Language Arts

Tweaks To A Character Study

A teacher sent me a sequence of questions about the story My Father’s Dragon. Based on what you’ve read so far, what is one word you could use to describe Elmer? What from the story made you choose this word? Think of other books you’ve read. What character from another story you know is similar […]

Ask Creative Questions

Is this the message I want to give to my gifted students? "Follow the directions?" This is a room full of students who are creative, flexible, divergent thinkers. These are the future Noble Laureates, inventors, and revolutionaries. Let's allow them (or better yet: force them) to exercise their creative muscles.

Don’t just list examples of writing techniques. Let’s improve Shakespeare!

I stopped and started with "What 👄 special writing techniques does the author use? List examples."

Uplevel Grammar By Examining (And Then Creating) Another Language

After creating an above-level grammar group, I was left with the problem of creating a challenging grammar assignment. Inspired by a friend's self-created language, I encouraged my students to examine the rules of other languages. Some interesting rules they discussed included...

The Resiliency Tournament

I got to work with several groups of students (of many ages) and I tried out this task: building a tournament to decide who was the most resilient historical figure or fictional character? Kids came up with some amazing ideas.

Creating Better Research Questions

Once students have a topic they'd like to research, how do we help them form more interesting questions?

A Wrinkle In Time – Novel Study Ideas

Madeleine L'Engle’s 1962 science-fiction classic, A Wrinkle in Time makes for a fantastic classroom novel study.

Beyond “Describe How This Changed Over Time”

I want to go beyond just listing how a character changed. Let's get students thinking about that change!

Using Art to Practice Reading

When you're teaching a reading skill, can you replace some of those dull sample texts with glorious artwork?

Compare and Contrast Movie Trailers Over Time

Here's a movie made in 1977, and its trailer is barely watchable! In fact, it almost made me not want to watch Star Wars, a movie I know almost by heart. Perhaps we're onto something interesting for our students to analyze.

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