If you’ve ever had a disruptive student in your class, you know they can completely change the dynamic of the classroom. When they’re absent, everything seems easier. You get through your lesson. Your other students stay focused. You actually have time to teach. Then they come back, and suddenly you’re stopping to correct inappropriate comments,
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When students are yelling across the room, disrespecting you and each other, and not reacting to gentler consequences, it can be tempting to raise your voice to get their attention. And sometimes, in the moment, screaming feels like the only thing left to try. The problem is that yelling at a loud class usually just
Exhausted from Screaming at Students? Here Are Three Better Ways Read More »
You don’t need to turn your classroom into a video game to use gamification. If the word gamification makes you picture elaborate classroom economies, complicated point systems, and hours spent designing levels and rewards, good news: you can start much smaller. In fact, you can add a few game elements to your classroom by Monday…without
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Some of the best poetry discussions I’ve ever had with students started with a surprisingly simple question. After many years of running weekly Poetry Friday experiences with my students, I learned that the questions that seemed almost too simple were often the ones that got students talking the most. For example, one Friday I asked
20 Poetry Discussion Questions That Get Students Talking Read More »
Learning how to teach poetry effectively can feel a little intimidating. You want your students to enjoy the poems they read, understand the techniques poets use, and maybe even come away seeing poetry as something more than another text to analyze for a grade. The truth is, unless they’re taught otherwise, teachers tend to teach
How to Teach Poetry: 5 Common Poetry Teaching Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them) Read More »
A Poetry Friday schedule can take as little as 25–30 minutes a week, or you can break that time into five short daily sessions. Either way, you don’t need to carve out hours of instructional time to build a yearlong poetry rhythm into your classroom. The secret to “fitting in” regular Poetry Friday experiences is
Poetry Friday Schedule: How Long Should it Take? Read More »
Maybe your state standards ask students to analyze poetry. Maybe it’s springtime and you know National Poetry Month is coming up. Or maybe you have a class of struggling readers and you’ve heard that poetry builds reading fluency. But you don’t have weeks to devote to a full poetry unit – or even a mini-unit.
What Is Poetry Friday? Everything Teachers Need to Know Before They Start Read More »
When I was in school, poetry usually meant reading long poems written by old, dead, white men. My classmates and I slogged through analyzing rhyme schemes, identifying symbolism, and interpreting themes. Snore! So when I found myself as a teacher needing a lesson to fill an awkward Friday time block, poetry wasn’t exactly the first
5 Benefits of Teaching Poetry (And Why Every Teacher Should Try Poetry Friday) Read More »
Most teachers remember poetry lessons from their own school years the same way: long poems, complicated symbolism, and endless analysis that made everyone (including the teacher) want to fall asleep. That doesn’t have to be the way you teach poetry in the classroom. One of my favorite weekly routines was Poetry Friday: a simple, discussion-based
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Every teacher knows the feeling: Half the class is still working quietly when one student raises a hand and asks, “I’m done. What should I do now?” While it’s tempting to tell early finishers to “add more detail” or “read quietly,” I found those moments were the perfect opportunity to build critical thinking, logic, and
5 Teacher-Tested Early Finisher Activities That Build Critical Thinking Skills Read More »
