409: How to do a Multimodal Flash Verse Project
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Release Date: 01/21/2026
433: The Uncrackable Justification for Choice Reading
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
So here's the thing. I know I talk a lot about reading. It's pretty important to me. But all week I've been trying to prepare a different podcast, one NOT about the uncrackable justification for choice reading. But recently I heard from several teachers over in CHSE about thriving reading programs they had going, only to get shut down by folks who felt like reading in class was a waste of time. And then I kind of ended up in a rabbit hole, as I am wont to do. It's like researching the justification for choice reading became my guilty pleasure, sucking up all my time. I listened to...
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432: ELA Classroom Design: What to Put on your Walls this Fall
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
I'm not going to lie, the prospect of getting to set up a classroom space after years of dreaming about that very task is one of the reasons I'm headed back into the classroom this fall to teach one section of freshmen English. I just believe SO HARD that secondary spaces matter as much as elementary school ones. Heck, I'm an adult, and the space around me matters enormously to my productivity and pleasure in work. How could it not matter to teenagers? So today, I want to share a quick look at some of the resources and recommendations we'll be diving into at the end of the month inside our...
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431: Highly Recommended: This Vehicle for AI in ELA Conversations
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
So I've been working on the materials for Camp Creative: Your Back-to-School Kickoff Kit, this year's iteration of the free summer PD I run every year. (By the way, you can for this fun, free, async PD). And it seems to me that one of the most vital conversations this year for us all to be having is what exactly it means to use AI at school - the risks and dangers, the helpful aspects in terms of accommodation, the temptation, the citation process, all of it. I've been in and out of the rabbit hole on AI for months and years now, following along with policies, trends, Ted Talks, teacher...
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430: What you Need to Know about Design Thinking for ELA
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Design thinking is a framework for creating things. And creating things, as Semour Papert argued in his theory of constructionism, is the kind of “hard fun” that engages people in meaningful work that helps them stretch themselves (Resnick). As his colleague at the MIT media lab, Mitchell Resnick, put it: “they’re going to learn fast when they work on things they really care about. Seymour once said that education has very little to do with explanation, it has to do with engagement, falling in love with ideas.” Design thinking is one of the many options in your teacher toolbox, but...
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429: Don't Miss this Essential Lesson on Multimodality
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Recently I was invited to give a poetry workshop on a reflection day at a local school. They wanted the writing element of the day to help students understand themselves better, so I chose to provide a workshop based on George Ella Lyon’s poem, “Where I’m From.” You know I love that workshop. Together, we looked at how details bring poetry to life, brainstormed images about their childhood experiences, explored how various creators have interpreted the “I am From” prompt to create videos, paintings, photo essays, poems, and combinations thereof. Then I invited them to work...
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428: Start a Classroom Library With Me
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
So maybe you already know I’ll be teaching a section of ninth grade next year to help a local school fill a hole. Want to know what I was doing at 11 pm the night after I agreed to this role? Guess. If you guessed working on my class library, you are so right. Let’s talk about first steps, for my library, and maybe, if you’re thinking of starting one of your own, for yours. Whether you're completely new to building a classroom library, about to start a new one in a new place (like me), or building new layers onto a library you've already begun, I think you'll find...
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427: Try this Colorful Maker Tool: Digital Idea Blocks
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Walk into an expensive "Innovation Lab" or High Tech Cutting Edge University Makerspace, and you'll probably see a laser cutter, a 3D printer or two, all kinds of expensive technology and the adjacent software and screens that make it possible. That's cool. But that's also a high barrier to entry. Does it really have to be that way? And how did the maker movement come to sit so deep in pricey STEM territory? You probably know I've always admired the work of Angela Stockman, writing makerspace pioneer. She's been on this podcast several times, and I love what she shares around having...
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426: I Read 17 PD Books this Year so You Don't Have to
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
I often see conversations online at this time of year about PD books worth reading over the summer. Maybe your PLC is looking for a good read, or you want to take something awesome with you on a plane ride or road trip, along with a stack of Emily Henry novels and A Man Called Ove (which, by the way, I'm giving my own personal read-of-the-year award to, wow). Or maybe not, which I totally get too. If you'd like to take the next couple months totally away and renew your energy and creativity and health and not even think about the classroom, that's great too! That's another way to help...
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425: 5 Engaging Ways to Review in the Final Days
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
The countdowns are on all over the place, and that means in many classrooms, it's time to review. So let's dive into a lightning round of review ideas to help you come up with ways to make all that looking back engaging and memorable for your students. Links Mentioned: Hexagonal Thinking Review Activity Free Download Sign-Up: Jennifer Gonzalez's "Crumple and Shoot" Game from Cult of Pedagogy: Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of . Grab the Join our community, , on Facebook. Come hang out on . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a...
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424: Ready. Set. Engage with Dystopia!
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Years ago, Teri Lesegne wrote a book called Reading Ladders, about meeting readers where they are and then guiding them to new heights. It's a lovely image. I've got my own twist on it; I like to think of helping kids get onto the reading escalator. They read the first book I hand them, or their best friend forks over after staying up til midnight to finish it, and boom, they're on that escalator cruising toward the next book without even realizing it. Sometimes it's a series that helps them on, or realizing that audiobooks count, or discovering Jason Reynolds for the first time. Sometimes...
info_outlineLet's talk about an incredibly adaptable project in which students experiment with creative ideas across modes. It's easy to plug into a variety of units and times of year, and ready to tap at a moment's notice. It remixes easily for Valentine's Day on the horizon, but it could also work well at Halloween, or as part of a creative writing unit, or when you're reading any verse novel or graphic novel.
This project starts with fiction, moves into verse, and lands in a multimodal combination of verse and imagery. I call it a multimodal flash verse project, informed along the way by the brilliant mode collaborations of Jason Reynolds. Let's dig into it.
Links Mentioned:
Jason Reynolds' Interview with the Kennedy Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuXNsJvNaFs
Book Trailer for Ain't Burned all the Bright: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjqvOyAh36Y
Reynolds on his collab with Novgorodoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ErpAXd7Swg
There was a Party for Langston Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4MYO4WmR9s
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