Creative English Teacher — Teaching Ideas

Book Review: Build Reading Fluency: Practice and Performance with Reader's Theater and More

July 30, 2024 • Book Review • Elementary • Readers Theater Script-Stories • Teaching Ideas

One of the most effective ways to improve students’ reading ability is through repeated readings of the same text. But what reader would want to re-read a passage over and over again? Enter Reader’s Theater. In this post, I will review Build Reading Fluency by Drs. Tim Rasinski and Chase Young.

Gamifying Literature: An Introduction

July 26, 2024 • Gamification • Teaching Ideas

I’ve often wondered, is there a way to take kids’ natural love of games and channel it into a love of literature? That is what I’m going to explore over a series of blog posts: What are some ways to gamify literature?

Classroom Management: Fifteen Ways to Correct Student Misbehavior without Writing an Office Referral

May 20, 2024 • Teacher Life • Teaching Ideas

Minor misbehaviors can be easily corrected by classroom management. You can create the best lesson in the world, but students need to be on-task before that lesson can engage them. Expecting anything less than 100% engagement is a disservice to your students.

End-of-Course Surveys: Using Feedback to Improve Instruction

May 08, 2024 • Teacher Life • Teaching Ideas

Someone once said that “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions,” and I fully agree. (Don't tell Wheaties!) That’s why I end every school year with end-of-course surveys, where students can give me detailed feedback. Here are some tips for doing so.

Five Reasons to Teach Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

March 20, 2024 • British Literature • Five Reasons To Teach Series • Teaching Ideas

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is a classic of British Literature, and in spite of its many sub-par adaptations (I’m looking at you, Jack Black), it remains a timeless tale full of lessons for modern readers. So here are five reasons to teach Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Satire is a tricky art form, and its undisputed master is Jonathan Swift. I mean, he even has an adjective named for him: “swiftian” meaning "darkly humorous." Gulliver’s Travels, written in 1726, lampoons everything from religious infighting to political parties to the monarchy itself. Swift was an ordained Irish priest who did not...