When the Susan B. Anthony dollar was issued in 1979, we thought it was the coolest thing to have a dollar coin. The problem was the size; it looked and felt like a quarter. So the first time a woman was ever put on a circulating coin in the US,…

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As a side hustle, I train teachers in writing instruction. Over the past three weeks, I have worked with both middle and high school English teachers on synthesizing, and I’ve come to the conclusion that paraphrasing is the single most difficult skill to teach to secondary students. In my last…

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I’m downright militant about the use of they as a singular pronoun in formal writing. When I started teaching in 1990, I used to tease the grammar queens in our department. They all but whacked kids in the knuckles for using a plural pronoun to refer to one person. It’s…

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“This is overwhelming.” “There’s so much here.” “Where do I start?” These three reviews of my mega AP English Language & Composition bundle made me pivot. The 46 resources make sense to ME, to MY classroom, to MY experience as a 22-year veteran teacher. In my mind, a teacher could…

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How in the world do we start? There are so many ways to design an AP English Language course, that it’s hard to decide what to do the first week. For some schools, schedules are pretty fluid the first ten days or so, so you may be constantly dropping and…

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No one is busier than an English teacher. While a social studies teacher plows through a linear content-based curriculum and a math teacher can grade a test in five minutes, we’re weaving together multiple skill strands, re-reading a novel every time we teach it, and grading essay upon essay upon…

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Before you read on, take two minutes to study this image. Although students would never see such an image on Question 1 (too emotionally charged), there is value to be had in exposing students to current political cartoons. If you use this one in your classroom, give students time to…

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Rhetorical modes. Modes of discourse. Writing genres. These terms are often interchangeable and refer to four main categories—narration, description, argumentation/persuasion, and exposition. Argumentation and persuasion, at least for the AP English Language & Composition course, is a stand-alone set of modes, one that must be taught explicitly and with depth.…

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You might have asked to teach AP English Language or been volunteered for it. You might have trained years ago and waited for THE AP teacher to retire. English 10 students (and their parents) may have badgered you into teaching the course. Maybe you were bored and needed the challenge.…

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Just in case you’re new to this whole AP Lang thing: April is NOT the time to squeeze in that last bit of new content or that skill you just never addressed. It’s over. Those ships have sailed. While half the class is out taking other AP exams, the rest…

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Your principal has told you that you need to bring writing into your instruction. And you teach math. Or masonry. Or art. Now it’s time to reach WAY back to your Writing in the Content Areas course from college . . . but wait. There was no Writing in the…

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Is it fiction? Is it non-fiction? Is it creative non-fiction? Should I focus on analysis? Interpretation? Expository writing? Creative writing? Should students read outside of class? During the class period? Yes. Yes to all of that. There are so many ways to approach Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. I’ve…

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