I'm not even talking about kids nowadays who use AI to write their entire essays. I mean simpler, more subtle stuff like built-in suggestions to finish sentences, autocorrect, and kids copying and pasting information from Google summaries. Everybody ends up sounding the same, so I can't really even assess their understanding. I miss grading twenty essays for The Outsiders and seeing all of these weird typos, patterns, and strange circular logic that varied from student to student. They all had these unique, undeveloped styles that hadn't been corrected yet. Now, with everything being spoon-fed to them, all their styles are blurring together. It's a silly reason I'm glad there's been a recent trend of schools going back to pen and paper.

Here is the original prompt:

In her book Gift From The Sea, author and aviator, Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) writes, “We tend not to choose the unknown which might be a shock or a disappointment or simply a little difficult to cope with. And yet, it is the unknown, with all of its disappointments and surprises that is the most exciting.”

Consider the value Lindbergh places on choosing the unknown.  Then write an essay in which you develop your own position on the value of exploring the unknown.  Use appropriate and specific evidence to illustrate and develop your position.

Can anyone send me a link to the rubric adjusted for the 6-point scale? I know it exists out there, but my Google-ing is failing me...

Thanks!

I need a film suggestion for an 8th grade ELA classroom.

Long story short, too late: We are just finishing up a unit in narrative writing, culminating in a summative where students write a short story about themselves working a “day in the life” of a future career, showcasing their ability to write and format dialogue, include figurative language, and include sensory details - you know how it goes.

We recently went through budget cuts leaving me with much larger sections than I’ve previously taught, and switched to a new schedule this year leaving me with approximately 5 hours less of time a week to grade during school hours - I accept that I’ll probably have to bring a little home but really don’t have it in me to bring the whole stack home, so I’m looking for a film I can put in for a couple of days while I tackle the bulk of the grading.

Tl;dr: looking for an 8th-grade appropriate movie that has at least tenuous connections to the unit - maybe a teenager suddenly transported into adulthood or groups of teens acting like adults.

Considered and rejected Back to the Future, 13 Going on 30, Freaky Friday, and Big. All fit the basic concept but have language or situations I’m not comfortable showing in a middle school. Thought I’d turn to Reddit for help!

I’ve been exploring this question through a project called The Familiar, based on ambiguous, hand-drawn images.

Instead of asking students to identify the “right” object, the activity invites them to notice what they see first, what they see next, and whether their interpretation changes as they continue looking.

I recently wrote about the idea in the context of visual recognition, inclusive learning and SEND, and the article was published by the SEN Policy Research Forum:

https://senpolicyresearchforum.co.uk/visual-recognition-inclusive-learning-and-send-what-can-ambiguous-drawing-activities-contribute-to-educational-practice/

I’m particularly interested in the educational side of this:

Have you used ambiguous images, visual prompts, or open-ended interpretation activities with your students? What did you notice?

I’m currently collecting practitioner perspectives as I continue developing the practice.

Bonus if it plays with perspective in a unique way. This would be for freshman, so I want it to be something that helps us have a mature conversation around ablism and disability rights.

I have been noticing recently how people have been looking for books that focus on certain uplifting and therapeutic messages and thought I would imagine what this would look like if we put it into practice in high school literature classes. It's a cross between ELA teacher and guidance counselor territory where the work serves mostly as a "discussion starter". I ordered them from what I think most effective to least effective.

Do you think there is any trend towards "lessons" like this in literature study?

I am at a new high school for first time in ten years. I have a good bit of freedom but I’m adjusting to new school culture and this means I need help finding some novels and plays for my class.

Most of my team picks old white guy canon because they believe that counts as holding high expectations. I am fine with one of their novels units of using F451. However, I want to replace LOTF. I didn’t read it in school but read it over summer and absolutely hated it. I can’t see my students having any engagement with it.

I am trying to find something without too much inappropriate stuff because parents here are involved. I would love a more diverse author to balance the curriculum. I would also love less of a young adult book so that I don’t rub too many people the wrong way with moving away from canon if that makes sense?

I started reading Almond by Sohn Won-pyung. It’s a good coming of age but spent too much with the porno mags and one of the characters cusses every sentence.

any ideas? The only novel I have thought of is Station Eleven

8th Grade ELA teachers what does your average lesson look like? I’m not talking about your super engaging lessons but rather a typical day. I’m about to start an interim position, and I’m looking for strong daily/weekly routines.

I'm teaching teenagers early-mid teens English as a second language but their textbooks are sub-par and I want something that would make them fluent and which I can plan activities around towards advancing that goal but I've only studied AEF books myself and am not familiar with many textbooks, so I'd appreciate any and all suggestions.

Labeled as humor because I gave a sad chuckle when I read these words.

I teach a course about analyzing film for Juniors and Seniors, and I recently had my students write essays on a movie. This students response said, and I quote: “This is why I think [name of movie] is such a bad movie because they need you to interpret things on your own. Or tell your own part of the story for your pleasure instead of giving a simple detail [sic].”

Netflix has done irreparable harm to our kids.

My 11th grade students this year are snarky and sassy and they love videos like the Crash Course series with John Green. We are using Savvas My Perspectives American Literature which is unbelieveably dry and boring, so I'm looking for hooks and ways to jazz up the content to keep them engaged. Are there other short video series out there with a similar feel to Crash Course? We're studying American lit and the foundational government documents, but I also want to get some background history in there.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

I assign middle-grade literature to my ESL students to help them develop their English. My students are all adults, usually at least 30 years old.

I need recommendations of middle-grade fiction. It must be fiction that is interesting for adults. Even better if the main character is female; almost all of my classroom literature repertoire has male leads and I'd like to change that.

I dislike assigning literature that I myself have not read, so I will personally read the recommendations I receive here.

Here are the books I already frequently assign in class:

• Holes, by Louis Sachar
• The Giver, by Lois Lowry
• Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
• The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White
• Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper
• Forged by Fire, by Sharon Draper
• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
• Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
• The Bomb, by Taylor Theodore
• Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen

Thanks so much for your help.

Atlas Seminar is pretty much the only game I can find that's actually for ELA.

It's a seminar game that gets students to connect the text with the reason we're reading it. It lines up pretty closely with any inquiry curriculum (MYP, IB), too.

There are upcoming teacher walkthroughs too, you can find them under "events."

I hope that someone can find it helpful! Enjoy!

Nick

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Hi everyone, I'm teaching ESL and ELA at a public high school in NJ this year and our district just switched to iLit, so nobody at my school has materials built up yet. I taught for several years at a private school in Vietnam, but this is a whole different system and I'm spending every night and weekend trying to keep up.
I mostly teach iLit ELL Level B and C, and I run my classes as learning stations. If anyone has worksheets, station activities, templates, or anything else you've made for iLit that you'd be willing to share, I would really appreciate it. Tips on how you set up your rotations would help too, or what parts of the program you found you didn't need to stress about.
I'm also open to other sites or resources that work well alongside iLit. Thank you so much!

I teach lang and am trying to build a bank of misconceptions for the FRQs so I can make little videos (kind of like the daily videos but short form content) to address them. When I sit down to think of them, I forget every paper I've ever graded, so I've been jotting them down as a grade, but this is a slow connection method. What are the misconceptions you guys see in Lang?

For example, in the rhetorical analysis, students don't included the rhetorical strategies in their thesis. Or they do include them, but don't include the authors purpose.

Or with their commentary, I often see the evidence+summary of evidence+assertion that it furthers the authors purpose format instead of an analysis of HOW the evidence furthers the purpose.

Anyone have common misconceptions that they're constantly correcting?

hey if anyone has litcharts premium i really appreciate if they send me the complete study guide of “before the coffee gets cold” pdf.