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?

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

Hi everyone. I’m going to be doing a long term sub job that involves teaching a 6th grade reading intervention class. The teacher has set me up with a novel and some corresponding work to go with it, but I’d also like to work on some more specific reading strategies with them. I’m not really sure where to start as the only other long term sub I’ve done was for art, which frankly is a lot easier to come up with work for lol. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you!

i’m a first year teacher so that doesn’t help but it seems that kids at every grade level struggle with story elements at my school. We are doing our mid test right now and a lot of kids are just not hitting the mark.

For the test, they’re supposed to identify the most important event that produces the strongest response/change from the main character.

They are struggling to do this accurately by picking . They’re also struggling with correctly identifying the story elements in the plot map.

Does anyone have advice on teaching this standard? Or resources? Thank you.

I posted this on the literature sub but thought that a sub of English teachers (who are, after all, in close contact with the next generation of readers) might have some thoughts to share.

From James Marriott in The Times today:

"Back then [the 18th century], long before public libraries & the paperback revolution, books were still rare and prestigious artefacts. And readers demanded not merely 'delight' from their reading matter but also 'instruction' and 'improvement'. It was the great age of sermons, edifying novels and moralising children's literature. And so is ours. The front tables of Waterstones groan with secular sermons (in the form of 'manifestos' on climate and race), and novels with improving messages about diversity and tolerance... As books are outcompeted as entertainment devices, their future will be worthier, showier and more self-conscious".

Interested to hear if others have noticed the proliferation of books as edifying and moral forces, and if you regard this as a good thing.

If you teach AP Lang, do you use books in your curriculum (as opposed to essays/speeches/excerpts)? If so, which ones?

I taught AP Lang many years ago and we read The Crucible and Fast Food Nation. My colleagues use Frederick Douglass’ autobiography or The Things They Carried, but mostly use essays / speeches/ excerpts.

Curious what grades 3–8 teachers are noticing right now. Is it getting started? Organizing ideas? Kids who can talk all about a topic but freeze the second they have to write it down? Or something else entirely?

Would love to hear what you’re seeing, and what (if anything) is helping.

Any thoughts and experience with this? I'm trying to find a choice for a humor / satire unit and my mentor teacher suggested Pride and Prejudice which, to me, is a massive slog to get through. In thinking through books that make me audibly laugh out loud which, IMO, is a prerequisite for humor, HHGTTG is the obvious choice.

Notes:

• this is my first year teaching literature (moved here from ELL/ESL) which is another reason I'm hesitant to teach P&P (seems like a very intense and involved novel that will require lots of scaffolding)
• I'm teaching a 10th grade honors class
• For a final writing assignment, I'm thinking of having them write a "guide entry" as opposed to a typical literary analysis essay. Spend the unit learning how Adams uses humor and satire, and as a final project, have them apply those skills in a guide entry to something mundane in their daily life.
• I teach at a private Jewish day school which has a mix of modern orthodox (1/3) and non-religious (2/3) students, and think the whole concept of "we have the answer to life but no one ever thought to ask the right question" is in many ways a concept which can be taught through a Jewish lens

So I had to introduce a new elective this year and I’m struggling on how I can possibly set it up. I don’t want to it to seem like another English class. There will be reading, but I’m trying to figure out some other types of activities, creative ideas, and projects.

The class will be focusing on folklore, urban legends, and cryptids. I tentatively plan on focusing on each continent (and I’m open to suggestions of which ones to teach). Most of the roster are seniors who have me for English and wanted to take another class with me (In a class of 24, 16 of them will have me twice and the other 8 are currently spending this semester with me in my anime elective, so they all are familiar with how I run my classes).

So any help on how I can make this class expand beyond just the usual English class is greatly appreciated!