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6 Fresh Ideas for Analyzing Songs in Secondary ELA

Analyzing songs can help students practice vital ELA skills, and injecting some pop culture into your curriculum can be a great way to get students engaged and excited! If you’re familiar with my blog, you probably know that I LOVE using music in the ELA classroom. I think it’s such a powerful tool. Not just for learning ELA skills, but for building classroom community, and enacting student choice. I also have a new resource (2023) that has 15 lesson plans analyzing pop culture short texts, like songs, TV episodes, short films, and more! Check out the 15 Pop Culture Analysis Activities resource here. In addition to today’s post, you’ll love this free list of songs and how to use them in ELA: Analyzing songs can help students view the familiar through a critical lens It’s

Leila Hobbs November 29, 2022

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ELA Texts & Resources for Honoring Native American Heritage Month

Looking for text recommendations and engaging resources that you can use during Native American Heritage Month (and year round!), look no further! How many Native American/First Nation voices are present in your curriculum or your classroom library? If you aren’t sure, I have a free tool that allows you to see what’s missing, representation-wise, from your classroom library. Indigenous stories aren’t just underrepresented in schools, they are vastly underrepresented in publishing as well. According to data compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 1% of children’s books released in 2018 were written about Indigenous characters. That number deteriorated even further when we looked at how many books were written BY Indigenous authors. Even though there are hundreds of nations and tribal affiliations across Turtle Island – with a variety of diverse experiences, customs, and practices

Leila Hobbs November 9, 2022

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6 Tips for Teaching How to Write a Haiku

Fun and easy-to-implement tips and activities to help your your students understand, appreciate, and learn how to write a haiku. I’ve blogged a lot about teaching poetry in Secondary ELA, and today I’m focusing on a specific kind of poem – teaching haiku. Your students probably learned how to write a haiku in lower grades, but I think it’s worth revisiting in middle or high school ELA to help students gain a deeper appreciation. Activities and Ideas for Teaching Haiku Start with a brief history of haiku Evolving from earlier forms of Japanese poetry that featured the alternating 5-7 syllable pattern, the haiku format as we know it has been around for over 400 years! In traditional Japanese haiku, there is more to the art form than just the syllable structure, like the inclusion of

Leila Hobbs November 7, 2022

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4 Short Stories to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

From sci-fi to fantasy to historical fiction, this list of short stories has something to interest every reader during Hispanic Heritage Month! Happy Hispanic Heritage month, y’all! I LOVE using short stories to help make a curriculum more diverse! Why? Because I think their length makes short stories uniquely helpful for helping students gain insight into new perspectives. A student could read several short stories in the same time as one novel, and being exposed to those different authors and different POVs helps emphasize the diversity within a culture or nationality. (If you are familiar with the amazing TED Talk “The Danger of A Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie you’ll know exactly the point I am making.) There isn’t one singular Latinx story or one universal Hispanic perspective, but many. But of course, there

Leila Hobbs September 20, 2022

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Teaching Classic Literature in Secondary ELA

Teaching classic literature doesn’t have to be boring! These tips, lesson plans, and low-prep resources will help engage every student. Does your required reading have even *you* yawning? Chances are your students are getting bored too. I’m here to help! Should classic literature still be taught? With only a few exceptions, my answer is yes! Or more accurately, “yes, and…” I absolutely believe classic literature still has a place in the Secondary ELA classroom, and I think we can make it even more impactful to our students by pairing it with other, modern texts. Many teachers are working to diversify their curriculum to include more voices, and it’s been a big focus for me this year. I’ve been working with Dr. Sheila Frye (from Teaching Literacy) on a project called “Rethinking the Classics” to help

Leila Hobbs September 13, 2022

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Easy Prompts to Improve Writing Skills in 5 Minutes

Yes, you can improve writing skills in five minutes! I’ll share some tips and a FREE resource to get you started. How these prompts improve writing skills These journal prompts have students respond to a wide variety of topics and build confidence, endurance, creativity, and enthusiasm for daily writing. Designed to be completed in five minutes or less, these journal prompts are perfect for middle school bell ringers or exit tickets. Want to enjoy a week’s worth of these prompts for ✨FREE✨? You can access the downloadable freebie in the product preview section of the resource! The full resource includes: These low-stakes, short journal writing prompts will boost struggling writers’ stamina and confidence. Each prompt asks about personal experiences, meaning there’s no “right or wrong” answer. Middle school writing prompts with pictures Including writing prompts

Leila Hobbs August 17, 2022

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Teaching with Music – My 4 Favorite Broadway Songs for ELA

Teaching with music is a great tool for engaging students, and the Broadway canon has so much great material to choose from. Here are my 4 favorites for ELA. I think that by providing our students with a wider variety of texts we can engage every student in the classroom, and music is a big part of my teaching toolbox. Check out my posts 15 Songs and 15 More Songs for even more ideas. Today I want to talk about one specific genre of music: Broadway showtunes. With the popularity of recent musicals like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and tick, tick, BOOM, musical theatre is growing in relevance to teens and tweens. Let’s use that interest to help them engage with their Secondary ELA lessons 🙂 Teaching with Music – Broadway songs “My Shot” from

Leila Hobbs August 2, 2022

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7 Contemporary Poems by Black Authors for Secondary ELA

These contemporary poems by Black authors will help diversify your poetry unit, help students process current events, and even help engage reluctant poetry readers. Listen y’all, I’m not hating on the classics! Groundbreaking and hugely influential Black poets like Gwendolyn Brooks, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, etc. all deserve a place in the ELA curriculum. However, it’s not enough for us to only teach the classics, especially when it comes to poetry. It’s easy for students to feel like poetry is “boring” or irrelevant, so today, I’m sharing seven contemporary poems by Black authors to help your students connect with the voices and experiences of their peers, not their grandparents. Contemporary Poems by Black Authors: “In This Place (An American Lyric)” by Amanda Gorman “There’s a place where this poem dwells— it is

Leila Hobbs July 12, 2022

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9 Tips to Encourage Independent Reading with Simplified & Successful Book Conferences

I love independent reading (or student-selected reading), and I love talking about books! It only makes good sense to me, then, to allow my students to show their growth in independent reading through book conferences. Book conferences are an informal conversation between the teacher and student to show completion of and reflection on a novel. Whether you are trying out reading conferences for the first time, or you are looking for ways to make them more effective, I can help! What makes a good reading conference? Obviously, the main goal of a reading conference is to assess the students’ comprehension of their book choice, but I think a successful reading conference should also strengthen your relationship with the student. In order to make effective book recommendations to them in the future, it might help to

Leila Hobbs June 28, 2022

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8 Captivating Novels in Verse for Secondary ELA Students

Whether you’re hosting a lit circle or adding to your classroom library, these novels in verse will be a big hit with your secondary ELA students. I love incorporating verse novels into the classroom! The fact that they have compelling stories, and easy-to-connect with characters makes verse novels an ideal choice for reluctant poetry readers. Students that aren’t typically interested in poetry, but who are interested in the story, can grow to appreciate the writing style. Keeping a few verse novels in your classroom library is also a great way to let students explore poetry in a “no pressure” setting. In this post, I’ll share some novels in verse for middle and high school ELA, plus some extension/enrichment activities that you can use to accompany the books. If you want to pick up any of

Leila Hobbs June 7, 2022

Best Short Stories to Teach American Lit - A photo of a library shelf filled with books, at the top of the image there is a white border with pink text that reads "New Short Stories for American Lit"

5 Best Short Stories to Teach American Lit

Change it up with these 5 NEW best short stories to teach American Lit in middle & high school ELA. Best of all? These 5 stories are all available online for FREE! Today I’m sharing five new short stories for middle and high school ELA, and more specifically, new short stories for teaching American Lit. You might notice that four out of five of these stories are written by women, and four out of five stories are also written by people of color. That’s not a coincidence. Too often, American Lit curriculums are populated by DWG’s (dead White guys), with only token representation of other communities. There is a time and place for the classics, to be sure, but many students will be more engaged by texts that are relevant and relatable to them. I

Leila Hobbs May 24, 2022

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Teaching ELA Concepts with Short Stories

Need inspiration? This post has all of my tips and tricks for teaching ELA concepts like characterization, setting, symbolism, and much more! Over the past year, I’ve been working on a series of posts dedicated to teaching ELA concepts with short stories. Since the first post is from January 2021, I decided to assemble all nine of them in one convenient place, for easy reading and bookmarking 🙂 If you’re looking for a standards-aligned resource that uses diverse short stories to teach some of the most essential figurative language elements, check out this resource bundle we released in 2024! Teaching ELA Concepts with Short Stories Teaching Symbolism with Short Stories This post also contains a FREE resource for teaching symbolism that your students will love 🙂 Teaching Setting with Short Stories From a futuristic hospital

Leila Hobbs April 19, 2022

6 Song-Inspired Black History Month Activities in ELA

Music is a great way to connect with students! These Black History Month activities explore history, social justice, cultural lenses, & more. Music in the classroom is not only highly engaging for students. It’s also great for helping students connect emotionally with people and cultures that have different perspectives from them. These lyrics alone provide lessons on countless poetic devices and ELA concepts, but I have paired an extension activity with each song to help students dig deeper. Songs to teach for Black History Month “For Women” by Talib Kweli “She tried to get it where she fit in, On that American Dream mission paid tuition, For the receipt to find out her history was missing and started flippin’, Seeing the world through very different eyes.” In this song, Kweli pulls inspiration from “Four Women”

Leila Hobbs February 8, 2022

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Teaching Conflict in Literature with Short Stories

Looking for tips & text recommendations for teaching conflict in literature? This post has stories & extension activities to engage students! In a continuation of my series on teaching literary elements, today I’m sharing ideas for teaching conflict in literature. While conflict is sometimes easy to identify, it can be harder for students to determine *how* an author creates and heightens conflict using setting, characterization, and tone. I find that using a variety of shorter examples, rather than teaching, say, a novel or a play, helps students to stay engaged. So with no further ado, here are 5 short texts you can use for teaching conflict. Short Stories for Teaching Conflict in Literature “Say Yes” by Tobias Wolff (MS/HS) In this short story, the Person vs. Person conflict happens between a husband and wife. While washing

Leila Hobbs January 25, 2022

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Teaching Suspense & Pacing with Short Stories

These 5 short texts for teaching suspense and pacing will help make your lessons on literary elements less daunting and more memorable! While they’re both fundamental elements of storytelling, students will often struggle with identifying elements of suspense, or examples of pacing in a specific work. As you may have noticed, I love using short stories and other short texts when teaching literary elements! I find that using shorter texts can make a new concept easier to digest for students, and they’re also perfect for reviewing multiple elements in a short amount of time. Note: A big difference in teaching suspense in middle school as opposed to high school is how graphic or frightening your content can be. This post features example texts for teaching suspense that aren’t overly scary. You can find many more

Leila Hobbs October 19, 2021

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Teaching Metaphors with Short Texts

Teaching metaphors with short texts is a great way to make your literary lessons more approachable & engaging. Here are five of my favorites! Teaching metaphor is like, um, hm, if only there was some way to describe it 😉 Even if your students can’t tell an allusion from a simile, I’m here to help with this blog series on teaching literary elements. This week, my focus is teaching metaphors with short texts. I’ll be shouting out some great texts and giving teaching tips to go along with them. What are you waiting for? Let’s dive right into it! How to teach similes and metaphors As English teachers, we often approach teaching metaphor as a contrast to simile – “a comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’.” I like to expand this approach to focus on simile

Leila Hobbs September 28, 2021

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10 YA & MG Books with Trans Characters You’ll Want in Your Classroom Library

Looking for more books with trans characters to add to your classroom library? I have recommendations for middle & high school in this post. YA & MG Books with Trans Characters Including books by Trans authors (and featuring Trans characters) in your classroom library is a great way to make your classroom a safe space for LGBTQ+ students. I have previously shared my tips on making your classroom a safe space for LGBTQ+ students. One EASY action item for both middle and high school is to include novels by Trans authors and books with Trans characters in your classroom library. And YES, you can do this at a middle school level, too. Here are my top ten books by Trans authors (or strongly centering a Trans character) for middle and high school. If you decided

Leila Hobbs August 24, 2021

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Teaching Figurative Language with 3 Intriguing Short Stories

Looking for new, free texts for teaching figurative language? This post has short stories, and other short texts your students will love! Today I have figurative language on my mind: specifically simile, hyperbole, and personification. We don’t have to wait until we’re teaching poetry to share these fabulous poetic devices! Here are some non-poetry texts to use for teaching figurative language. PSST…if you’re looking for short texts to help students strengthen their analysis skills, our 15 Pop Culture Analysis Activities resource has got you covered! You get detailed lesson plans aligned with each of the 15 different short texts (i.e. songs, short films, and more!). Short Stories for Teaching Figurative Language “The Girl with the Blue Lantern” by Tess Sharpe This short story follows a poor girl, responsible for keeping her family fed, as she

Leila Hobbs August 17, 2021

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12 YA + MG Books for Reluctant Readers

Looking for YA & MG books that will grab (and keep) a students attention? In this post I share 12 of my favorite books for reluctant readers. Raise your hand if you have a student that “hates reading” or says “books are boring.” Although it’s hard to comprehend for a bookworm like me, it’s a common sentiment. The good news is that for many kids, they just haven’t found a book that captivates them, has characters that make them feel seen, or is on a subject they’re interested in. I think it’s vital that we meet these students where they are. Don’t make negative comments about their disinterest or make them feel like they need “fixing.” Some kids, no matter how many books you put in front of them, will never love reading, and that’s

Leila Hobbs July 13, 2021

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Short Texts by LGBTQ+ Authors for Secondary ELA

Make your classroom more inclusive all year long by using these short texts by LGBTQ+ authors for Secondary ELA. These LGBTQ short stories and texts can be used to teach a variety of skills and concepts in your middle or high school class to enrich your young readers. Are you having a hard time increasing the representation in your Secondary ELA curriculum? You do not have to wait until October (LGBTQ+ History Month) or June (Pride month) to have a good reason to represent LGBTQ+ voices. Here are short story collections by LGBTQ+ authors that you can use year-round and connect to topics and skills you’re already teaching. Short Texts by LGBTQ+ Authors for Secondary ELA “At Seventeen” (song) Janis Ian This song gives students a great chance to analyze the author’s purpose and meaning.

Leila Hobbs June 23, 2021

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Teaching with Short Films in Middle & High School ELA

Teaching with short films in ELA is a great way to strengthen reading skills and increase students’ literary analysis. Why use short films with students? Much in the same way that short stories can help reach reluctant readers, short films are excellent for demonstrating literary elements in ways that are approachable, memorable, and engaging. They’re also a fantastic choice for ELLs since many of them have little to no dialogue, and therefore rely on more universal means of communicating their message. I’ll share some specific tips for the short films I’m shouting out, but here are some activities you can use with any short film: Practice writing summaries. Since short films are just that (short), they’re easy to summarize in a paragraph. You can make it more fun and challenging by asking students to write

Leila Hobbs May 25, 2021

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Choosing Digital Escape Rooms for Secondary ELA

Looking to try digital escape rooms for Secondary ELA students? This post will help find a game that meets your needs. Choosing Digital Escape Rooms for ELA You may have played a digital escape room with your students at this point, but have you tried a series yet? Digital Escape Room series are a great way to increase your students’ endurance for reading, strengthen their reading skills, and keep them coming back for more! (In this post, I’ll be focusing on my two ELA game series, Terminus & Burnbridge Breakouts. If you’re looking for a “one-off” game that focuses on a specific text or topic, I also have digital escape rooms for The Odyssey, Romeo & Juliet, Lord of the Flies, The Harlem Renaissance, The Roaring 20s, and a Poetry Escape Room.) Terminus

Leila Hobbs May 18, 2021

YA Books with Strong Female Leads

Whether you’re looking for books to celebrate Women’s History Month or just amazing titles to add to your classroom library, here are some YA books with strong female leads you can use in your secondary ELA classroom. YA books with strong female leads: Dread Nation (YA Fantasy) Dread Nation is set in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. The twist? The Civil War ended not after a treaty, but after the dead began to rise. To combat the undead –known as “shamblers”– many Black and Indigenous children are forced into a life of conscripted service. Our heroine Jane McKeene is attending Miss Preston’s School of Combat. It’s not the life she desires, but it offers her more opportunities than many of her fellow Black Americans. Dread Nation is a classic monster-tale in that

Leila Hobbs March 9, 2021

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Want a contemporary novel for your curriculum? Need classroom library suggestions? Check out Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo If you love YA books, you’re probably familiar with Elizabeth Acevedo’s work. Her debut novel The Poet X was a breathtakingly beautiful novel-in-verse, and a breakout success. We featured her follow up novel, With the Fire on High, on the YA Cafe Podcast. WtFoH was an unexpected novel-in-prose, but equally wonderful. With Clap When You Land, Acevedo returns to her poetry roots and gives us another novel-in-verse. If you’re looking to add more Latinx voices to your classroom library, any of Acevedo’s books are a great choice. I also have a blog post featuring my favorite YA books by Latinx authors. Today’s post is written by the amazing

Leila Hobbs February 17, 2021

YA/Middle Grade Books by Arab & Muslim Authors

Are you looking to create a more inclusive classroom library? Are you asking yourself, “What should I read next?” We have many lists of inclusive recommendations and today, we’ll focus on books by Arab and Muslim authors. Before I dive into the book recommendations, I wanted to talk about a few terms that sometimes get used interchangeably: Arab, Muslim, Islamic, Middle-Eastern. The most important takeaway here is that no single book will reflect every experience of one of these groups, so please include as many voices as you can. Arab/Arabic: To put it simply, not all Muslims are Arab, and not all Arabs are Muslim. “Arab is an ethno-linguistic category, identifying people who speak the Arabic language as their mother tongue (or, with immigrants, whose parents or grandparents spoke Arabic as their native language)”, (from

Leila Hobbs July 10, 2020

15 Mondays Not Coming Tiffany D Jackson cover

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson is a heartbreaking snapshot of children who fall through the cracks. Our Bookstagrammer friends Anna & Courtney return to the show to talk about friendship, family, and gentrification. (Transcript) In today’s episode… In Tiffany D Jackson’s newest novel, Monday’s Not Coming, Claudia is the only one who seems to care that her best friend Monday hasn’t shown up for school. She tries talking to her parents, her teachers, the cops, and even Monday’s own dysfunctional family. Can Claudia help solve the mystery of her best friend’s disappearance? These Show Notes use Amazon Affiliate Links for your convenience. If you decide to purchase this book, please consider doing so through our affiliate links. Your support makes this podcast possible. Episode highlights…

Leila Hobbs May 31, 2018

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