by Kristin | Jul 16, 2024 | Reading Comprehension, Short Stories, Test Prep
Reading comprehension strategies are all the rage right now, and I get why. Overall, students are simply not progressing like they should be considering we spend an average of $15,000/per student each year on schooling (U.S. Census Bureau). Unfortunately, that money...
by Kristin | Jul 9, 2024 | Reading Comprehension, Writing
I have been learning a lot about teaching reading lately, particularly from Natalie Wexler’s The Knowledge Gap. As I finish this fantastic read, I am continually thinking about ways to include real and relevant texts like historical sources, nonfiction narrative...
by Kristin | Jul 2, 2024 | Reading Comprehension, Teaching the Standards, Writing
The phrase Differentiation in the Classroom is a popular buzzword, but most teachers I know struggle with how to implement this concept in real-world educational situations. There are many professional development courses that tout strategies to assist with...
by Kristin | Jun 25, 2024 | Reading Comprehension, Short Stories, Teaching the Standards
When I think of my own high school English experiences, I remember reading loads of literature and writing a ton! While novels and plays consumed about half of what I was required to read, short stories read inside and outside of class were always a breath of fresh...
by Kristin | Jun 18, 2024 | Reading Comprehension, Short Stories, Teaching the Standards
There’s that old saying that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Certainly, there are moments as teachers when we realize that we’ve been teaching the same thing for quite a while. And yes, we know it works! For me, this includes my lessons for teaching character traits...
by Kristin | May 21, 2024 | Reading Comprehension, Rhetorical Analysis, Teaching the Standards
As English teachers, we try to breathe life into the texts we teach to increase engagement and understanding as well as encourage a deeper connection (and deeper consideration). We do this often with the literature we teach, but do we do the same with primary texts?...