371: Top Middle School Book Recommendations (A Teacher's Perspective)
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Release Date: 03/26/2025
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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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_outlineToday's guest, middle school teacher Susan Taylor, has repeatedly gone the extra mile to build a reading program that makes an impact. Not only does she guide her students towards the best books available, she guides her teaching network the same way, through her podcast, Wonder World Book Cafe.
Today, we're going to go rapid fire through her favorites to recommend to students, and why she likes them so much.
You'll walk away with fantastic recommendations for novels-in-verse, graphic novels, historical fiction, and much more. You'll discover Susan's top pick for First Chapter Friday, the one book she thinks every classroom library should have, and the superb (easy-to-copy) way she helps students recommend books to each other all year long as part of their regular reading routine.
Go Further:
Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.
Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit.
Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook.
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