I know that everyone who has to teach persuasion has done this at least one time in their teaching career. So I’m not proposing anything new. I’m just putting mine out into the ether. Hands down, the best way to get teenagers to understand persuasion is to appeal to their hungry little consumer on the … Read moreAdvertisement Project: Teaching Persuasion
Last week I mentioned hashtag summaries and then realized that I had never mentioned them before. Sounds about right… Anywho… #hastagsummaries have changed my life: they’re quick, they’re fun, they’re creative. And I’ve had quite a few kids tell me that this is the easiest way for them to retain information when it comes to those … Read moreUsing Hashtags to Retain Information
I’m not going to get on my high horse about what happened to Cracked.com. That isn’t what this post is about. It is, however, a post about one of their articles that I’ve been teaching for a while. The 6 weeks before STAAR become STAAR prep. Therefore, all of the units that we work on … Read moreAn Introduction to Gender Stereotypes
I’ve talked about my love of TED Talks both here and here. When we did our Anthem unit at the beginning of the year, I found more in the other channels that I subscribe to on YouTube than I did on TED that related to the book. So here they are: six videos I used to … Read moreSix Videos to Use While Reading Anthem
Every year I teach Desiree’s Baby. It’s my favorite short story to teach students; the look of shock on their faces at the end… it’s awesome. The first year I taught it, I was shocked at how little the kids knew about race. A lot of my students know what race FEELS like: they know … Read moreUsing “Race: The Power of Illusion” to Dispel Racial Ideas in Preparation for Desiree’s Baby
I don’t know if I’ve said this before but I love TED Talks. My kids watch one every Tuesday that relates to our main text. Last six weeks we read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so here are the TED Talks I paired with it and why. 1. Mandy Len Catron: Falling in Love is the … Read more3 TED Talks to Pair with A Midsummer Night’s Dream
I love reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream with my kids. Over the years I’ve realized that a lot of them do not have the context to understand the first scene of the play. I discovered the animated show Horrible Histories while searching for a quick way to give them that context in a way that they’d actually … Read moreGroovy Greeks: An Overview of the Ancient Greeks for Context
I love teaching Harrison Bergeron. I take a whole week to go through it. And my kids seem to love it too… which makes me love it even more. Things You Will Need to Teach This Lesson: · Instructions · Harrison Bergeron PowerPoint · Index Cards · Bill of Rights · Day 1 Opener Handout … Read moreTeaching Plot and Inference with Harrison Bergeron
Is everyone feeling it? That current of tension that runs through the English Department right before the STAAR test? I’m feeling it again, and I have to admit that, this year, it’s getting to me. But this post isn’t about that. This post is about something I created. I wanted my kids to understand the … Read moreGetting a 4
Ok, so I cheated a little. Not all of them are TED Talks. But… that’s not the point. I use TED Talks every week. Some of the kids love them, some of them hate them, but every Tuesday for about 10 minutes at the beginning of class (sometimes they run a little longer) the kids … Read more6 TED Talks to use with Animal Farm