You want to do a quick check for understanding or a reading check or skill check, but you don’t want it to take the whole class or even half the class. That’s why you need these five formative assessment strategies. What are Formative Assessments? I generally think of a formative
It’s almost May, which means those of us who teach AP® English are wrapping up in preparation for the exams. It doesn’t matter whether that is the AP® English Literature exam or the AP® English Language exam, our core courses are winding down. And for many people, this also signals
The moment our students walk in the classroom, we need to make sure that they get to work. The quicker they get to work, the more effective our use of class time can be. My favorite bell ringer ideas are “Of the Week” bell ringers. What is a Bell Ringer
Only a few years ago, I could count on that one kid to recognize the allusions in literature that we would encounter in our shared texts. But as fewer kids go to church and even few read on their own, students are way less likely to recognize those references to
People thrive on routines. And even more importantly, kids and students need routines to help them feel less stressed and more focused in the classroom. So what is the best way to set up your classroom procedures to create routines? Starting each class with bell work which are also called
On the AP® Literature exam, both the Poetry Free Response Question and the Prose Free Response Question ask students to consider the text complexity of the passages provided. Which means that first they have to be able to dive deep enough into a text to discover just what this means.
Teaching any Shakespeare play can be a challenge. Often, the second that students even hear that they will be studying a play by the bard, they will cringe. I even know English teachers who avoid him because they claim to not understand the hype. But is it really that or
I don’t know where you live, but in the part of New York State where I live, the April 2024 Solar Eclipse path will be overhead. And the hype is real. Rumors suggest that hotels in our area have been fully booked for months. And the local historical museum started
One of the biggest headaches in our high school classrooms can be getting started. The students wander in over a 5 minute interval and some even meander in as if that bell doesn’t mean they were already supposed to be in the room. So I learned long ago that solid
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I help AP Literature and High School English teachers create engaging classrooms so that students will be prepared college and beyond.
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