"Be Verbs Lesson Plan: How to Eliminate Dull Words from Your Writing" is typed on top of a page from a dictionary.

Be Verbs Lesson Plan: How to Reduce These Dull Words

If you’re ready to help your students take their writing to the next level, then look no further than this be verbs lesson plan! By learning how to reduce these humdrum verbs, students can make their writing more dynamic and engaging! Teach the Be Verbs To reduce be verbs in

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"Summer Reading Assignments: How to Make Them Fun and Engaging" is types in white on top of an image of three children.

Summer Reading Assignments: How to Make Them Fun and Engaging

Bid farewell to boring summer reading assignments! This post offers practical activities for making reading assignments fun and engaging for all students, even middle schoolers! Allow Students Choice Whether students are choosing a topic to write about or a book to read, you’ll notice that choice fosters buy-in, ownership, and

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"Blog Post #20: Great Summer Reading for Teens to Plunge into Today" is typed on top of a picture of young adult books.

Great Summer Reading Lists for Teens to Plunge into Today

It’s about time to hand out those summer reading lists for teens, and what better way to get them excited about this assignment than to introduce titles with book trailers? After all, kids do like their videos! Plus, if you’ve read the title, you can add your own book-talk commentary. 

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"Blot Post #19: 17 End-of-Year English Activities to Engage Your Classes" is typed on top of an image of a boy at a dry-erase board.

17 End-of-Year English Activities to Engage Your Classes

Your grades are in, your students are super excited, and you’re looking for some end-of-year English activities to keep them academically engaged for those last few days of school. I got you! I’ve been where you are, surfing the Internet, reviewing old lesson plans, remembering what worked and didn’t, and

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"Blog Post #18: The Best English Teacher Books for Teaching Grammar and Mechanics" is typed on top of a picture of books.

The Best English Teacher Books for Teaching Grammar and Mechanics

Teaching grammar can seem challenging, but reading English teacher books can make it easy and fun for you and your students! A district ELA specialist (my unofficial, self-assigned mentor) blessed me with this knowledge by assigning department coordinators, including me, dozens of books to read (usually one a month, but

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"Blog Post #17: Colorful Lessons on Apostrophes for Middle School Students" is typed on top of a book and coloring page.

Colorful Lessons on Apostrophes for Middle School Students

Imagine teaching lessons on apostrophes and scanning your classroom to see every student on task and engaged. I can’t promise this will happen when you’re covering the rules, but you will notice this when you gather students around you for a picture book reading, when students write sentences about family

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"Blog Post #15: The Best Persuasive Essay Graphic Organizers for Students" is typed on top of a persuasive word cloud.

The Best Persuasive Essay Graphic Organizers for Students

You have just found the best persuasive essay graphic organizers! These organizers guide students through everything from choosing a topic to considering stakeholders to organizing the essay, and that’s not all! Persuasive Essay Graphic Organizers for Finding a Topic   In Teaching Adolescent Writers, Kelly Gallagher states, “Choice generates a

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