Multilevel Classes? Reading "Junk" May Be the Answer! Every class is a multilevel class. The schedule may say students are all at the same level and have been placed in the appropriate class, but reading levels are all over the place... or soon will be. When the spread becomes [...]
Teachers often ask me why I feature verbs so prominently in my training and materials for beginning students. It's because that's where the action is! And using verbs over adjectives can make for compelling storytelling. I try to follow the storytelling advice from the creators of South Park: the [...]
Another school year is almost here. Starting off the new school year is a new beginning with new opportunities... and it's always exciting! I was driving a backroad in northern Colorado the other day and came upon this scene. A forest fire had swept through this hillside a few [...]
An expanded version of this lesson is available here. This is an activity that can be done as a follow-up to a short story between week 2 and 3 of a Spanish 1 class. The Bell Ringer/Do Now assignment, called the Repasito, is displayed below. In the example, the Repasito [...]
Classroom jobs let you do your job. In Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick there is a short chapter entitled The Dart that correlates with teachers' need to assign classroom jobs. The chapter talks about the role of the harpooner on a whale hunt. The role of the teacher in the classroom [...]
I've been teaching Latin almost exclusively with Roman myths for the last three years - with very positive results. I shared this Darmok activity some time ago. Since teaching with mythology is working so well, talking about Darmok bears repeating. Download the updated Darmok classroom activity here. If you love [...]