The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Education:How To
Last week I received this email from Shannon, a teacher with questions I think we can all relate to. Here's what she wrote...
"I am in my 8th year of teaching, and while I love aspects of it, I work 10-11 hours a day and am burning out. And, I feel that I'm on an island sometimes at my school—I have to re-teach skills that they should have been taught in earlier years, etc.
I have one foot out of the door of the teaching profession. I find myself awake at night trying to figure out how to do a good job teaching both reading and writing, and getting in all the skills.
How do you do whole class novel units? And teach all the skills? Say, I want to teach Gatsby, and focus on character contrast and figurative language. Is it ok to focus on just a few skills each unit? How do you make sure they get practiced sufficiently, while also making sure to have time for current events/reading informational text stuff? How long do you spend on a unit to make sure you can test them and build background prior? Do you have them write a lot of literary analysis essays?
How do we then factor in teaching all of the types of writing--expository, argument, narrative, while we have to teach all these reading skills?"
Today and next time on the podcast, I'm going to do my best to answer Shannon's questions, because I think they're ones we have all faced as teachers. How on earth are we supposed to cover all. the. things?! And teach them well?
Today we'll look at the big picture - how to plan the year to cover what you want to cover without getting overwhelmed. Next time we'll zoom in on planning a single whole class text unit, and how to make all the decisions that go with it.
Go Further:
Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.
Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook.
Come hang out on Instagram.
Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!
332: The Rec Letter Tweak that gave me my Octobers Back
331: Does Essay Writing Feel like Torture to your Students? Try this.
330: Routines that aren’t Boring for Whole Class Novels
329: Turn Dusty Old Books into a Stunning Display
328: The Short Unit that Never Fails
327: Dystopia Book Clubs: A How-To Guide
326: The Literary Travel Poster Project
325: 6 Creative Video Project Ideas for ELA
324: Try Tiny Audio this Fall
323: This I Believe (As My Life Changes)
322: A Super Simple Way to Learn Names
321: Jason Reynolds doesn't write Boring Books
320: A Simple Go-To for Better Discussions
319: Got Phone Problems? Help for a Distracted Generation, with Angela Watson
318: Try This with your Teacher Budget
317: Classroom Design with Real Impact (from the Archives)
316: Easy Ways to Connect with your Department
315: The Back-to-School Independent Reading Kickstart
314: How to Plan toward an Assessment
313: Don't Make My First Day of School Mistakes
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Navigating Life After 40
Gubba Homestead Podcast
Science of Reading: The Podcast
The Minimal Mom
Old Fashioned On Purpose