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RECENT POSTS

4 Ways to Teach the Rhetorical Modes

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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high school English teacher grading essays

Tips for Your First Year Teaching AP English Language

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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5 AP Language Exam Review Ideas

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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10 Writing Strategies for ANY Secondary Content

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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Vietnam war soldier Tim O'Brien

How to Approach The Things They Carried in Lesson Plans

Should The Things They Carried lesson plans treat the book as fiction? Is it non-fiction? Is it creative non-fiction? Should my treatment 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…
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3 Fresh Icebreakers for Teens

Icebreaker activities for middle and high school students are often torture, just like they are for the teachers facilitating them. You have gregarious introverts in your classroom (yes, that’s a thing, and I know because I am one). You also have extroverts who take a little while to warm up…
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How to Pace AP English Language on the Block

When AP English Language & Composition was introduced in 1980(ish), AP Lit teachers were skeptical. A whole course based on non-fiction? Cake walk. They soon learned the opposite; in so many ways, the course was more challenging than one rooted in fiction. Times changed. When Lang was designed, the vast…
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How to Guide Students Toward Better Image Analysis

We had three channels, rabbit ears, and tin foil (and knew how those three things went together). My strongest sound memory is the slamming of our back screen door. I lived outside. My students have Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, Roku, and YouTube; and they carry them in a pocket. They…
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Three Censorship Stories: A Career in Banned Books

I have a few stories to tell. I started teaching in the Medieval Period, my teacher desk hewn from the village oak. (It was 1990, but that seems SO long ago. It was early enough in the evolution of Man that I actually bubbled my grades in on a Scantron…
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How to Make AP Lang Multiple Choice Less Like Torture

We’re sliding into testing season (except it’s that long, slow, shallow kind of slide with spikes, barbs, and razor blades along the way). You dread it. They dread it. Even your #2 pencils dread it; they were made for writing, after all, not bubbling. Students need exposure to the types…
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5 Ways to Keep High School English Engaging

You’re done. Mentally over it. The next student who calls your name is getting his lips stapled shut. Lesson plans? Phfft. They’re lucky if they get an agenda on the board. Your testing may have already happened, so you have these lame duck class periods to fill. Your testing may…
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