“How come so many houses here are made with red brick? What animals live in Forest Park? How does the old water tower work? What was that abandoned warehouse near the river used for?” Students in my freshmen composition course are curious about their community. Their surroundings offer a rich tapestry for inquiry, and I want them to dig in and pursue answers. I invite them to do so through a community-based inquiry project that stands in place of a traditional research paper. You can facilitate a similar project to connect students to their community and drive personalized learning.

With Thanksgiving approaching, students seem to be bouncing off the walls. Why not tap into that boundless energy with some fun writing activities? The following activities work especially well for elementary and middle school students. You can adapt them for in-class writing or expand them into larger projects. 1. Origin Stories "Family traditions reveal what you value enough to repeat, and—if done with love—build warm, happy associations." —Daniel Willingham Does your family follow any special Thanksgiving traditions?

We love the title Kelly Boswell chose for the opening chapter of her new book Every Kid a Writer. She called it “The Shrug, the Slump, and the Sharpening of Pencils.” The title is a nod to those all-too-common reactions students have when they are asked to write in class. You have probably witnessed similar scenes in your classroom, as students fiddle in their seats or stare at the ceiling or race for a bathroom pass . . . anything to avoid writing. In her book, Boswell assures us these reactions are normal.

Research has shown students to improve as readers and writers when both skills are taught in tandem.  One way to connect reading and writing in your classroom is through an instructional strategy called Read STOP Write. (STOP stands for Summarize, Text structure, Organize, Plan.) This method helps students identify common text structures when reading and apply the structures to their writing. Educator John Z.

Building an effective argument requires nuanced thinking, logical reasoning, compelling evidence, and strong audience awareness. Because of these complexities, students sometimes struggle with persuasive writing. You can ease their difficulties by introducing scaffolds and minilessons to support their writing process. Start by helping students choose a topic and develop a thesis. How can I help students choose the right topic? A good persuasive writing topic is debatable and holds students’ interests.

Young writers sometimes assume that any thought that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period passes as a complete sentence. But too often the group of words is missing something essential: a subject, a verb, and/or a complete thought.

Like a bee and a daisy, ELA and SEL benefit from close interactions. Get the buzz about five ways ELA and SEL are stronger together. SEL teaches students to recognize and control their emotions, make positive choices, connect with classmates, and prepare to learn. This process requires reading, writing, speaking, and listening—the core skills developed in ELA classrooms. Without listening and reading, students cannot relate to and empathize with others.

Young people routinely pass through our classrooms, and despite our brief time together, we form lasting bonds. We want our students to have happy, enriching lives. It usually warms our hearts to hear life updates from former students: news of a college acceptance, a new job, a wedding date, a baby on the way. However, sometimes news of a former student leaves us shaken. In recent years, youth suicides have risen at an alarming rate–up 57 percent for people ages 10 to 24. Many of us–too many–know of students or former students who have attempted or died by suicide.

Last week, we introduced "40 Ways Students Can Create Digital Content." Those ideas were inspired partly by NCTE’s recent position statement calling for media education in ELA classrooms and for expanding the scope of reading and writing instruction beyond books and essays. Below you can find a practical strategy for teaching literacy using an exciting digital format—podcasts! How can I teach literacy using podcasts? You can use a "mentor text" approach to help your students listen, think, and write in response to award-winning student podcasts.

My freshmen recently turned in a lengthy inquiry project. They had been working on it for weeks, and it was thrilling to see their research and writing take its final form. I was particularly excited to review one student’s exploration of a historic neighborhood. And indeed her work was engaging, insightful, and well-researched. There was an issue, though. The project included erratic capitalization and numerous misspelled words.