The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast

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Teaching Trends

เพิ่มแล้วเมื่อ sixปีที่ผ่านมา

เนื้อหาจัดทำโดย Betsy Potash and Betsy Potash: ELA เนื้อหาพอดแคสต์ทั้งหมด รวมถึงตอน กราฟิก และคำอธิบายพอดแคสต์ได้รับการอัปโหลดและจัดหาให้โดยตรงจาก Betsy Potash and Betsy Potash: ELA หรือพันธมิตรแพลตฟอร์มพอดแคสต์ของพวกเขา หากคุณเชื่อว่ามีบุคคลอื่นใช้งานที่มีลิขสิทธิ์ของคุณโดยไม่ได้รับอนุญาต คุณสามารถปฏิบัติตามขั้นตอนที่แสดงไว้ที่นี่ https://th.player.fm/legal

State Secrets: Inside The Making Of The Electric State

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Family Secrets: Chris Pratt & Millie Bobby Brown Share Stories From Set 22:08

23 วันที่แล้ว22:08

ลิสต์เล่นในภายหลัง

ลิสต์

ถูกใจ

ที่ถูกใจแล้ว

22:08

Host Francesca Amiker sits down with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, producer Angela Russo-Otstot, stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and more to uncover how family was the key to building the emotional core of The Electric State . From the Russos’ own experiences growing up in a large Italian family to the film’s central relationship between Michelle and her robot brother Kid Cosmo, family relationships both on and off of the set were the key to bringing The Electric State to life. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts . State Secrets: Inside the Making of The Electric State is produced by Netflix and Treefort Media.…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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Want to love walking into your ELA classroom each day? Excited about innovative strategies like PBL, escape rooms, hexagonal thinking, sketchnotes, one-pagers, student podcasting, genius hour, and more? Want a thriving choice reading program and a shelf full of compelling diverse texts? You're in the right place! Here you'll find interviews with top authors from the ELA field, workshops with strategies you can use in class immediately, and quick tips to ignite your English teacher creativity. Love teaching poetry? Explore blackout poems, book spine poems, I am from poems, performance poetry, lessons for contemporary poets, and more. Excited to get started with hexagonal thinking? Find out how to build your first deck of hexagons, guide your students through their first discussion, and even expand into hexagonal one-pagers. Into visual learning? Me too! Learn about sketchnotes, one-pagers, and the writing makerspace. Want to get your students podcasting? Get the top technology recs you need to make it happen, and find out what tips a podcaster would give to students starting out. Wish your students would fall for choice reading? Explore top titles and how to fund them, learn to make your library more appealing, and find out how to be a top P.R. agent for books in your classroom. In it for the interviews? Fabulous! Find out about project-based-learning, innovative school design, what really helps kids learn deeply, design thinking, how to choose diverse texts, when to scaffold sketchnotes lessons, building your first writing makerspace, cultivating writer's notebooks, getting started with genius hour, and so much more, from our wonderful guests. Here at The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, discover you're not alone as a creative English teacher. You're part of a vast community welcoming students to their next escape room, rolling out contemporary poetry and reading aloud on First Chapter Fridays, engaging kids with social media projects and real-world ELA units. As your host (hi, I'm Betsy), I'm here to help you ENJOY your days at school and feel inspired by all the creative ways to teach both contemporary works and the classics your school may be pushing. I taught ELA at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade levels both in the United States and overseas for almost a decade, and I didn't always get support for my creativity. Now I'm here to make sure YOU get the creative support you deserve, and it brings me so much joy. Welcome to The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies!

363 ตอน

#English #Higher Education #Betsy Potash #Teaching Trends #Teaching #Betsy Potash: ELA #Engagement #Podcasting Education #Strategy #Teachers

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

114 subscribers

updated 5 วันที่แล้ว

แบ่งปัน

หน้าโฮมของซีรีส์•Feed

363 ตอน

#English #Higher Education #Betsy Potash #Teaching Trends #Teaching #Betsy Potash: ELA #Engagement #Podcasting Education #Strategy #Teachers

ทุกตอน

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372: Teaching Long Way Down? Flash Verse, Colorful Character Analysis, and Outside-the-Box Discussions 32:26

5 วันที่แล้ว32:26

32:26

If you’re teaching Long Way Down (and ready for some Long Way Down lesson plan ideas!), let me just start by saying “YAY!” It’s a reader-maker, an incredible book you can teach in a short time with a high impact. Today, I’m going to be sharing some of my favorite ideas and resources for you to pair with this book. We'll talk about discussion formats, project ideas, Jason Reynolds-themed multimedia waiting around the web, and a creative writing pairing that I think you're going to love too. Heads up, as I’m sure you’re aware, this book does have some language . You may need to give a heads up to parents, depending on your school community. But you can, at the same time, mention the Walter Award, Coretta Scott King Award, Printz Award, Newberry Honor Book Award, etc. Maybe throw in the fact that the Library of Congress named him the national ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Here's a quick peek at the visuals available in the FULL BLOG POST: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2025/04/long-way-down-lesson-ideas.html . Discussion Option: Hexagonal Thinking Discussion Option: Silent Discussion on the Walls Activity Option: Flash Verse Creative Writing Activity Option: The Open Mind for Character Analysis Links to Explore: One example of conversations happening in Creative High School English about Long Way Down in our Book Brackets Dear, Dreamer documentary about Jason Reynolds Long Way Down graphic novel opening There was a Party for Langston read aloud Ain't Burned all the Bright trailer Jason Reynolds on working with artist Danica Novgorodoff Long Way Down Curriculum…

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371: Top Middle School Book Recommendations (A Teacher's Perspective) 28:06

11 วันที่แล้ว28:06

28:06

Today's guest, middle school teacher Susan Taylor, has repeatedly gone the extra mile to build a reading program that makes an impact. Not only does she guide her students towards the best books available, she guides her teaching network the same way, through her podcast, Wonder World Book Cafe . Today, we're going to go rapid fire through her favorites to recommend to students, and why she likes them so much. You'll walk away with fantastic recommendations for novels-in-verse, graphic novels, historical fiction, and much more. You'll discover Susan's top pick for First Chapter Friday, the one book she thinks every classroom library should have, and the superb (easy-to-copy) way she helps students recommend books to each other all year long as part of their regular reading routine. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit. Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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370: An Easy Win for Differentiating Writing Instruction: Video Lessons 32:30

18 วันที่แล้ว32:30

32:30

If you've ever felt stymied over the fact that some of your students aren't sure how to write a thesis while others are ready to tackle counterargument, today's episode is for you. Not so long ago, Kareem Farah of the Modern Classrooms Project was here to share the MCP vision for a differentiated blended classroom, and how it can support all learners (and all teachers!). Today, his founding partner, Rob Barnett, joins us to follow up, sharing specific techniques for easily creating instructional videos and learning roadmaps in ELA. We want to help you design writing units that let your students move through the material at their own pace, reviewing and repeating lessons when they want to, skipping ahead when they're ready. Let's dive in. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! Related Links: Explore Classrooms using MCP pedagogy: https://www.modernclassrooms.org/exemplars Take the Full Free Course to learn about MCP: https://learn.modernclassrooms.org/ See the Progress Tracker Templates from MCP: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1i46SSU3PozMk3bQ06-d1Od09vqZLqIx_2St7FTX8A50/edit Discover Rob's Book, Meet Every Learner's Needs: https://www.meeteverylearnersneeds.org/…

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369: Highlight Real-World Connections for Any Book with this Easy Activity 5:08

25 วันที่แล้ว5:08

5:08

It all started with 1984 , as so many things do. I wanted students to see how the ideas in the book were splashed across the world around them - yes, in their magazines and ads, but also in the current events they saw on the news and the news sites covering them. So I asked them to create collages, connecting 1984 to their lives. As we put the collages up across one wall on the classroom, the startling connections between what they were reading and what they were seeing in the world around them sprang out in bright colors. Sitting beside us as we discussed and wrote about the novel, they provided a constant reminder that Orwell’s writing was as relevant as it gets, many decades later. So am I suggesting you do a context collage next time YOU teach Orwell? Nope, today I want to suggest that a context collage as a stellar go-to anytime you’re trying to help students see the connections between a text and their lives. Let me walk you through it. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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368: The Glue: One Thing You Need in Every ELA Unit 4:46

5 weeksที่แล้ว4:46

4:46

You’ve probably heard me talk about my first poetry slam. The project that became my go-to vehicle for teaching poetry every year that followed. The book I was handed - 6 American Poets - was chock full of great poetry. Dickinson, Whitman, Hughes… but I knew that I, like every paper worth reading, would need a solid hook. That’s how I ended up staying up til one in the morning the night before my poetry unit was set to kick off searching for poetry slam clips without swearwords. Eventually I found some incredible clips and the philosophy that would guide much of my time in the classroom. I thought of the philosophy then as “using showcase projects.” Now I think of it as finding the glue that would keep students engaged with my material. So how can you find your own glue? Let’s talk. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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367: Gamify ELA Review with a Colorful Memory Game 8:04

6 weeksที่แล้ว8:04

8:04

I can still remember the faded, chipped blue print of my childhood game of Memory. The thick cardboard squares we flipped in search of pairs, thrilled when we found a match, frustrated when we accidentally revealed a match to our opponent. I’ve played a million games now as a parent too, watching my children’s eyes light up when they rack up more matches than I do, which is pretty much every time. I think my daughter was beating me consistently by the time she was four. The memory game seems to stick in our game culture like no other. I see a new twist on it everywhere, most recently National Parks memory when I stepped into the store at Sequoia National Park last week. So how can we use this go-to in the classroom to gamify ELA? Well, in a million ways. Let’s talk about how you can make your own memory game, with pretty much any material you want to cover. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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366: ELA Electives with a Twist: Outside-the-Box Ideas to Inspire You 18:37

7 weeksที่แล้ว18:37

18:37

Teaching an ELA elective that you've dreamed up yourself is such a joy. Today I want to stir up some ideas together for the next time you've got the chance to put your own spin on an older course or propose a new course altogether. So let's start with a few questions: Would you rather take a course called "Theater" or "Contemporary Theater: The Triumphs of Hamilton & Wicked "? "Creative Writing" or "Writing for Change across Platforms"? "Film & Literature" or "How the Oscars got it Wrong"? "Argument Writing" or "How to Get What You Want (with your Writing)." "Digital Literacy" or "Understanding Spin: How the Sites You Choose Impact What You Believe." While many schools continue to run electives like "Creative Writing" and "Poetry," which are often wonderful courses, I believe it's time for a shift in framing. Writing is EVERYWHERE today, playing a vital role in our politics, our science, our businesses, our media creation and consumption, our entertainment, and our understanding of the world. To help our students see that, we can tap into modern platforms and media to hook our students, teaching similar key skills and texts in a new context, alongside more contemporary voices. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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365: 3 Easy Ways to Help Kids Build Better Arguments 26:29

8 weeksที่แล้ว26:29

26:29

Like most of us, Christina Schneider didn't find teaching writing one bit easy at first. Despite her background as a journalist, putting all the puzzle pieces together in the classroom to help her students understand how to build a thesis, introduce and analyze evidence, and express their ideas felt like a pretty tough task. But over time she had one breakthrough after another with her high school students in California. She figured out how to meet them where they are and guide them through the process of building their academic writing skills day by day throughout the school year. Now she steps up to the plate each August with her new students feeling confident that she can take them where they need to go. She's recently written a new book, Building Strong Writers , where she shares everything she's learned in step-by-step walkthroughs to make it easy for you to try too. Today on the pod, we'll be exploring three of her top writing scaffolds, and how you can get started with them tomorrow to make argument writing instruction simpler and more successful in your classroom. Connect with Christina, from The Daring English Teacher Hi! I’m Christina. I’m a full-time high school English and journalism teacher, wife, and mom. I’ve taught every high school grade level, and I love sharing my ideas, lesson plans, and ELA resources with other teachers. One of my passions is providing engaging, robust, and differentiated learning experiences to my students while helping other teachers do the same. Explore more of Christina's work on her website: https://thedaringenglishteacher.com/ Grab your copy of her new book, Building Strong Writers: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Strong-Writers-Strategies-Scaffolds/dp/1956306854 Follow along with her tips and ideas on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaringenglishteacher/ Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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364: Contemporary Authors to Feature this Black History Month (and all year long) 12:14

9 weeksที่แล้ว12:14

12:14

It's February, the perfect time to feature work by contemporary Black authors in your book talks, poetry clip showings, First Chapter Fridays, book displays, and bulletin boards. It's also a good time to look ahead to next year and consider whether you want to order some of these books for book clubs and whole class texts in the 2025-2026 school year.boo Of course, I know you know every month is the perfect time to feature these books in all kinds of ways. But today let's talk about five authors you might want to highlight especially right now, and why. As always, you know your classroom best, so be sure to preview books before teaching them to be sure they're the right fit for your students' ages and your community. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit. Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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363: The Secret Sauce to Help Students Care 14:00

10 weeksที่แล้ว14:00

14:00

How many times have you sat in a PD meeting that didn't apply to you? One where you were learning an 11 letter acronym for a strategy you'd never use, a 3 point plan for a new program that wouldn't fit with your curriculum, or a training you'd already had? A PD meeting that was... irrelevant. In their book, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, Kylene Beers and Bob Probst use one word to describe a key component we need in our in our curriculum in order to keep students' attention: relevance (115). Relevance hit home for me, conceptually. For many years, I've argued here for authentic audience, more contemporary texts featuring diverse voices, real-world projects like genius hour and podcasting, exploring modern mediums for communication, and student-led discussion. Relevance - in the words of the latest visual trend on Insta - fits the #vibesibringtothefunction here at Spark Creativity. I want it for you, of course, in your professional learning, and that's why I'm here. And I want it for your students, in their learning in your classroom. When Beers and Probst polled high school students on what issues they'd be interested in exploring, the issues that feel relevant to them, they named things like solving hate/bullying, fighting racism, ending discrimination around mental illness, and protecting the environment (117). It's not easy to dive into issues like these if you're tied to an aggressive standardized curriculum. As Beers and Probst put it, it's easier to create a learning environment that matters to students "if the question begins, 'What do kids want to know?' rather than 'What does the curriculum say we must cover?'" (116). And yet, there are inroads you can make in your classroom toward relevance, while you have larger conversations with your colleagues and administration about the wider curriculum and the freedom (or lack thereof) it allows you as you design your units. So today, I want to explore ways to build more relevance into the curriculum, even if you don't have carte blanche to teach whatever you want, however you want to. Links Mentioned: Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's Book: Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters David Kelley's Incredible Ted Talk: How to Build your Creative Confidence Jared Amato's Book: Just Read It Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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362: Art as Influencer: The Reason my Orwell Unit Failed and Why it Matters for your Students 23:39

11 weeksที่แล้ว23:39

23:39

I've been reading Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's Disrupting Thinking: How Why We Read Matters this week, and one of their points that has really come home for me is how often the standards and the pressure to boil books down to skills leads to pulling plot-based facts and point-based evidence out of a book, blocking opportunities for students to think about what the book means in the context of their lives. How it might change them, influence them, give them something new to think about in the way they approach the world. It reminded me of a comment my son's history teacher made recently, asking for him to focus not just on the events of history, but on "making meaning" out of them. I loved this directive, and at the same time, I knew a lot of follow-up was required. "Making meaning" out of what we learn is right up there at the top of Bloom's taxonomy, a combination of "evaluate" and "create," and not something that will just happen by itself. So how DO we bring our students from memorizing plot details to creating a dialogue with books that help to shape who they become? Today I want to share a story with you, about a time I taught a novel without considering the implications in the lives of my students, and how their reaction changed me as a teacher. As you'll see from my story, helping students make meaning from reading isn't as simple as some catchy acronym or a certain type of double-sided journal. But I will share some ideas for starting points you can use in class, strategies, discussion questions, and project possibilities that can help students ask a text: what do you want from me? And why? What do I want from you? You can listen in below, or read on for the written version. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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361: Amplify Argument Engagement with a Mock Trial 4:24

11 weeksที่แล้ว4:24

4:24

This week I want to share a project idea that you can use for a ton of different texts - the mock trial. I’ll tell you why the mock trial was one of my FAVORITE projects as a student, and one fun way I used it as a teacher. By the time you finish listening to this quick episode, I hope you’ll be excited to put a mock trial into play in your own classroom. My senior year of high school, my AP Lit teacher thought of a wonderful way to spice up our Madame Bovary unit. She had us re-enact Gustave Flaubert’s obscenity trial. Did you know he stood trial for offending public morals with his novel? Yep. Anyway, we all took on different roles - Flaubert himself, and the lawyers and witnesses - and started meeting in class to plan our arguments, our questions, and our opening and closing statements. As Flaubert’s defense lawyer, I thought it would be helpful to have the transcripts of the original trial, so after school I headed for the local University Library to check out the transcript, which I used to create my seven page single spaced opening statement for Flaubert. It was so much fun pulling those transcripts out in class the next day. Needless to say, Flaubert was declared innocent by the trial’s end, and the project has always stuck with me as one of my favorites from school. Years later, I decided to put my own spin on it with my 10th graders in Bulgaria as we studied The Crucible. We put the judges, Hawthorne and Danforth, on trial for letting it all happen. Students took the roles of defense and prosecution lawyers, characters in the play who could be called to the stand, and jury members. Everyone had specific tasks to help them prepare, and each witness worked on either the defense or prosecution’s team in building a case. The lawyers wrote opening statements and worked to come up with strong questions for each witness. Witnesses worked with their lawyers on their answers to the questions they would know, possible questions the other team might ask, and how they would respond, and reviewed their characters’ actions and dialogue in the play. Jury members came up with argument ideas for both sides, as well as evidence to support them, so they’d have a clear picture of the text going into the trial. I was the judge, so I could run the order of the day and keep things moving on schedule. While I felt the judges were to blame for allowing the court to abandon real justice, I believe in the end the jury found Hawthorne and Danforth innocent, after a highly engaging day of official process. I bet there’s a mock trial spin waiting to happen for at least one of your class texts… In Romeo and Juliet, you might put the priest on trial for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. In The Great Gatsby, you might put Daisy on trial for Myrtle’s death. But it doesn’t always have to be about an actual crime. You might let Frankenstein’s monster sue him for not creating a mate for him, and decide whether or not to award damages. You could try the insurance case of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman. While a mock trial isn’t right for every book, it’s a great way to create engagement and buy-in around building skills with argument, evidence, and analysis while also practicing public speaking. It doesn’t hurt that law if a popular career many students may be considering. That’s why this week, I want to highly recommend you give a mock trial project a try the next time you’ve got a project-shaped hole in a whole class novel unit. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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360: The Ultimate Guide to One-Pagers 34:46

12 weeksที่แล้ว34:46

34:46

Open The New York Times today and you'll see photos, headlines, interactive infographics, audio, videos, and text articles. I could name almost any newspaper, magazine, social media platform, campaign website, or brand home page, and say the same. Communication today switches mediums like a chameleon switches colors wandering in a field of Skittles. Our students know communication has changed. They need practice sharing ideas in different mediums and weaving those mediums together. Enter, one-pagers, an easy on-ramp for communicating through multiple mediums at once. Students learn to play with color, icons, and imagery that complement their quotations and analysis in bringing home their ideas. Today I want to walk you through everything I've learned about one-pagers over the last decade or so working with them. We'll start with the nuts and bolts of what they are in a quick review, and then talk about where to find models, why templates are such a helpful scaffold, what elements you might require on your one-pagers, and a laundry list of ways to use them creatively in class. Oh, and we'll wrap up with some ideas for other projects and strategies you might try in class if you love one-pagers. Links Mentioned: Grab the Novel One-Pagers 4 Pack Free Download: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/ready-for-one-pager-success Grab the Rhetorical Analysis One-Pager Free Download: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/ready-for-one-pager-success Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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359: Don't Send Emails that Make your Heart Race 3:49

12 weeksที่แล้ว3:49

3:49

This week I want to share a piece of advice that really comes from my wonderful husband and it’s this: Don’t send emails that make your heart race. That email will only make it worse. Let me explain. Just a few days ago I found myself in bed at eleven, eyes wide open in the dark, building an email in my mind. I laid there meticulously building a case in my imaginary email to explain why I was mad at a person who was mad at me. Soon I was bathed in the midnight glow of my screen, writing the email. And rewriting it. And editing it for grammar. Rereading it again. And feeling more and more and more upset as the clock ticked on to 1 a.m. I sent it to my husband the next day to ask if he thought I’d explained myself well. The email was temporarily dominating my life, and I wasn’t sure anymore if it was saying what I wanted to say. He called me as soon as he got my message, rather than write back. “It’s well put. But it’s not an email,” he said. “It’s a conversation. This is just going to stoke a fire, it’s not going to do anything to resolve the situation.” I didn’t send it. So much for the three hours I spent on it. But on the other hand, I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up all day waiting for whatever response would have come. Perhaps you can relate to me when I say I am quite conflict-averse. I feel much more comfortable explaining myself in writing than having emotional conversations, especially at work. I’ve been involved in several back-and-forth email tangles over the years where the drama grew and grew and grew as we emailers exchanged missive after missive between classes, over lunch, after school, at night. Whether an email whirlwind like this is with an angry student, an upset parent, an administrator, or a colleague, it rarely ends with sunshine and rainbows. But here’s what my husband has learned from years working in the student life department at different schools, trying to help upset people resolve situations. Usually, if your heart is racing as you go to click send, it’s meant to be a conversation. Where you can see the feelings of the other person on their face. Where you can explain what you meant when they look blankly at you. When you can see that they’re maybe having a hard time with something else and it’s exploding out at you. Or they can see that. So this week, as much to myself as to you, I want to highly recommend that if our hearts are racing, we have a conversation instead of hitting “send.” Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

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358: Try this Easy New Year's Vision Board Activity 8:15

13 weeksที่แล้ว8:15

8:15

There's a lot of takes on the New Year and how it fits into our lives. There's the change-everything-starting-January-1 take. The New-Year-Same-Me take. The choose-your-word take. The pick-your-theme-song-take. There are SMART goals and stepping stone goals, personal goals and professional goals. Then of course there's the gentle twist that takes goals and turns them into habits and then stacks them, á la James Clear.r. But what - she said with a gentle chuckle - about sneaker goals? Yep, today I'd like to offer you a little twist on the whole goal smorgasboard. An activity your students can do this week as you return to school that will help them think through what they want from next year in a serious way, with a lighthearted frame. They'll create vision boards... on sneakers. Paper sneakers. Grab your Copy of the Curriculum: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/vision-board-activity Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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357: Your Writer's Craft Tournament 3:18

15 weeksที่แล้ว3:18

3:18

Lately, I’ve been working on gamification. Not the kind where you get points and add custom outfits to your hamster avatar when you advance through a lesson - though don’t get me wrong, that seems cool - more the kind where learning takes place through an actual game structure. We’re big fans of games at my house - Catan, Parcheesi, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Wordle, Uno, Apple to Apples - and so I’ve had a lot of fun brainstorming ideas. But today I was zeroing in on brackets. You know, tournament brackets. Like at March Madness time, or at weekend pickleball tournaments. I’ve seen lots of folks try March Madness brackets with poetry, which I love, but I was brainstorming out at the edges of that idea today. What else could we bracket? So here’s my last quick idea for you as we all swirl into the break tornado and leave work behind for a while. What if we held a bracket for writer’s craft moves? Imagine it. Sensory details vs. Personification. Symbolism vs. simile. Appositives vs. strikingly short sentences. The semicolon vs. the dash. Which is more useful? Which paves the way to a great line and why? Where have students seen the move in action and was it truly powerful? How can they use it in their writing and just how handy is it? When you’re doing the faceoff, you could have students partner up and search for examples to share, or write examples to read aloud as part of the discussion of the merits of each side. Can you imagine debating which deserves to move forward, symbolism or simile, and then voting for one to advance in the tournament WITHOUT generating a pretty strong understanding of what it is and how to use it? And can you imagine how fun it would be to see students get fired up over the dash being better than the semicolon? Or are the parentheses crushing the ellipses? Yeah, I just had to tell you about this idea. Even though I know you don’t have time to use it just at the moment, it was too exciting for me to hold off until next year. I can’t wait to hear about your writer’s craft tournament in 2025. You can reach me, as always, at betsy@nowsparkcreativity.com with your fabulous stories. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
356: The Best Last Day Before Break 5:39

16 weeksที่แล้ว5:39

5:39

If the work week is starting to feel like a blurry hand sanitizer-scented haze at the moment, you're right on schedule. The crush of holiday to-dos (fun and not-so) alongside the slow but insistent slip of student attention spans, plus the inevitable wave of illnesses you're trying to avoid makes these last few days a challenge. So today I'm hoping I can help by giving you all the moving pieces for an easy and awesome last day. Grab the Free Winter Book Tasting Kit Here: https://spark-creativity.kit.com/cc185a4a77 Make your Copy of the Snowy Day Poetry Tiles Here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1as6Q7PADsKIoYKOHlHUH7iZHseL342xts7E3UYk3Wjg/copy Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit. Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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355: When All Else Fails 4:38

16 weeksที่แล้ว4:38

4:38

This week I’m thinking about those moments when the system collapses. Your toddler wakes up at 3 am and stays awake until 7. Your careful planning for a poetry slam explodes when you feel a sore throat lurking the day before and you get one of those icky awful chills on your way out to the parking lot. Your partner has to work overtime when you were counting on him to do dinner and bedtime while you graded 100 papers and prepped the next day. Today’s one of those days for me, with my partner on an international work trip with his students as what everyone is guessing is norovirus has hit our community and my household. Just before my daughter’s winter concert, my elaborately planned community cookie exchange, and my son’s golden birthday. As we say in Minnesota, uff-da. So without further ado, I want to share three free resources I’ve created for you that you can use at times like this, when all else fails. Don’t worry, I’ll drop links to grab them all in the show notes. First of all, my old faithful, now in use in over 10,000 classrooms. The one-pager templates. You can bust these out and modify them to suit pretty much whatever you’re reading. The specific directions guide students in how to represent the text through imagery, quotations, and analysis on the template, taking away that fear of the blank page. A little creative constraint paves the way for students to share their top takeaways and make connections beyond the page, giving even your art-wariest students a chance to succeed with this colorful, creative, reading reflection. Next, there’s the Book Face challenge. This fun activity will promote your reading culture, and all you need are books. Have you seen the #bookface flood on Instagram in recent years? The idea is simple. You find a book with a picture of a face on it, then find a way to recreate the scenery featured on the cover and take a picture of the cover with the face in the book shown over your (or your partner’s face) so it seems like the book is actually part of the photo. It’s so hard to describe, but so cool to see! I created a bunch of examples and a quick guide so your students can easily try it. If you’re having a ridiculously stressful week, a day setting up fun #bookface photos with your students and then showcasing them in a big display can help. At least a little. Finally, there’s blackout poetry. If you haven’t tried this yet, take this as your sign. Download the free guide, put some old books in a corner of your classroom, and keep this activity handy for the next time all else fails. For blackout poetry, students choose words on an exciting page to arrange into a poem, then doodle around the words and black out everything but the doodle and the chosen words. OK, that’s a bit of an oversimplification but that’s why I made you the GUIDE. This project has a history of turning out amazing, and you can make it go with anything. You invite students to create a blackout poem that connects with a theme from your reading, an essential question from your unit, or just let them float free with their topics. OK, my friend. Time to go deal with the fact that there’s a lot to deal with. I know you know, and I hope one of these activities can help the next time you’re doing the same. Remember, I’m going to link to all these free downloads in the show notes, and I’m ALSO going to link to a fun recent collab I did with 9 other creative curriculum designers to showcase emergency sub plans. If you grab these three and a bunch of those too, you’ll have a dozen or so options ready the next time all else fails. Links Mentioned: Pick up the free one-pager templates: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/ready-for-one-pager-success Grab the free Bookface Activity: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/bookface Get the free Blackout poetry guide: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blackout-Poetry-Activity-l-black-out-poetry-l-blackout-poetry-passages-4165682 Go further with 10 more emergency sub plans: https://buildingbooklove.com/ela-emergency-sub-plans-for-middle-school-and-high-school-english/ Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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354: Classroom Management: Lifting the Veil (Finally) 56:32

17 weeksที่แล้ว56:32

56:32

Ever struggle to get students to stop talking? Keep their phones put away? Stay focused during the lesson? Stop whispering during an assembly? Engage with the classwork? Classroom management can sometimes feel like death by a thousand distractions. Today’s guest can help. Claire English is an experienced Australian secondary English teacher and senior leader, specializing in supporting students with complex social, emotional and mental health needs. Over her career, she has worked across the United Kingdom and Australia, dedicated to transforming volatile, challenging, and chaotic learning environments into places of safety, support, and learning. She’s got a new book out – It’s Never Just About the Behavior – which I happily rate at five stars and strongly recommend (check out her #1 best-seller in secondary education here). When you join our conversation today, you’re going to hear about big picture shifts you can easily make to help your classroom run more smoothly and productively, as well as quick small shifts you can try immediately for a better tomorrow. LINKS MENTIONED: These show notes contain affiliate links. When you purchase something through my affiliate link, you support my work here at no additional cost to you. Grab the Task Card Template: https://www.the-unteachables.com/taskcardfreebie Tune into Claire's Podcast: https://www.the-unteachables.com/podcast Explore her (wildy popular) bite-sized tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.unteachables/ Check out the Behavior Club Membership for live training, mentoring sessions, and access to the Low Level Behavior Bootcamp: https://www.the-unteachables.com/a/2148008553/5BiUqegp Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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353: Your Poetry Video Project Roadmap 4:37

17 weeksที่แล้ว4:37

4:37

In today’s short episode of “Highly Recommended”, I’m here to tell you it’s time to try a poetry video project! Harness students’ excitement over the creator economy and the survival of TikTok and get them interpreting poetry through a medium that only keeps getting MORE relevant to communication today. First things first, let’s talk mentor texts. There are some VERY cool poetry videos online that take their interpretation in wildly different directions. I suggest taking a look at Amanda Gorman’s “Earthrise,” Ada Limón’s “A Poem for Europa,” and Rudy Francisco’s “Complainers,” which I’ll link for you in the show notes. As students watch, have them sketchnote ideas for CRAFT moves. What do they notice about the combination of talking head shots vs. B-Roll? Is their background music? How did the producer make cuts and transitions? How does the video bring out the meaning of the poem? How about the audio? Once students have started to warm up to this idea of interpreting poems through video, it’s time for them to choose a poem of their own to interpret. Now you could easily make this a project to help them dig deep into a famous poem of their choice, OR you could let them record and create around an original piece of their own, depending on your goals. They should print up a script of their poem which they can annotate with ideas for visuals and how they will want to read the poem aloud. Parallel to their written script, they’ll want to do some storyboarding, sketching out the order of their film clip videos. Now there are two free platforms I’d recommend for this project. Vocaroo, which we’ve discussed many times, is perfect for recording the audio easily and snagging the MP3 file. Then they can upload it to Canva, which will allow them to combine photos, videos, and audio of their own with photos, videos, and audio available on Canva. This is the most technical part of the project, so I’ve made you a little tutorial video for how to put together a video in Canva (which I’ll link in the show notes). While there will be a learning curve on learning to put together a video, it’s a learning curve well worth trekking. This would be a great starter project leading toward video options on future choice boards, documentary projects, PSA projects, and other types of video projects in your class or department arc. Inside Canva, your students will be able to sequence text slides, video clips, and photos to create a visual sequence that represents their interpretation of the poem, and overlay it with their audio recording of their script. They can even add music at a low level behind their voice in different sections if they wish. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to get your feet wet with video, let this be your sign that YOU CAN DO IT! It’s OK to launch a project without total confidence in the tech. Your students may just know a lot about this and be able to help each other and you, and there are not many tech problems out there that a quick tutorial search on YouTube won’t fix. I’ve seen some wonderful student work from the poetry video project, and so can you! Links Mentioned: "Earthrise," by Amanda Gorman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOvBv8RLmo "Complainers," by Rudy Francisco: https://youtu.be/nrh1JlP8R2E?si=8BvEmi0mIr8NCAEJ "A Poem for Europa," by Ada Limón: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgWbeDNPD6o How to Create a Video in Canva: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/videopage/createavideo Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit. Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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352: Holiday Activities for ELA (with Inclusivity in Mind) 19:17

18 weeksที่แล้ว19:17

19:17

So you want to give the nod to the season, but you also want to make sure all your students feel included. Good for you! I've been privileged to see the holidays I celebrate centered in The United States for much of my life, but I've also had a lot of opportunities to see what it's like beyond this glow. I've lived in four other countries where some of the holidays I am used to are not very important at all. At one of my schools, I had the role of international-student coordinator. As part of that role I got a chance to work with kids from around the world to share their cultures through different types of holiday celebrations, like a Day of the Dead dinner and a Lunar New Year party. I married into a family with a different religious background than mine, and I've seen how it can feel difficult when other traditions take the limelight at this time of year. It means a lot to have your traditions acknowledged at any age. But I'll be the first to say it's not uncomplicated territory in the classroom. I know I've messed up, learned, and evolved. I keep trying. I very much believe that when we can expand our cultural viewpoints, we all benefit. Of course, perhaps your school or community won't allow you to discuss or celebrate any type of holiday at school. I can understand the circumstances that might lead there. If that's the case, you might want to choose one of the other hundreds of episodes to listen to today. But if you've always loved - like me - to give a nod to big days on the calendar throughout the year, I've got ideas to share today - ways to enjoy fun wintery activities in the next few weeks that make space for kids to celebrate whatever special days they want to, whether it's Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Christmas, Lunar New Year, Snow Days, or one of the many other holidays flowing out of our rich worldwide blend of cultures. Links Mentioned: Liz Kleinrock's book, Come and Join Us : https://www.amazon.com/Come-Join-Us-Holidays-Celebrated/dp/0063144476 Holiday Makerspace Project (Free download): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Holiday-Maker-Space-Writing-Project-3505860 How to make Digital Poetry Tiles: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2020/11/109-how-to-make-digital-magnetic-poetry.html Holiday Lipogram Project (Free Download): https://spark-creativity.kit.com/c9338cdf76 Winter Book Tasting (Free Download): https://spark-creativity.kit.com/cc185a4a77 Poetry Foundation Winter Poems Collection: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/144637/winter-poems…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
351: 🤍 Gratitude Week: Revisiting Angela Stockman's Writing Makerspace 32:25

18 weeksที่แล้ว32:25

32:25

Welcome to day five of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today, on our final day, we’re looking back at an interview with my friend Angela Stockman about how to get started with her innovative writing makerspace concept. She is a force of creativity, hope, care, and innovation in the education world, and I’m grateful to know her and to share her work with you. Check out the original show notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2018/09/the-power-of-writing-makerspace-with.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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350: 🤍 Gratitude Week: Revisiting Dave Stuart Jr.'s Help for Student Apathy 41:48

18 weeksที่แล้ว41:48

41:48

Welcome to day four of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today we’re looking back at an interview with Dave Stuart Jr. about how to help fight apathy in the classroom. I’m grateful for Dave’s hopeful voice in the world of education, and glad to share his ideas with you today. Check out the original show notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2019/07/070-help-for-student-apathy-with-dave_16.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
349: 🤍 Gratitude Week: Revisiting Crucial Advice on Diverse Texts & Choice 35:23

19 weeksที่แล้ว35:23

35:23

Welcome to day three of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today we’re looking back at an interview with Dr. Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica and Dr. Allison Briceño about just how important it is to provide students with diverse books and choice in their reading experience. I’m grateful that they took the time to talk with us, and to be able to spotlight their work here again. See the original show notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2023/07/students-need-diverse-texts-and-choice-heres-help.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
348: 🤍 Gratitude Week: Revisiting Dr. Sarah Fine's Advice for Deeper Learning 47:22

19 weeksที่แล้ว47:22

47:22

Welcome to day two of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today we're revisiting a popular interview with Dr. Sarah Fine, whose insightful work around deeper learning I am so grateful to be able to share with you. She crisscrossed the nation in search of the places and programs where students were truly engaged in deeper learning, and she shares what she found in this conversation. See the Original Show Notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2020/02/086-take-action-for-deeper-learning.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
347: 🤍 Gratitude Week: Revisiting Penny Kittle's Quiet Revolution 52:16

19 weeksที่แล้ว52:16

52:16

This week I’m thinking about how grateful I am for this incredible community - all the creative educators around the world who have tuned into an episode, shared an idea with a colleague, joined me in conversation as a guest, written a review, or sent in a question. Thank you! Today we’re going to kick off a special five day series revisiting top interviews from the last decade of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. We’ll hear from Penny Kittle, Dr. Sarah Fine, Dr. Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica and Dr. Allison Briceño, Dave Stuart Jr., and Angela Stockman. We’ll explore the power of choice reading, discuss what creates situations of deeper learning, dive into strategies to combat student apathy, and find out how to get started with the writing makerspace. We’re starting with a look back at my interview with Penny Kittle for a show originally titled “A Quiet Revolution in Reading and Writing.” Find the Original Show Notes Here: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2022/04/150-a-quiet-revolution-in-reading-and-writing-with-penny-kittle.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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346: Highly Recommended: The Extensive Research to Support English Teachers Grading Less 3:23

19 weeksที่แล้ว3:23

3:23

In today’s short episode of “Highly Recommended”, I want to recommend an article I read at Edutopia this week, because it’s chock-full of the research you need to support conversations at your school about grading less. Changing the culture of grading in our ELA classrooms won’t just benefit teachers, it benefits students too. So today I want to share two highlights from the article, “ Why Teachers Should Grade Less Frequently ,” by Stephen Merrill and Youki Terada, and then give you the link in the show notes so you can go read it and send it to everyone in your department. Seriously. Terada and Merrill share the research around nine reasons that grading less benefits both educators and educatees (students). This is not a both-sides-of-the-story type of article. It is VERY clear about its argument. Less grading for the right reasons is the way to go. Hopefully, if you’ve been around here for long, that sounds like a familiar story. One of my favorite points in the article is #3, “Grading Obligations reduce teacher creativity and innovation.” According to the research, most teachers are splitting their time between grading and lesson planning, devoting about the same amount of time to each. As a result, and I imagine you’ve experienced this at some point or another, many folks are unable to give the necessary time to the reflection and discovery that would let them unlock their most creative classroom ideas. Another key idea comes in #6: “Grading reduces opportunities for student practice.” According to the research, repeated practice counts for a lot when it comes to improving writing, and prioritizing feedback over reps isn’t the answer. If teachers feel they must grade everything students do, students won’t have as many opportunities to build the pathways that lead to better writing. The big components of this article are ones our teaching community has been talking about for a long time. But what I love about this article is how it boils the ideas down into a three minute read with clear evidence and research links to back up what English teachers have learned through experience. That means you can point to the evidence online as well as the evidence in your classroom when you take these ideas to your colleagues, and explain your methods to parents who think papers are meant to be coated in red ink before they’re returned. Remember, I’m dropping this link in the show notes right now, so be sure to click over and read this great article from Stephen Merrill and Youki Terada! READ THE ARTICLE: https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-teachers-should-grade-less-frequently Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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345: How to use First Book Marketplace to Grow your Library Fast 10:31

20 weeksที่แล้ว10:31

10:31

If you’re a teacher in a Title I School, you need to know about First Book Marketplace. I’ve heard about it in passing so many times, and this week I decided to dive in and figure out how it works. And boy, does it work. Today I just want to walk you through how this site works so that you can start taking advantage of its many resources as soon as possible. Now, if you’re NOT a teacher in a Title I School, and you’re also trying to find resources to support your wish to bring incredible books to your students, I’m going to refer you back to episode 56, The Dos and Don’ts of Donors Choose , where I’ll walk you through the best way to get funding on that site. OK, for now, let’s dig into First Book Marketplace and how you can get started with it right away. Are you a Title I Teacher? Register for First Book Marketplace: https://www.fbmarketplace.org/register/ Not a Title I Teacher? Check out the "Do's and Don'ts of Donors Choose" post here: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2019/01/the-dos-and-donts-of-donors-choose-for.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit. Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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344: Fighting the Sunday Scaries 5:28

20 weeksที่แล้ว5:28

5:28

This week, I want to talk about Sunday nights. If you’re struggling to figure out how you can be a good partner, parent, person, and teacher, and it all seems to come to a head on Sunday nights, I want to offer three ideas. I’m not saying I can solve the teacher work-life balance issue that plagues our profession in one short episode, but I hope one of these ideas will help you feel more free to follow your instincts towards less stress and pressure on yourself, and maybe, just maybe, happier Sunday nights. #1 Don’t Grade it All I put this one first for a reason. It’s huge. Let’s say your students are doing a ten minute writing prompt each day to practice a specific skill. Maybe you’ve got 30 students, times five days a week, times five classes. That’s 750 writing samples you’re trying to grade every week. Even if you just put a smiley face on top to show that you put your eyeballs on their work, it’s still going to take you hours. Instead, try having them choose the sample at the end of the week that they feel best represents their ability with the new skill, polish it, and turn it in the next week. Now your eyeballs just have to scan 150 writing samples. Students need way more practice writing than they need detailed feedback. Is detailed feedback amazing? Yes. Is feeling like you have to give it constantly likely to ruin your Sunday nights, your holiday breaks, and eventually, your ability to stay in teaching? Probably. Not only do I think you should heavily reduce your grading via selective feedback, stickers, stamps, and peer feedback, I think you should start a conversation in your department to help everyone consider these options. #2 Stop Playing Email Whack-a-Mole Do you open your email every time you have a second and try to get rid of all your new messages? I did too, for sooo long. And it messed with my mood, left me with no time for more major projects, and made me feel like I was always behind. If it’s possible for you to block off time to check your email once in the morning and once at the end of school, I’d like to plant a flag in your inbox and say hip hip hooray! It’s not your job to give all your attention to others’ priorities every single time you have a second. Take five minutes between periods to get a breath and set up your next activity in a relaxed manner instead of worrying about a parent’s frustrating message. Spend lunch watching Kristen Bell and Adam Brody while you eat or hanging out with a friend for ten minutes over sandwiches instead of running through emails. Email never stops, but you’re allowed to. And in case it wasn’t clear, I’m definitely suggesting you don’t have to check it at night and on the weekends too. #3 Get Help in Key Places There’s help for an awful lot in the world these days. Is laundry a specter that makes you feel terrible all week because you don’t have time to get to it? You can probably hire someone to come in and do it for you - maybe even your teenager who needs extra money. Is cooking a nightmare for you when you get home after a busy day? Approximately one hundred meal service kit companies would like to help, and so would the ready made section at Trader Joe’s. Do you hate writing lessons after your kids go to bed? I spend all my time writing curriculum to help with that, and so do a lot of other people. Give yourself permission to join a curriculum membership like The Lighthouse or pick up units that you love and that fit your style from TPT. OK, my friend. I could definitely keep going, but I wanted to keep this short with three genuinely doable ideas. If you can cut your grading load dramatically, stop playing email whack-a-mole, and choose one stressful area to get significant help, I believe Sunday nights WILL get a little easier. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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343: Contemporary Playwrights to Spotlight in ELA 9:04

21 weeksที่แล้ว9:04

9:04

Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Eugene O'Neill get plenty of spotlight on the ELA curriculum stage. And sure, it's well-deserved! But they aren't the only incredible American playwrights to pick up a pen in the last century. If you're looking for some contemporary plays to share with your students, and you're struggling to find ones that fit your vision AND fit the maturity level of your kiddos, I've got a quick idea for you today. So here it is. You've got your stack of A Streetcar Named Desire or Death of a Salesman ready for your students, as always, AND you have a series of Pulitzer-Prize winning contemporary playwright snapshots to share. It's the classic "yes AND" combination that comes straight from the improv playbook. Each snapshot will let students learn about an award-winning contemporary playwright by exploring their background, learning about the play which won them a Pulitzer, and then watching a little bit of that play. You'll get to showcase a diverse range of writers and topics, and you can avoid moments in the plays which might be too intense or mature for the age of your students. My deep dive down the Youtube rabbit hole leads me to believe that most award-winning plays feature at least SOME scenes that are rated PG. It's a little like First Chapter Fridays , except for plays. You're introducing your students to a much wider world than the single lens on theater that whatever your assigned play can provide (wonderful though it may be!), by showcasing complementary work regularly. At the same time, you can work through a whole class read with rich literary merit (that your school has already purchased and approved.) So how can you get started quickly and easily? That's what today's episode is all about. I'll walk you through how I created some of these snapshots - which I'll share with you - and then you'll be ready to create more of your own if you want to go further. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the Contemporary Playwrights Snapshots: https://spark-creativity.kit.com/0c32caad5f Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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342: Easy Acting Games for Better Theater Units 5:48

21 weeksที่แล้ว5:48

5:48

This week I want to share a fabulous resource I recently discovered, a website full of short video models for acting games you can use in class. The first time I taught a play in class, I sure wished I had more theater background to help my students act out the scenes. Luckily, I was able to connect with a creative theater professional to come and visit my classes for a few days. Soon she had them playing acting games, creating scene sculptures, and generally having a great time while relaxing into the idea of playing new roles. After that week I always incorporated acting games into my theater units, and they never failed as a community-builder and theater-bolsterer. I bought two books to complement what I learned from my theater guest: Acting Games, by Viola Spolin, and Games for Actors and Non-Actors, by Augusto Boal. Which brings me to my recent discovery, a website showcasing many of Viola Spolin’s acting games through video demonstrations. With a few minutes on this website, you can easily gather games to use in class and learn how to use them. Let me suggest a short routine similar to what I’ve used, and then I’ll link the activities in the show notes so you can head straight over to the website for the details. OK, so before I ever asked students to act Prospero or Willy Loman, we’d spend five or ten minutes at the start of class with games that would help them loosen up and trust each other a little more. I suggest you start by making space in the center of the room by pushing desks and tables to the side. Then invite students to start walking around, trying to keep a bubble of space around them so they fill the room without ever touching each other. Start slow, then invite them to speed up a little, and a little more, then slow back down, then go into slow motion. Then, perhaps start a game of slow motion tag (linked) or start playing with an invisible ball (linked). After a couple of minutes, you might play a game of lemonade (linked) or invite partners to try mirroring each other (linked). As your students become more comfortable, you can move into more complex games, or you can just stick with this simple routine to break down everyone’s “I’m too cool to pretend to be doing anything I’m not actually doing” facades. Remember, while acting comes naturally to a few students, many teenagers are just really nervous about embarrassing themselves around their peers. Acting games help everyone get more relaxed before diving into Shakespeare or O’Neill, and this lovely website will help YOU get more relaxed before diving into acting games! Links: The Mirror: https://spolingamesonline.org/mirror-follow-the-follower/ Lemonade: https://spolingamesonline.org/lemonade-new-york/ Play Ball: https://spolingamesonline.org/play-ball/ Slow Motion Tag: https://spolingamesonline.org/slow-motion-tag/ Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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341: Characterization Activities that go Way Beyond Round vs. Flat 13:30

22 weeksที่แล้ว13:30

13:30

My son and I love a few certain characters from the books we've read aloud over the years. Gum-Baby, from Tristan Strong , Boots, from Gregor the Overlander , Maniac Magee. For my daughter, it's Junie B. Jones and Ramona from their named series collections . For me, it was always Anne (of Green Gables) I returned to growing up, and Jo from Little Women . Oh, and of course, Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes . Incredible characters are everywhere we turn in literature, and they make such an impact on us. We see through their eyes, experience their transformations, build empathy through their experiences. Maybe that's why when I think about characterization, I tend to think about activities that showcase characters visually. That come at them from many angles. That require students to consider their evolution, their growth, their nature vs. their nurture. Because sure, by all means, let's talk about what it means to be flat or round, static or dynamic. But then let's go much further. Today on the podcast, I'm sharing six creative characterization projects I've come up with over the years, in hopes that one (or two, or three) will fill a hole for you. I love them all for different reasons, and I hope you will too. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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340: 💬 Grading Discussion in a way that won’t ruin your (Teaching) Life 5:54

22 weeksที่แล้ว5:54

5:54

Grading discussion can feel like juggling cats. How can you be present in a class discussion while also trying to grade thirty people’s comments? But over the years, I’ve tried three methods that that have worked for me without causing too much strain. I call them the bump, the challenge, and the chart. In today’s mini-episode, I’ll walk you through all three so that the next time you feel you need to give credit where credit is due during a discussion, you’ve got a plan that doesn’t feel like a cat-splosion. First, there’s the bump. With the bump method, discussion provides that intangible bump that defines whether kids on the borderline move up or down. A kid working hard in discussion will go from an 89.5 to an A-. A kid who is unprepared or often interrupts will stay firmly at a B+ with that 89.5. This method is easy to explain to kids, and doesn’t require a constant running paper trail. I can’t recall ever having an argument over this with a student, but I CAN recall encouraging students to push themselves harder in discussion with this small carrot as a reminder that it matters both to the community and to their own results. Next, there’s the challenge. For this method, I invite students to focus on something we’ve been working on and work together to have a discussion that crushes this one aspect of our group dynamics. I let them know that EVERYONE in class will get a 10/10 on that day as a free bonus grade if they complete my challenge. If they don’t, no harm no foul. For example, say you’re working on making more text references. You might create a challenge in which if the class is able to make ten different text references (that feel relevant) during the discussion, everyone gets the bonus grade. The nice thing about this method is that it allows you to grade for something really targeted, helping the class move forward in its discussion evolution. Third (and last, for now), there’s the chart. This method is the most time-intensive, but it gets easier with time. Keep a chart for each class with students’ names. At the end of a class period, jot down a check minus, check, or check plus for each student, based on their participation. Then assign grades at the end of term based on whether they are mostly check plus, mostly check, etc. The pros here are that this method provides you a very clear paper trail and allows you to make discussion a significant part of the grade if that’s what you want to do. You’ll be able to defend a discussion grade by showing any student the chart at any time. However, if you find you are always juggling a lot in those moments between classes, it can feel like a major task that is always hovering over your shoulder. Maybe you’re wanting to pull books for a book talk, grab a student for a quick chat, or send an email, but you’ve got to fill in that discussion chart every single time. For me, it wasn’t a good long term solution, and I preferred to rely mainly on the bump with occasional challenges. But everyone’s situations is different, so I thought I’d share it here as a solid option if it feels right to you. Maybe you finish up class with an exit ticket or another activity that would give you time to fill in a chart like this without much stress. Whatever feels right for you! OK, there you have my top tested methods for discussion accountability - the bump, the challenge and the chart. Whether you use one, use ‘em all, or maybe just use one of them as a springboard for a totally new option that just occurred to you, I hope these possibilities will help you destress the grading process when it comes time for your next discussion. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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339: 💬 When Discussion goes off the Rails 18:20

23 weeksที่แล้ว18:20

18:20

We’ve all been in a discussion hurtling off the track and into the canyon, far, far below. Chances are, you’ve been in this type of discussion as a student AND as a teacher, and it’s no fun in either scenario. So how do we prevent it? And what do we do if it’s already happening and glaze is washing over our students’ eyes? In today’s episode, the fifth in our discussion series, we’re diving into how to deal with discussions that go off the rails. Because even if YOU prepare in all the ways, those days happen. And it doesn't mean all is lost. Ooh, by the way, do you have my free discussion toolkit yet? It contains many of the tools we'll be talking about today. Go Further: Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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338: 💬 Discussion Dominators and Silent Students 23:18

23 weeksที่แล้ว23:18

23:18

Remember in elementary school, how some kids were so excited to answer a question that they would wave their hand back and forth in the air, lifting ever so slightly from their seat? The Hermione Grangers of 2nd grade. Yeah, that was me. So I have real sympathy for students who become discussion dominators. Though on the outside, this appears to make them successful students, it’s really just as important for them to adjust their approach to group dynamics as it is for students who are completely silent in class. Both groups present a challenge for educators looking to use student-led discussion methods, and today on the podcast, I’m sharing everything I’ve learned about helping kids on both ends of the participation spectrum. Because in fact, helping one is helping the other. Quieter students won’t have a chance to participate until dominant students take a step back. Dominant students won’t understand why it’s important to step back until quieter students begin to use their voice. The first steps are the hardest on both sides of this story, but it IS possible, and the results ARE so worth working for. This is the fourth episode of our discussion series, maybe the one you’ve been waiting for. Because we’ve all been in discussions carried by three kids while the rest watch, turning their heads like they’re at a tennis match. But not anymore. Key Points: Try brainstorming with the class about ways to get into the discussion if you’re feeling a little nervous or you like more time to prepare: ideas might include… be the first person to start a discussion or topic because you can read your question, quote, or answer to the warm-up, write down an idea as you read that you want to bring up, arrange with a friend to turn the floor over to you as they finish a comment, like “Jenny, we were talking about this before class. What were you saying?”, folks talking more have to make room for other voices Remind everyone of the bean bag story we talked about in the last episode - the discussion is incredibly enriched when everyone contributes their personal history and knowledge, their curiosity and questions Use the observer with nuance, asking them to think about how they can chart the discussion and report back with suggestions in a way that will help everyone improve the dynamics of balance Individual conversations - you might try gently inviting a dominator to try limiting themselves to three contributions or even just listening for a day to see what others say. You might talk with a quiet student and suggest a goal of one comment on a single day, and brainstorm together how to make it happen. It’s a push and pull. As one group start to make small adjustments, the other group is affected. It never looks the same in any class! Try the ABC Game Think about all the group situations you’re in day after day: faculty meetings, dinner tables, school board meetings, neighborhood potlucks. Chances are you know dominators and silent observers in your adult life too. Maybe they never had the chance to explore these group dynamics issues in school. This process is a gift you can give to a student for their future. In an increasingly partisan world, where everyone is talking about the bubbles we live in, what could be more important than learning to talk to each other? Whether you use Harkness, Socratic, or your own twist on student-led discussion, I believe these messy life lessons of student-led discussion are worth the complicated emotions and conversations they require. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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337: 💬 Student-Led Discussion: Setting up Success + What Does an Observer Do? 28:56

24 weeksที่แล้ว28:56

28:56

Welcome back to our ongoing discussion series. If you missed the first two episodes, covering five types of discussion worth trying and introducing the Harkness method for student-led discussion , you might want to pause and go back to the last two episodes before continuing with this one. Today we’re diving deep into student-led discussion, specifically setting up a structure that will let you be successful. I’ll be sharing both highlights from what I learned at the Exeter Humanities Institute about helping students be successful - which, by the way, I couldn’t recommend more as a summer PD opportunity - and also, what I learned personally working with twenty-five different classes of students as their skills with the method evolved over the course of our year together. You’ll walk away from this episode ready to run your first student-led discussion, whether you choose the full Harkness method or create your own twist on student-led discussion. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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336: 💬 How Harkness Won Me Over (Completely) 8:40

24 weeksที่แล้ว8:40

8:40

Today we’re talking about a model that influenced every discussion I ran in my classroom from my first year to my last, across grade levels, years, and countries. I’ve run hundreds of Harkness discussions - terrible ones, experimental ones, pretty ok ones, good ones, and absolutely incredible ones. Today I want to tell you how Harkness discussion changed the way I see group dynamics and why I can’t talk about class discussion without centering this model. I want you to try Harkness, or some spin off of it that fits your classroom space and size, and here’s why. Maybe you’ve heard me talk before about the new teacher conference I attended in Northern California when I was 22. At some point during that loaded weekend, someone handed me a sheaf of papers labeled “Harkness Discussions.” Inside, I found some example discussion charts, a summary of the model, and a dream. Harkness was originally developed at Philips Exeter Academy, where a philanthropist named Edward Harkness made a gift to the school that was channeled into creating and implementing a model of discussion centering student voices. It sounds pretty simple - students sit in a circle, ideally - but in practice rarely - around a large oval wooden table, and talk to each other in class. They face each other, look at each other, acknowledge each others’ ideas, rather than all facing toward the teacher leading the way. By the time I started flipping through my packet in 2004, more than seven decades after that initial gift, teachers had been experimenting with and improving the model for a long time. I read everything I could find online, then decided to roll out a one month experiment in every class. I was waaay into experiments at that point, and my students were used to seeing my metaphorical jazz hands as I rolled out poetry slams, performance projects, transcendental showcases, and whatever else I cooked up late at night and on the weekend while I was working all. the. time. So they were game enough when I explained what we’d be doing. I showed them a picture of a discussion chart and explained that a student observer would chart each discussion and give a compliment and a recommendation for improvement at the end of the discussion (not mentioning specific names). I explained that my role would be to help them prepare in advance for the discussion but not to moderate it during the actual conversation. I warned them about the vast potential for awkward silence, promised that they’d get through it, and also promised not to ruin everything by rescuing them. We talked about what could make a student-led discussion go well. And then we started. During that first month of Harkness, I watched four different classes go through four very different evolutions. F block skipped the floundering stage and went right to the “we’re awesome and we can rock this” stage. They had lots of kids who did the reading and wanted to talk, so after the initial observer comments that not everyone was talking (which is pretty much always the observer comment in every class in the first few Harkness discussions), things progressed quickly. With a little bit of help from me in chatting with observers before class, observations became more nuanced, and the class moved into the common next stages of Harkness, like helping students work on not interrupting each other, finding ways to subtly invite and support comments from students who were reluctant to speak, bringing more specific textual evidence into the conversation, making better transitions, and asking good questions. B block, on the other hand, floundered with the best of them. Maybe the trickiest transition into good Harkness that I ever saw over 25 different classes. Still, not to ruin the ending, but they got there by the end of the month. In D block I learned a lot about how to work with a slow-starting class. I integrated strategies like careful warm-ups to give students plenty to talk about, staring down at my notebook and writing “this is awkward” over and over again with careful focus during awkward pauses so that kids would know I wasn’t going to rescue them, and helping guide my observer in positively reinforcing the smallest improvements and giving a specific focused goal that was achievable for the next discussion. That first month built the foundation to continue for the rest of the year, though we stopped integrating the method every single day. Harkness became our go-to discussion method, more like once or twice a week, which is how I continued into the next years. But that sense of the method as a living experiment, an evolution that never ended, stayed with me. The next year I surveyed my students about their experience with Harkness, and here are some of their comments: “I think I’ve always been able to share my thoughts, but I’ve definitely changed as a listener. I’ve learned how to pay attention.” “I have changed. I seem to like to talk a lot more than I thought I would have. Harkness has allowed me to gain confidence in myself and what I believe is right.” “Harkness teaches hesitant speakers to be more confident with their ideas. Conversely, it shows talkative people the value of listening to their peers’ opinions.” “I have yet to feel like sleeping during a discussion.” “I’ve learned to think before I speak.” Over the years, I watched powerful transformations. Learned how to help silent students break in. Learned how to help dominators step back. Learned how to team up with my observers to chart dynamics relating to ever more complex factors in the room, like gender, friend groups, types of question, and topic transitions. I watched a brave young woman, our student body president, break down in tears after class as she realized for the first time that quieter peers she didn’t think had anything to say had rich contributions to make when space was made for them. I watched emerging bilingual students realize others cared about their opinion and were willing to make space to hear it. Awkward silence became funny instead of scary. Wide-ranging student-led discussion became the norm. And that’s where we’re going to leave it today. Next week we’re digging into specifics. Expect to see one episode in your feed Tuesday on setting up success and the role of the observer, and another on helping discussion dominators and silent students. I’ll be coming at it through the perspective of Harkness, because that’s the discussion country where I’ve got my citizenship, but you can apply similar ideas to Socratic Seminar or whatever spinoff of student-led discussion you prefer. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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335: 💬 5 Discussion Types that Can Work for You, Even if You've Almost Given Up (The Discussion Series Begins) 17:41

25 weeksที่แล้ว17:41

17:41

Discussion. Theoretically it’s the bread and butter of the English classroom, but sometimes it feels like all crusts and crumbs. How can you get students excited to talk about voice and theme, metaphor and symbolism, when they have a million other things going on? How do you inspire them to dive in together to the ways that literature illuminates life and life speaks back to the page, when they’re already nervous about speaking up in class and afraid they’ll look bad in front of their friends? If a good discussion feels like a distant dream to you on rough days, and a tantalizing almost-there vision on good days, the new discussion series is here to help. We’re starting today with five types of discussion that can work for you, and in the coming episodes, we’ll be going much deeper. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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334: The Writing Tip Every ELA Student Needs (that I Learned in Bulgaria) 4:08

25 weeksที่แล้ว4:08

4:08

The late afternoon sun filtered through the windows of our tiny English department office as I ran in to grab the papers I’d just printed. As I waited for them to finish, I examined the old books stacked on the shelf above the printer, brought to our school in Bulgaria by another ex-pat teacher many years ago, judging by the dust. One caught my eye - William Zinsser’s guide to writing nonfiction - On Writing Well. I snagged it with my papers and headed upstairs. Little did I know, I had just picked up my new favorite writing book, and the one that would give me my most consistent improvement for my own writing. It’s the switch that made me start this podcast with “The late afternoon sun filtered through the windows” instead of “It was late one afternoon.” Did you spot it? Welcome to the Thursday edition of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies. Today we’re talking about a simple but highly impactful piece of writing advice you can give to every student. I heard it first from William Z all those years ago, and now I want to share it with you. OK, here’s the simple rule. English students need to watch out for the verb “To be.” Sure, it’s useful. I just used it. But it’s actually too useful. It can quickly become the driver of any piece of writing with constant lines like: “He was bored,” “they were hungry, “she was late,” “we’re tired.” When we see writing like this, we might be tempted to launch into a fairly complex explanation of show don’t tell. But it’s even easier to give students a highlighter and ask them to find all the “to be” verbs in their piece. Have them highlight “was,” were,” and “are,” then pause to take in the fact that their whole piece is now bright yellow. Then show them how to flip the switch. Let’s take “he was bored” as our model. How can a kid write “he was bored” without the “to be” construction? How about this: “After six hours of waiting at the airport gate, Ben had finally mastered the art of sleeping standing up.” Or we can try “They were hungry,” switching in “Jen and Jenny felt sure they could eat a dozen of the salted caramel cream donuts immediately. Each.” As you can see, in general the switch away from “to be” leads to far more specific descriptive writing. It’s like a game, shifting writing from black and white to full color. Will there still be times when “to be” makes sense? For sure. You don’t want kids to change it every single time. But making them aware of the potential can make a huge impact on their writing. I know it has on mine over years of writing for you! If you’re looking for a way to help students remember this tip, try spending fifteen minutes on a poster project. Invite every student to create a poster featuring a boring “TO BE” sentence in black and white, with the “To be” verb construction in red. Then have them make a second poster for a new version of the sentence with more vivid description matched by more vivid, colorful imagery. Put the best ones up on your wall as a reminder of this tip, then refer back to your models when students are editing their writing. Such a simple rule, but it makes such a big impact. Remind your students that “to be” can BE boring, and you’ll help them level up their writing game across genres. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
333: How to Teach a Multigenre Essay Project 15:43

26 weeksที่แล้ว15:43

15:43

Want to teach a multigenre essay project? Good! Our students see story splashed across so many platforms these days. Video, audio, visuals, and words all mixed up together in a daily swirl. Understanding how to tell a story across mediums is a highly relevant skill for students, and one they can quickly see the relevance of every time they switch on their phones or pop in their airpods. Enter, the multigenre essay project - a chance for students to tell a story of their own through multimedia details that bring it to life. A multigenre essay project can work in your identity or memoir unit, or provide an alternative path for students who don't want to write a college essay because they've chosen another path. Today, let's break down how you might structure a project like this so the tech doesn't feel intimidating and student stories have a chance to shine. Mentor Texts Mentioned: Good Morning, my Wife in Heaven , by YingFei Liang and Shumin Wei Enryo , by Jessica Bukowski and Kristin Sato "I've been on a Mission for seventeen years. It's my holy grail." From Humans of New York. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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332: The Rec Letter Tweak that gave me my Octobers Back 4:18

26 weeksที่แล้ว4:18

4:18

Welcome to the Thursday edition of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You sit down to write a rec letter after a long fall day of teaching, meetings, coaching, and everything else on your plate. Maybe it’s 9 pm and you’re trying to remember all of Erica’s shining moments from the last three months. But they’re a bit jumbled together in your head with your grocery list, your toddler’s sleep training regimen, and your other 120 students. Your eyes start to droop. The latest episode of Bake-Off just dropped and you are soooo ready to fall asleep on the couch. So you decide to push the college rec to the next day. Ugh. It’s a terrible cycle that can start to feel like it’s dominating your life. And I’ve been there so many times. Today I want to tell you about the simple switch I pulled that made a big difference. I hope will help you too. Early in my career, writing rec letters began to feel like my second full-time job. I taught all juniors. I liked them and they liked me, and it seemed like every time I turned around another student was standing in front of me hopefully, eyes wide, waiting to ask me to write their rec. I found myself sitting in front of my computer at all hours staring at my blinking cursor. Combining dozens of rec letters with my role as varsity tennis coach in the fall soon left me sleepless and strained. I asked for a meeting with my talented colleague in college guidance to find out what was most important to include in my letter, hoping to streamline my process and make my work more effective for my students. As an English teacher who has probably told your students a million times that they need specific evidence to back up their points, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that the top tip I received was to load my college recs with specifics. Of course, college admissions folks want us to paint them a picture of our students with anecdotes, project descriptions, amazing moments in class when the student shone. And of course, you want to do your student justice by doing just that. But adding more specifics was hardly going to save me time. So I started asking every student who wanted me to write their rec to fill in a sheet FULL of specifics. I asked things like: What are you most proud of from my class? When did you feel like you had a breakthrough with your writing, and how did you show it? Can you share about a specific day in class where you really felt like you shone? What’s one project that you feel like showed your ELA skills in top form? I asked them to be as specific and detailed as possible, to help me be as specific and detailed as possible. And of course, I used their details to remind me of my own take on their work, using my own perspective ultimately to describe their success. But those sheets made all the difference as a shortcut to more effective, quicker recs. Did all of my student love doing this? No. Some of them complained a bit, but it was a non-negotiable. It helped me write them a better letter, and it helped make it possible for me to fit it in on top of all the other things I was doing in my job. I didn’t feel even slightly guilty about it, and I don’t want you to either. Grab your copy of the ELA Reflection Sheets Here: https://spark-creativity.ck.page/a8ec1e39d1 Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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331: Does Essay Writing Feel like Torture to your English Students? Try this. 15:34

27 weeksที่แล้ว15:34

15:34

It's no fun announcing an argument paper and being met by groans. If your English students have arrived at your class afraid of essays, you're not the only one. And we all know, buy-in matters. When students are confronted with a task they're horrified by, it's hard for them to access their skills and motivation to do their best work. So what are you supposed to do when you hit the groan skid? Today I want to talk about some on-ramps and side paths to the argument highway. Visual tools and modern mediums to help you help your students realize argument isn't so scary. By the way, an extremely step-by-step process with lots of modeling is a classic go-to for breaking down the essay writing process and making it feel manageable, and I don't want to ignore that. Brainstorming. Outlining. Drafting. Peer editing . Self editing stations . Final drafting. That's all wonderful. But probably you do that already, and you're still here. So let's explore some other approaches you can use to complement that oh-so-valid step-by-step process that just doesn't always work to help ELA students get past their paper-writing fears. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
330: Routines that aren’t Boring for Whole Class Novels 4:30

27 weeksที่แล้ว4:30

4:30

If you’ve ever felt like you were stuck in a rut doing the same thing day after day, I’ve got a quick mindset shift to help. I do NOT want you to give up on whole class novels, so let’s talk about how to make them work. In theory, whole class novels are the bread and butter of the English classroom. But if you struggle to get students to read at home and you’re finding the daily routine of covering a few pages every day a total slog, I hear you. You might have heard me talk about this with Amanda from Mud & Ink Teaching last year on the pod, and I really appreciated her ideas, which, combined with hearing from lots of teachers trying to figure out how to run a whole class novel unit successfully, have led me to think even more about this. So here’s my suggestion - create days of the week that are focused on different things, and give that whole class novel a break sometimes. Sounds pretty simple, right? Too simple? Hear me out. I’ve always been amazed at just how many things English teachers are supposed to cover, and going through every standard from 7th grade ELA to 12th grade ELA last year when I was creating planning materials for The Lighthouse just drove that point home. No doubt you’re trying to figure out how to advance your students’ work in vocabulary, writing forms, reading comprehension, public speaking, and listening. Plus, you’re a creative teacher who wants them to be engaged in real world work with an authentic audience. Making a shift away from covering each night’s reading the next day in class will help you move forward across your priorities, and give your students more time to read in between text-centered classes. Maybe on Mondays you spend fifteen minutes on choice reading and then you’re working on podcasts related to the essential question of your whole class novel. Tuesdays you’re doing a quick reading check-in activity and then a Harkness discussions on the chapters students have read across the previous few days on their own. Wednesdays might be focused on 15 minutes of choice reading and then writing practice, trying a variety of creative prompts around short stories, poems, audio clips, and articles related, again, to the themes of the whole class novel but read right there in class so you know everyone is on the same page. Thursdays might be a deep dive into the whole class novel with small groups or partners engaging in activities like close reading, reader’s theater, mini-debates, theme one-pagers, or whatever else you’re excited to do related to the novel. Then Friday could be for First Chapter Fridays, 15 minutes of choice reading, and some vocabulary work. This is just one imagined example of how you could structure a week with plenty of variety. The bottom line is, you don’t need to talk about your whole class novel every day to DO a whole class novel. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

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329: Turn Dusty Old Books into a Stunning Display 3:24

28 weeksที่แล้ว3:24

3:24

Do you have old books lying around taking up space in your classroom? Books no one is ever going to read again? Recently in our Facebook group, Creative High School English, a fun visual thread erupted all about bookish page displays. So in today’s one minute idea-isode, I want to suggest you try one. You’ll clear space on your shelves, help the earth with your reuse/recycle mentality, and end up with a stunning display. Here’s how… Start by pulling the pages out of some old books. It will feel weird, I know. Save a few for the next time you’re going to do a blackout poetry project, but stack up the rest and head to your bulletin board or wall. Ideally you’ll now work on a solid color, so paper the back of your bulletin board or choose an area of your wall with nothing on it. Next it’s time to staple or tape your pages up in the design of your choice. You might create a river of pages coming across your bulletin board, paper the bulletin board entirely in pages so it’s filled in entirely, or form the pages into a shape, like a tree, a bird, or a spiral. Last but not least, it’s time to overlay a bookish quotation on top. Choose from the dozens of wonderful ones out there from the last few centuries of authors. You can cut out letters to make a big and bold statement, or hand letter your quotation onto a big piece of paper you can overlay on the pages. OK, that’s a wrap on today’s episode. If you’d like more display ideas for your ELA classroom, head to the blog version linked below where you’ll see 10 fun visuals to inspire your next display. Visit the Full ELA Bulletin Board / Display Ideas Post: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2024/09/10-creative-ela-bulletin-boards-for-middle-and-high-school.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

1
328: The Short Unit that Never Fails 4:15

28 weeksที่แล้ว4:15

4:15

On this week’s mini-episode, I want to tell you about a one week unit that has never failed to produce incredible results from my students. I’ve done it with 10th graders and 11th graders, honors students and their counterparts, American students and Bulgarian students speaking English as their second language. And I’ve loved it every. Single. Time. Wow, it’s kind of fun setting up all this suspense, but as you know, Thursday episodes are quick, so we better hop to it. The one week unit I’ve loved every time is a poetry slam unit, and I think you should try it too. Let’s walk through the week. On Monday I introduce the concept of slam. I explain the arbitrary judging, the standing up with your poem and your guts and your dream, and I explain that we’re having one on Friday. I share some of my favorite performance pieces to help kids start thinking through what performance poetry is, and I invite them to score the poems on a 1-10 as if we were having our own slam already. Hilarious disagreements ensue, and everyone quickly realizes that judging is incredibly subjective. As we get ready to prep for our slam on the next three days, I let kids sign up to be on committees that will take care of the Slam venue, the slam judging and P.R., and the slam program and emceeing. On Tuesday, we roll into poetic devices and performance techniques, looking at, analyzing and scoring more performance poetry and beginning to workshop ideas for their own poems. We write “I am from” poems. We meet in committees. Everything seems incredibly important, because everyone knows they’ll be performing a poem in just three days. On Wednesday, we watch more poems, write more poems, and meet in committees again. At this point, most kids are zeroing in on a poem to perform in the slam. I check in with the venue committee to make sure they are formally requesting use of whatever school space they want to use on Friday and that they get approval. I check in with the program committee to make sure they are getting everyone’s titles, figuring out a fair order, and prepping an emcee who will do the event justice. I check in with the judging committee to make sure they’ve reached out respectfully to possible guest judges in the community and that they are getting some acceptances. On Thursday, everyone is writing madly and practicing intensely. They perform alone, perform for partners, ask me questions, and keep experimenting. We might watch a few more performances. We’ll definitely meet in committees again. On Friday, everyone arrives ready (and very nervous) for what is always one of the best days of the year. The venue committee has the ambiance dialed in, usually with refreshments, fun lighting, and a surprising location. The emcee steps up to the plate and keeps everything going. The guest judges lend an air of professionalism, and make everything feel higher stakes. The poets tend to surprise themselves. I love it every time! OK, that’s a wrap on today’s quick episode. I hope I’ve convinced you to try a poetry slam this year when you teach poetry. For me, it’s the mini-unit that never fails to engage kids around poetry in a way they didn’t expect. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast . Join our community, Creative High School English , on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!…