Teaching Students to Judge Credibility 

One of the most important skills students need to be equipped with in today’s society is judging the credibility of sources. In the past, gatekeepers mediated all information that was dispersed to the public. Nowadays, anyone with a computer can project their voice out to the masses. This technology is a double-edged sword.  It is […] ...

Three Strategies to Improve Writing Feedback

When I was in high school, I turned in paper copies of all my essays and got them back marked up in red pen. The teacher gave us a few minutes to look over our corrections and then we either threw them away or filed them at the backs of our binders. This system worked […] ...

Three Strategies for Teaching High Level ELLs

While much of the research around strategies for teaching English Language Learners focuses on those who are just beginning their study of English, many of the same methods can be adapted to teach students who have been studying English as a second language for years. When I was teaching middle and high school English in […] ...

Educating Against Plagiarism in High School

Life keeps teaching you the same lessons until you learn them. Next year, I will have finally learned my lesson about teaching plagiarism in high school: do it early.  At the beginning of the year I’m always so excited to meet my new students and learn about their literary interests and writing skills that I […] ...

How to Teach Writing for Different Learning Styles

In high school, I was one of the lucky ones: a visual learner. To this day, I prefer to sit down and read an article as opposed to listening to a podcast. Many of my classmates were not so fortunate. In many cases they slipped through the cracks, missing out on valuable knowledge and skills […] ...

Teaching Tactics for Timed Writings

A few weeks ago a student walked out of my class angry and frustrated because he hadn’t  finished his fifth timed writing assignment of the year. Before he’d even started writing, I had given him some advice on writing a concluding sentence, knowing this was a weakness of his. I told him a story of […] ...