Talented Students in ELA: 8 Tips for Teachers

“While natural, innate talent does exist, developing talent needs enduring and nonstop nurturing to come to a full fruition. Talent is made, not born. A dynamic environment that instills these beliefs into the fabric of the school matters enormously. Jonathan Kozol (2007) believes that knowledge is passed on through instruction and imitation and that that … Continue reading Talented Students in ELA: 8 Tips for Teachers

Commandments of Teaching AP Language and Composition-Part Two

This is the second half of a two-part series about teaching AP Language and Composition. You can check out the first part here. Good feedback is everything. I still struggle with this, as feedback simply takes time (who has that?!). Some of the best feedback ideas I’ve learned came from a Marzano workshop. The highlights: … Continue reading Commandments of Teaching AP Language and Composition-Part Two

New Year, New Unit

It's a snow day today, so this will be a quick post before I get back to playing Feed the Woozle with my toddler. We just headed back to school from winter break, and I am so excited to jump in with my AP kids. For one of my grad school classes last semester, I … Continue reading New Year, New Unit

The 5 Students You’ll Meet in the AP Classroom and How to Meet Them Where They Are

I teach AP Language and Composition. It’s a tough course, and for most of my students, it’s their first AP English course (they take it as juniors, then go on to AP Lit as seniors). In the past few years, my school has embraced an open enrollment policy for AP courses in certain subject areas. … Continue reading The 5 Students You’ll Meet in the AP Classroom and How to Meet Them Where They Are