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Nine collaborative learning strategies to increase student collaboration in your secondary ELA class. Pictured are young students hands layered on top of one another as if ready to engage in a "team break" chant.

9 Collaborative Learning Strategies that Will Promote Rich Conversations Between Your Secondary ELA Students

Looking for collaborative learning strategies to implement in your secondary ELA classroom? These 9 strategies will promote rich academic conversations, build community, and foster effective communication for your students. The importance of effective communication in secondary ELA classrooms How do you promote collaboration in the classroom? In today’s ever-evolving educational landscape, fostering effective communication in Secondary ELA classrooms has become more crucial than ever before. Collaborative learning strategies have emerged as a powerful tool to encourage student engagement, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. This blog post walks you through nine collaboration strategies that can significantly enhance communication skills in ELA classrooms, which empowers students to express their thoughts and ideas confidently.  By incorporating opportunities for collaborative discussions, teachers can create a dynamic learning environment that promotes active participation and encourages students to think critically and

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Carina Assayed November 7, 2023
A photo of a woman with brown skin and red-painted nails reading a book. There is a white border at the top of the image with pink and black text that says Reader's Theatre for Secondary ELA

Why I Love Reader’s Theatre in the ELA Classroom

Reader’s Theatre is a fun, low-stress way for students to learn about drama, practice public speaking, and embrace their creativity. What is Reader’s Theatre? Reader’s Theatre is the lowest-risk way you can bring drama into your ELA classroom. Students have the support of a script, but you encourage them to add vocal inflection and potentially some light blocking. You want to see some emergence of characterization and fluency. Reader’s Theatre, however, doesn’t have to be super-rehearsed. In my classroom, Reader’s Theatre replaces our in-class reading for that day. I try to choose scenes so that we have a mix of RT and reading/discussion days. If you want students to become super familiar with the script and have rehearsed blocking and even costumes, you’re in the realm of a Staged Reading. What does good Reader’s Theatre

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Danielle Hall October 25, 2022
Teach Public Speaking with small group presentations. Smaller audiences boost speaker confidence, keep audience members engaged and accountable, and improve usage of class time. Blog post.

Teach Public Speaking with Small Group Presentations in 3 Easy Steps

Teach Public Speaking with small group presentations to boost speaker confidence, keep the audience engaged, and improve usage of class time. Public Speaking is an important skill for middle schoolers and high schoolers to develop, and some of them embrace the opportunity. For others, though, public speaking can be so daunting as to actually cause fear and nausea. How can we help our students develop public speaking and listening skills while still being respectful of their feelings? Small group presentations. Rethinking my presentation model helped alleviate my students’ fears, increase audience engagement, and save valuable classroom time. How it Works Instead of having students present in front of the whole class, put them into presentation groups of 5-6. Make sure someone is still timing each speaker (1-2 minute presentations are a great starting point!), and

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Danielle Hall March 7, 2017