The Joys of Teaching Literature

161 Episodes

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#161: How to Use Freud and Psychoanalysis to Teach Literature

2025-02-0151:15

Let's talk about the moving parts of the psyche and how students can use Freud to make a better interpretation of a character's behavior.

#160: A Spatial Approach to Literary Analysis

2024-12-1420:25

Give your students six options to create graphic organizers and track the patterns, topics, and motifs of a poem, short story, novel, or play. Posters are a great way to get students out of their seats by collaborating, presenting, organizing their ideas and quotes.

#159: How to Teach Shakespeare

2024-11-2538:57

Learn five techniques that will help you teach The Bard.

#158: Reading Blocks in Secondary ELA

2024-10-2833:232

Reading blocks held during class time may help students read challenging novels.

#157: Kids, Phones, and Class Participation

2024-10-0525:27

Let's think about how to get kids off their phone and tuned into the conversation.

#156: The Best Contemporary Novels to Teach in High School

2024-10-0514:47

Here is my list of 9 contemporary novels to teach in high school.

#155: 3 Types of Interviews and Conversations in ELA

2024-07-3013:28

Students can present their thoughts in front of the entire class or they can record an interview by using their phone or computer. Here are three types of interviews and conversations that students can record.

#154: Meaning-Making in ELA: 3 Ways to Get Students Invested

2024-07-3021:30

If we want students to read and do the work, they need to constantly be in the process of meaning-making. Here are three ways I try to make things meaningful for my students.

#153: Teaching the Podcast Serial, Season 1, Episode 1

2024-06-1327:08

Your students will love studying Serial, Season 1 with Sarah Koenig because it's real and relevant.

#152: How to Teach or Assign a Podcast

2024-05-0724:31

Give your students options when assigning a podcast. I'll review some techniques that will make creating a podcast easy.

#151: Close Reading Passages in Novels

2024-05-0121:11

There are a lot of things to consider when asking students to close read a passage in a novel. Learn some fun activities I do to make it manageable.

#150: 6 Engaging Activities to Analyze a Novel in ELA

2024-02-2943:06

Here are six activities to keep on your desk to mix things up when interpreting a novel with your students.

#149: Preventing the Use of AI in ELA

2024-02-1326:24

There are all kinds of things English teachers can do to prevent the use of AI, but the most important is to provide verbal feedback while they write.

#148: Media and Genre-Based Units

2024-01-2446:14

Instead of unit and thematic-based units with essential questions, you could try media and genre-based units where students study and then create podcasts, poetry, video essays, short fiction, and personal essays.

#147: Creating Relevance in a Modern Classroom

2024-01-1223:27

I used two modern short stories to open up conversations about violence, technology, gossip, and surveillance. Students posted links to make connections to two different short stories.

#146: 5 Fun Ways Students Find Quotes

2023-12-2227:32

Preparing to write an essay means finding as many quotes as possible to help answer a question, but it can be a fun activity with these five activities.

#145: Meaningful Project-Based Learning for High School English

2023-12-1325:38

Bring a new energy to your class with a year-long project that will inspire all of your students and get every hand up in the air. Students deserve a chance to express their thoughts about the world without the pressure of academic analysis. My new online course just opened and you can find it at Teacher's Workshop.

#144: 5 Ways to Handle the ELA Workload

2023-12-0131:27

ELA teachers have a ton of work including grading essays, class notes, reading notes, and quizzes, not to mention lesson planning, emails, and meetings. Let's think about how to handle it all.

#143: Character Study: A Whole Novel Activity

2023-11-2721:14

Students love to talk about how a character grows and changes because they also experience a lot of change in high school.

#142: 10 Whole Class Discussion Strategies

2023-11-0248:13

It seems like it's getting harder and harder to get students to speak in front of the entire class. Learn some strategies to make it easier for kids to share their thoughts.

#box-pro-ellipsis-173972071506259{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}The Joys of Teaching Literature