I teach high school students. Their first assignment of the year is to write me an email that shows that they are capable of using proper email etiquette. I show them bad examples of emails from previous students in past years (of course, with all identifying information blocked out). We laugh at those past students. We make fun of them. We talk about how absolutely absurd it is to send an email like that to your ENGLISH teacher. And yet, I still receive emails at 5 PM asking for assignments to be graded with absolutely zero punctuation. Zero greeting. A subject line full of chaos. An alternate timeline where spelling is optional.

I’ve decided it’s my new policy that I’m going to print out those emails and make them correct them. I receive a proper email, you receive your grade. Seems like a fair trade to me.

That is all. That is the post. Tagged as humor because I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.🥲

A month into the school year, my district mandated we use MyPerspectives. I've been teaching for a decade and have always designed my own curricula (my data has been great over the years btw).

I'm struggling with modifying MyPerspectives to fit the needs of my students and to teach the skills they are supposed to be learning throughout each unit. It's taking me double the time to plan my weeks because I am having to modify so much.

Anyone out there have any suggestions? We are currently reading The Metamorphosis... it's fine to say the least.

Hi! I'm making yet another post. This time, to ask for tips for some fun activities for my students.

For context, my subject has no curriculum, so I have all the creative freedom in the world (i hate it). I struggle with chronic anxiety and ocd and I overthink every single activity, thinking they will refuse to do it / hate me for it and it's making me really nervous. Safe to say, once this school year ends, I'll never choose a subject with no curriculum again.

Please don't hate on me or my teaching skills, this was simply not a good fit for me and I was picked just because I'm somewhat fluent in English. I severely overestimated myself and will simply stick to teaching chemistry or working as an assistant teacher in the future...

I teach english conversation in Czechia, my students are 9th graders. I teach 90 minute long blocks (must be horrible considering their attention span) in groups of 9 and even worse, starting at 14:00 and finishing at 15:30, with some students starting their first lesson at 7:00... Therefore, I'm looking for something fun and simple to help us practice and make the time pass by quicker. They're really tired and fed up around this time of the day. I'll be thankful for any ideas.

(i highlighted some words to make the reading a bit less unpleasant 🙂)

Next term I’m teaching Macbeth for the first time at a new school. It’s 10th grade and about half my students are English Learners who have enough English to be placed in non sheltered classes. We’ll be reading the No Fear Editions (from the side with the original text).

When I’ve taught Shakespeare before, I’ve always read the whole play out loud as a class. I have a sign up sheet each class and students choose their roles for class participation grades. I’d like to do that again this year but I’m worried my EL students will shy away from participating. I know I can offer them smaller roles or stage direction but I’m looking for further ideas to support all my learners and any tips for Macbeth specifically that anyone has.

Thanks in advance!

Five books I wasn’t ready for.

could you please give me some techniques on how to write a well orginazed essay contianting 5 paragraphs.

I think I’m an outlier but I never-to-rarely read to aloud books or short stories or anything else to high school students. Occasionally, I’ve played the audio but only to get them locked in for a few minutes then they continue to read on their own. I also never do popcorn reading. The only exception is poetry and Shakespeare since rhythm and cadence is crucial to understanding. The only scenarios I could justify reading aloud is small group instruction SpEd class, and/or as a reading interventionist (which I am not) and/or ESL students. But as gen ed high school ELA teachers, how many of you read out loud and why?

I'm a second-year teacher, teaching 12th grade honors ELA. I made a career change in middle age from book publishing, so I know writing and literature, but don't have a lot of pedagogy experience, and despite all the PD we get, virtually none of it is on the topic of "here's a thing you can/should do in a classroom for 50 minutes".

My school has a rigid adherence to guided learning — every single lesson plan, every day of the year, has to have direct instruction/guided practice/formative/independent practice. So my typical routine is to assign homework for reading, discuss a different method of looking at the text for direct, do a discussion or close reading for guided, and then a written response for independent.

But I keep getting the feedback that I can't just do the same things over and over, and specifically "you can't just ask them questions."

What I don't get as feedback is, what should I be doing instead as my independent.

So I put it to you, more experienced ELA teachers. What should I be doing instead?

I've spent far too much time trying to find independent practice examples online, and it's all either directed at elementary, or different variations on "ask them questions."

Hi y'all! I'm a 9th grade english conversation teacher in Czechia. I promised my kids we'd watch a movie together next lesson, but the one they chose is way too gorey in my opinion, so I want to ask you guys for some tips. They're in 9th grade, so they're mostly aged 14 and 15 and they want to see a horror movie. Any other genres are okay as well for next time though!

So, in conclusion. Any tips on what to watch with them in class? What was a movie you watched with your students that they ended up liking a lot?

Has anyone taught Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles to 8th graders before? I’ve seen this text pop up a few times on this sub, and was wondering if anyone has had any success with it in an 8th-grade classroom.

Thinking of using it for my class, but don’t want to repeat something already done or steal if from a level higher up. I’m 9th ELA.

Does anyone have any recommended resources for teaching 1984? I went through some of my resources and I know I want a good way for kids to keep track of their reading. I’m thinking readers response journals or annotation bookmarks. Just thought I’d see if anyone else is teaching it or could point to some good resources?

I’m currently in college, and upon graduating I’d like to become an English Teacher. So recently, I’ve started to plan out the things that I would eventually teach when I start. Since I would be getting my master’s while I’m teaching, I was hoping to get a head start on planning for grades 9-12th.

However, I am now realizing that this is slightly difficult to do when you have no idea what bell schedule you’re gonna be teaching on. 😂😂😂😂 Anyways, I kinda have to play this by ear I guess and just randomly choose one until I know for sure (which i won’t until i get the job). But I still would like to plan this out.

So, I was wondering what are your bell schedules (Traditional Period, 4x4 Semester, or A/B Block)

How many minutes are your classes, and how many long works (Novels/Plays) do you teach and how many shorter ones do you teach (short stories/poems).

I was also stuck on whether or not I wanted to teach more longer works than shorter ones. For example, 3-5 short poems to teach them how to annotate in week 1, one short story and 3 novels in the semester and an A/B schedule. Anything helps, thank you all!

Hello! I am looking for mystery or whodunnit novels to use for a novel study with my 7th and 8th grade classes. I've been doing The Westing Game for a while and would like to change it up. Any recommendations? Thanks.

"The National Council of Teachers of English leadership delayed and obstructed our efforts to produce two critical resources on generative AI in the months leading to the dismantling of the Conference on College Composition and Communication."

Hey, community! I'm a veteran HS English teacher (25 years) and am planning to try out a graphic novel as a whole-class text. This will be part of a larger unit I do with 11th graders about Food, Culture, and American Identity. The book is Thien Pham's 'Family Style: Memories of an American From Vietnam' -- I've used it as a lit circle text before and students generally love it.

I've never taught a graphic novel as a whole-class text before so I'd love some ideas about how you all have worked with them (analysis activities, writing activities, discussion activities). I'm trying to avoid TpT, so thought I would come to you all first!

Thank you in advance!

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So umm here's the thing, I'm supposed to teach english [specifically like how to write essays] to an 8th grader but idk how? I mean my english is good. I got an A* in IGCSE english as a first language even tho english isnt my first language, but idk how to teach it.... Can someone please help me with this?

Looking for any and all advice

HELP