curriculum wants us to read the full book. That was my mistake 😅. Once again, I am so grateful for all suggestions!!

I am currently in an alternate route program that will give me a three-year temporary license by July. I am beginning to submit my resume and cover letter, applying for jobs, and I’m curious as to what I can expect the interview process to be like for a brand new teacher.

I'm at a reservation high school where some of the kids know the basics of essay writing, and some don't even know the word.

What's the best way to scaffold? Surely it's not in order--I wouldn't imagine we should start with hooks.

Does anyone have a sort of go-to list that says something like...

1. Teach what an essay is

2. Help students memorize the order of an essay

3. Read a 5 paragraph essay together and mark the parts of the essay

4. Teach how to research and cite...

(Something equivalent to this).

I want to be a high school English teacher & I’m not sure what college is supposed to look like for my situation.

I’m 17, starting at a community college & hoping to work my way up to getting my masters at a University near by. As teachers, what would you guys recommend doing for my AA-Masters? I’ve had different teachers recommend different things. AA in English, Masters in Secondary Education. Or vise versa.

I also want to be a drug & alcohol counselor so any advice on that would also be appreciated, if any teachers are doing/have done the same.

Hello everyone, i’m on my second year of uni working up to my dissertation. I am doing education and want to be a primary school teacher. I am still so stuck and torn between what area/topics i should choose.

So far i’ve thought about “How technology tailors motivation and engagement in the learning space.” Such as using phones and laptops in classes (for note taking and then go on to say about how it’s easier and more efficient for students to use laptops to note take due to lecture slides going to quick etc. listening to music as i could go on to say how it helps people concentrate and find research articles to back this up. I feel like i really like this topic but i just need more around it as i’ve literally only just thought about it so if you could help me that would be great!

I still haven’t got many topics for this or research questions so if any of you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know that would be so perfect!!

i hope you guys are having a good day x

I wasn't planning on reading Hamlet this year, but after analyzing the "To be or not to be" speech and making references to the play throughout the school year, my students (mostly motivated AP Lit students) have expressed interest in reading it in February.

I'd like to do it with them, but I've never taught Hamlet before, and don't feel super equipped to give them a great, complete unit. Does anyone think it's possible to do a condensed unit that takes like 2-3 weeks? Obviously, I can't cover everything, but that's okay. I would mainly be doing it for them to use on their literary argument essay - so covering major themes, characterization, etc.

Is this possible or not really? Any advice? Thank you!

I'm currently part of a team working on a website aimed at english teachers. The website is at an early stage but we are currently looking for English teachers to test what we have so far. This is a free test so no compensation will be rewarded at the end of it but we believe this could be a great resource for all teachers.
The website will let teachers set up assignments for students, watch their answers and review data like how much time they spent doing the assignment, date, etc.
Would appreciate if any of you reached out to test and give their honest feedback.

hello everyone! i am currently building a debate project for my honors ELA class and i’m looking for some articles debating the pros/cons of supreme court term limits! this is an assignment for students serving as a “moderator/judge” in my debate. i am fine with 2 articles or 1, but i’m struggling to find any for a middle school group. i found one scholastic article that seems good, but it is paywalled :(

any suggestions appreciated! thank you!!

Looking for a film accompaniment to my hero’s journey unit where students will analyze for stages, themes, and archetypes. I’m hoping to do a challenging movie that most of my students haven’t seen before- do you think Isle of Dogs would be okay for 10th graders? Any other suggestions would be appreciated as well.

I teach a 10th grade British Literature course. I have a few weeks before we start Pride and Prejudice as a class, and the last text we did was Macbeth. I want to do some things (excerpts, poems, essays, etc) from the nearly two centuries between these two texts but obviously... that's a lot. What would you focus on? Appreciate any suggestions!

Hey all,

I'm starting to plan out a unit for George Takei's graphic novel They Called Us Enemy. I've got a lot of ideas about how I want it to shake out, but I'm struggling to figure out an essential question.

Has anyone taught this unit before? If so, did you center your novel study around an essential question?

Thanks in advance.

In October, my self contained, special ed HS ELA class chose "In the Time of the Butterflies" as their novel for this year. After working with them for a few months, I think using excerpts or an abbreviated version might be a better fit than reading the whole book because of reading stamina. Does anyone have any insight or experience with doing it this way? Any resources would be very appreciated. Thank you.