An image of a teal wall with white rectangles hanging from the wall. In the center of the image there is a white rectangle with blue and black text that says "Designing a museum exhibit in secondary ELA"

Creating a Museum Exhibit in Your ELA Classroom

Creating a museum exhibit in your middle or high school ELA classroom is easy and fun with these step-by-step tips and ideas. Let’s talk about how to turn a classroom into a museum! Creating a museum exhibit is a great way to provide student choice in any subject area, and Secondary ELA is no exception. A classroom museum project can hit so many standards, all while transforming your classroom for the day. What does a great classroom museum project accomplish? Any museum project asks students to zoom in on a person, object, or event and showcase it in a way that’s interesting to a passerby. This means that students are researching and curating information. Since they can’t say everything in their museum exhibit, they’ll be selecting the main idea and choosing important supporting details. Sounds

Danielle Hall August 23, 2022

9 Summer Bucket List Ideas for ELA Teachers

It’s summertime, and that (hopefully!) means rest and relaxation! Here are nine things for every English teacher’s summer bucket list. These suggestions include some super fun and super enriching activities. Summer Bucket List for Teachers – 9 Ideas What are your summer goals? For me and my wife, Amanda, our summer is all booked up spending time with the newest addition to our family. Maybe you, too, have your summer all planned out. But if you’re stuck in a rut, or having analysis paralysis, here are 9 ideas to get you started 🙂 Grow your teaching toolbox Read a book for professional development. And no, it need not focus on reading strategies or teaching writing! For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood by Christopher Emdin is a critical look at how we relate to our

Danielle Hall July 5, 2022

A photo of a blue door with a rusty, antique lock. There is a white border at the top with pink text "Escape Rooms for Secondary ELA"

Over 20 Escape Rooms for ELA and Beyond!

Whether you’re a pro at escape rooms or a total newbie, this post will help you find a game that your students will love! I’ve blogged before about using escape rooms in ELA, and I’m here to tell you I still believe in the power of these sorts of games. Whether you’re using digital or paper escape rooms, students have the chance to practice collaboration and critical thinking. Since I’ve been creating escape rooms for five years now, I wanted to make a “home base” where you could find out about them. This post is a round-up of the work I’ve done. Burnbridge and Terminus If you’ve been following me for a while, you’re probably familiar with my two original escape room series, Burnbridge Breakouts and Terminus. Burnbridge came first. My time spent teaching in

Danielle Hall January 11, 2022

The background is a photo of a girl sitting a writing with a pen. Overlaid is a cream colored stripe with the text "Peer Feedback Activities for Secondary ELA"

Teaching Peer Feedback in ELA

These activities for teaching peer feedback in ELA will help students learn to give (and receive) constructive criticism. Teaching Peer Feedback in ELA Do you include opportunities for peer feedback in your classroom? If you haven’t done it before or you want to amp up your process, this is your year! Peer feedback is the perfect tool for fostering collaboration and critical thinking in Secondary ELA. I read The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez this summer, and I see so many possibilities for improving the way we have students present their work and receive feedback. I’ll be sharing these throughout the year, but I wanted to start today with talking about peer feedback. One of the biggest “ah-ha” moments for me in reading this book was that feedback should be an active process

Danielle Hall August 4, 2021

Digital Escape Rooms for ELA

Have you tried any digital escape rooms for ELA? Whether you’re doing virtual, in-person, or hybrid learning, I have a game for you. Digital Escape Rooms for ELA: Do you LOVE Escape Rooms, but feel like they’re out of reach now? Whether we’re in distance learning, a hybrid classroom, or trying to maintain social distancing in a physical classroom, we can still bring the critical thinking and excitement of an escape room to our lessons. The answer? Digital Escape Rooms for ELA. Since March, I’ve been working on creating digital versions of my most popular games. Each digital escape room has the same tasks and content as the original paper games, and now has much more flexibility for you, the teacher. Game List: Introduction to Shakespeare Digital Breakout Introduction to The Odyssey

Danielle Hall January 5, 2021

Engaging Reluctant Readers with a Digital Adventure Game

We know that our reluctant readers have a skills deficit that grows over time. Whereas a student may be just one grade level behind in elementary school, that gap can grow if we don’t address the problem. By high school, a student who can’t read at grade level faces significant difficulties across content areas. Moreover, it becomes challenging to find age-appropriate texts to support that student’s progress. But, fear not! We’re going to work together to improve student reading! Let’s give the issue a human face. Malcolm is a smart and charismatic 8th grader. He’s the class diplomat; whenever the class wants something from you, they delegate Malcolm to come forward and persuade you. It’s Malcolm who sees through all of your gimmicks – you thought you could bribe them with candy? Hah! It’ll take

Danielle Hall August 1, 2019

A girls hand writing in a journal with the overlaid text "TED Talks to inspire Young Writers"

TED Talks for Young Writers

Have you ever used videos to inspire your students to write? Here are some TED talks for young writers you’ll be able to use at different moments in your curriculum. As I‘ve mentioned before on this blog, I love the Writer‘s Workshop model! Each day includes a focusing mini-lesson, time to write and ponder, and time to share or conference. Videos can be an excellent opportunity for students to choose a concept they’ll focus on in their writing that day. TED Talks for Young Writers Nnedi Okorafor – Sci-fi stories that imagine a future Africa (9:21) Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor didn’t grow up reading science fiction. As a child, she says, it didn’t appeal to her. She wasn’t able to ‘see’ herself in the characters. But now, by writing Afro-futuristic science fiction, she

Danielle Hall June 6, 2019

I finally nailed teaching symbolism to my students! Using candy was both efficient and engaging, and they kept referencing this lesson for the rest of the year. This strong foundation really helped their literary analysis skills. TeachNouvelle.com

Teaching Symbolism with Candy

I have been reflecting on my favorite lessons from the school year, and one of the most fun and effective was teaching symbolism with Tootsie Roll Pops! Not only were the students enthusiastic about eating the candy (because aren’t they always?), they really grasped the concept of analyzing a symbol. We were nearing Halloween and deep in our Short Stories unit, and I planned for my 9th graders to read “Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe. They had already told me in their journals that they didn’t “get” symbolism. I wanted to help them learn to take apart symbols and analyze them based on concrete details before adding in the abstract traits and drawing a conclusion. Basically, I wanted to help them break down symbols and realize that there was a lot

Danielle Hall July 5, 2016

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