362: Art as Influencer: The Reason my Orwell Unit Failed and Why it Matters for your Students
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Release Date: 01/21/2025
382: An Action-Packed Born a Crime Lesson Especially for Gen Alpha (Bet That)
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is trending, and for good reason. I'm seeing the evidence everywhere. This spring, as I ran our curriculum book choice tournament across the high school levels and hundreds of teachers weighed in, I watched it soar to the finals in BOTH the 9th/10th category and the 11th/12th category. Then, as summer began and I opened up this new podcast series, "Plan My Lesson" (which starts today, right now), I immediately received three separate requests for Born a Crime lessons. Naturally, with this book soaring in popularity but new to the scene, there isn't that much...
info_outline
381: What if We're thinking Too Small When it Comes to Short Stories? (And Sometimes, Not Small Enough)
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
I never met a short story I liked back in high school. If I was going to read, I wanted to READ. I wanted to get caught up in the plot, get to know the characters, inhabit the action, spend some time in another world. I certainly didn't want to finish half an hour after I began. No matter how lovely the language or innovative the miniature plot. My eyes just drifted over short story sections at bookstores and libraries like they weren't there, and I honestly can't remember the name of a single story I read in high school that has stayed with me. I know, I know, I should start my...
info_outline
380: The Easiest Last Day in ELA (Community Favorite)
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Last year, at this time, I was preparing to move from Bratislava to California when I released the episode we’re revisiting today, all about the easiest way to approach the last day in ELA. And it turned out to be the most popular episode I’ve ever released, with more than 25,000 teachers tuning in. So it seems only fitting that as the end of the year approaches once again, and my life is ONCE AGAIN in boxes, preparing for our move on Thursday for a very new and exciting job for my husband in the Midwest, I would share this episode one more time. I hope it will make your last day of school...
info_outline
379: 6 ELA Review Activities for a Strong Finish
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
A few engaging review activities for ELA come in handy around this time of year, as the calendar takes over and students pop off to random awards ceremonies, spirit events, and slideshows. Sometimes you see them for one day in a row, sometimes two, but getting in a groove is definitely a challenge! So, in case you're in search of creative review activities that will get students looking back over all that they've learned before a final project or exam, or just before heading off into the summer horizon, here are six. I'm going to base them on a fun review choice board I made for The...
info_outline
378: Improve Student Evidence Analysis: Meet Mr. Skeptical
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
When it comes to evidence in their argument papers, students have a tendency to mic drop way too soon. "Here's my evidence, BOOOOOOOM!" you can almost hear them saying. Because right after the evidence, they move on. Oops. That's not what we want, and I bet you've written "be sure to analyze this evidence and explain how it proves your point" a few (hundred) times. So what do we do? How do we make the idea MEMORABLE that students must analyze their evidence before moving on? There are a lot of helpful tricks and acronyms floating around out there - the quotation burger, "R.A.C.E." and...
info_outline
377: Teaching Students to Write an Argument Introduction with Easy Puzzle Pieces
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Sure, there's no one right way to write an argument paper. It can be three paragraphs, nine, or even seventeen. It can be loaded with research. It can be full of voice and personal anecdotes. It can be intensely academic, with a formal objective perspective and thirty-two sources cited with MLA. We want our students to understand the rich palette of tools available to them, and mentor texts, varied writing assignments, and encouragement to try new things are all so important. But so is a place to start. Just as I think , because we need it sometimes for skill foundations, I think a...
info_outline
376: Gamifying Argument Basics
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
I have to admit my kids have got me fully invested in "Is it Cake?" At some point in England last year, someone begged for us to watch the show while we ate green pesto pasta on the couch after a long day of hiking in the New Forest, and I said sure. It was the beginning of our "Is it Cake?" era. We've gasped, we've squinted, we've cheered. We all love trying to tell which one is a purse and which one is a cake, and we've all exclaimed in SHOCK over those cake-based faux-leather laces. All of which is not really an ad for the show, but just my introduction for today's idea for...
info_outline
375: Try this Engaging Swift-Inspired Prompt with any Text
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
I miss the Eras tour. Even though it hasn't been that long. My daughter is requesting Wicked songs and Katy Perry in the car all of a sudden, instead of our usual Taylor Swift-a-thon. But I haven't forgotten the joys of the Swiftiverse. And today I want to share a prompt you could use with any poem, short story, or novel that comes from Taylor's music, specifically her approach to bridges. Links Mentioned: Watch "Diary of a Song" from The New York Times about Taylor Swift's Song "Lover" (the key section begins at 6:52): Read "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu: Short Story Unit for...
info_outline
374: 5 Top Poetry Activities Worth Trying
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
It's poetry month, and that means it's time for me to share as many poetry activities, poetry projects, and poetry workshops as I can muster over here! Today, I'm going to walk you through a toolkit of creative poetry options for your ELA classroom. We'll start with one of my favorite introductory activities for any poetry unit, poetry collage, and then go full steam ahead through poetry one-pagers, blackout poetry, great performances and verse texts, I am From poems, a colorful poetry annotation activity, and more! Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of . Snag three Join...
info_outline
373: The Most Popular Books to Teach 9th and 10th Graders (Tournament Results)
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
This winter, inspired by cool bookish tournament projects by Melissa Alter Smith of and Jared Amato of , I decided to launch my own English teacher-y tournament. I wanted to know - of the hundreds of amazing books out there - which were working BEST in the classroom for the teachers in our community? After polling over 2000 teachers over in Creative High School English for their favorites in 9th/10th grade (11th and 12th grade coming soon!), I landed on 16 great titles and we've been voting ever since. Today on the pod, I'll be sharing the top titles and some of the comments and...
info_outlineI've been reading Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's Disrupting Thinking: How Why We Read Matters this week, and one of their points that has really come home for me is how often the standards and the pressure to boil books down to skills leads to pulling plot-based facts and point-based evidence out of a book, blocking opportunities for students to think about what the book means in the context of their lives.
How it might change them, influence them, give them something new to think about in the way they approach the world.
It reminded me of a comment my son's history teacher made recently, asking for him to focus not just on the events of history, but on "making meaning" out of them. I loved this directive, and at the same time, I knew a lot of follow-up was required. "Making meaning" out of what we learn is right up there at the top of Bloom's taxonomy, a combination of "evaluate" and "create," and not something that will just happen by itself.
So how DO we bring our students from memorizing plot details to creating a dialogue with books that help to shape who they become?
Today I want to share a story with you, about a time I taught a novel without considering the implications in the lives of my students, and how their reaction changed me as a teacher.
As you'll see from my story, helping students make meaning from reading isn't as simple as some catchy acronym or a certain type of double-sided journal.
But I will share some ideas for starting points you can use in class, strategies, discussion questions, and project possibilities that can help students ask a text: what do you want from me? And why? What do I want from you?
You can listen in below, or read on for the written version.
Go Further:
Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.
Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit
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!