The moment that I walked into the Story Shop I knew it was going to be a magical day. In fact, it took a lot of magic (or maybe just hard work, but we’ll call it magic) just to get me to that moment in the first place. It took a chance meeting of two ELA teachers some 700 miles apart in an …
Reading
How to Makeover Book Reports with Creative Project Based Learning
The book report project is a classic summative assessment to measure students' understanding of their assigned reading. While the book report has good intentions and certainly can be a good stepping stone for beginning students, book reports tend only to measure basic thinking skills. In fact, …
5 Ways to Encourage High Schoolers to Fall in Love With Reading
For the past three years, I have been researching ways to help my high school students fall in love with reading. I read books and journal articles, talked to expert teachers, and field tested strategies. I made progress, but I didn't exactly see hearts aglow when I mentioned the word reading. Then, …