It's Lit Teaching

Rigorous Resources for Struggling Students

Complete Guides, Teaching Strategies

Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: What You Need to Know

Have you been told that you need to start using a claim, evidence, and reasoning (or C-E-R) framework for writing in your classroom? Maybe you need to closely adhere to the Common Core State Standards but aren’t quite sure where to begin. If you’re like me, you may have been told by administration-on-high that the whole school would be using C-E-R language in their classes to build consistency and teacher equity for students. Regardless, here you are wondering, what the heck is claim, evidence, and reasoning anyway? In this post, I aim to break it down for you.

Teaching Strategies

How to Teach When Students are Years Behind

The curriculum decrees an essay must be written, but your students can barely write a sentence. How can you teach when your students are years behind?

Experiences in the Classroom, Teaching Strategies

How to Design a Novel Unit that Doesn’t Bore your Students to Death: A Guest Blog Post From Yaddy’s Room

You have a boring novel unit, now what? Connect a movie to it! Luckily for you, I’m going to save you the blood sweat, and hangovers, and give you my process. I know. I’m awesome.

Teaching Strategies

Is Dear Martin the Right Novel for Your Class?

When I read Dear Martin by Nic Stone, I knew it would be a fantastic whole class novel. In this post, I will help you determine if it’s right for your class, point out the perks of teaching it, and also hopefully help steer you away from some pitfalls.

Life Tips for Teachers

5 End-of-the-School-Year Tips to Make Back-to-School Teaching Easier

Do you want to walk into a disorganized mess in September when you’re stressing about new students and new units? Or do you want to walk into a beautiful space, perfectly organized for educational success? This blog post is going to cover a few end-of-the-school-year tips for closing out your classroom to make coming back to school easier.

Life Tips for Teachers, Teachers Pay Teachers Tips

Do It Scared and Start Selling on Teachers Pay Teachers: A Book Review for Teacherpreneurs

This book review is for teachers who want to become teacherpreneurs but just can’t get started. If that’s you, then go get Do It Scared by Ruth Soukup NOW.

Teaching Strategies

Why I Love Teaching Young Adult Literature

I started my journey to add young adult literature to my classroom when I finally ran out of patience for our outdated African American unit. The updates went so well, I’ve begun branching out into my other classes and units. I have found that young adult literature is especially great for engaging my at-risk students.

Better yet though, it’s engaging for me. When I’m teaching more contemporary novels, I’m more thoughtful and engaged in my teaching.

Life Tips for Teachers

Help! My School Won’t Let Me Teach The Hate U Give!

Lately, I’ve been receiving e-mails and TPT questions like this: I really want to teach The Hate U Give. I know my students would love it. I know they NEED it! But I’m getting pushback from my principal/school/district. What do I do if my school won’t let me teach The Hate U Give?

Experiences in the Classroom

Why You Should Teach A Creative Writing Class

My Creative Writing class has become my favorite class of the day–something that completely shocks me. Here is why you, too, should consider overcoming any fears or hesitance, and jump right in to teaching a creative writing class of your very own.

Teaching Strategies

Increase Student Engagement with Authentic Assessments

I know I am not alone in the engagement challenge. In a world where my students can stream fist fights or stand-up comedians, how do we get them to care about what’s going on in our little classrooms?