r/ELATeachers

As I read this book for the 100th time, I can’t help but think that it’s not that great.

It’s so hard to believe that teenage boys would think and act the way they’re depicted in this book. She added so many unnecessary descriptive details. What boy is spending as much time thinking about another boy’s eyes as Ponyboy does?

This year’s 8th grade class think it’s a gay love story. They giggle at any and everything that could be questionable. They seem to love it though. They actually get into the book and the storyline. That’s the only reason I continue to read it. My 8th graders love it every year and Lord knows how hard it is to get middle schoolers to read. I love that they get excited to read something.

Their final is a reflection piece based on the Robert Frost poem mentioned in the book. I truly enjoy reading what they write at the end, so I push through my hatred of the book.

I can’t be the only one who feels like this right?

Some days I am honestly just sooooooooo ready to quit omg HAHAHAHAAHA (forcing laughter rn to cope)
I just had a parent tell me their kid was "just being a kid" after I had to give a phone call home to describe in detail what he did in class today 😭😭😭

SUUUUURE, JUST A KID!! 😂
yuuup totally just a regular, well behaved kid who threw a pencil at another student🤣🤣
surely it was just good ol typical kid behavior when he told me he didn't have to listen to me because I'm "^(not his real teacher)" 😐😐😐
ooooo and of course how could I forget!! everybody’s favorite shared memory as normal kids: making loud disruptive animal noises ^(every single time) the teacher tries to speak 🙊🙉

The part that’s rly killing me about this whole ordeal is I came ready with RECEIPTS for this call
I didn’t just say "hello, your child misbehaved *again* today in my class"
oh no no no, I gave timestamps   -   “at 12:22 he was standing on his chair quite literally just hooting and hollering” 
I gave quotes   -   “he said verbatim ‘you’re not even my real teacher, why would I listen to you’”
I gave a scene by scene breakdown   -   “so yeah after he stood in his chair and disrupted the entire class, a fellow classmate kindly asked him to calm down, and that’s when he decided to throw his pencil at his classmate”
ALL OF THIS only to receive this brilliant response back: “Well, he's just a kid. Kids do that."

LOOOOOOOOOOOOL but do they tho?!?🤔🤔
bc I have 6 (SIX) other kids in this very same class who somehow managed to survive through that entire lesson without doing any of that
Perhaps those students are just not kids or something huh?? Maybe I’ve been tricked into teaching tiny adults or some interplanetary species of alien this whole time?!?!?

idk I feel like I’m LOSING MY MIND anytime I have to deal with parents nowadays …. 
It just blows my mind how I am younger than most of these parents, yet I feel like it’s ME who is always the the more responsible adult and ME who somehow has a better grasp on what it takes to be a “good parent”

I love teaching 🙃 this is my passion👍
I love teaching! 😭😭😭  this is my passion! ✨🙌💕 
I LOVE TEACHING!!!!!!  ヾ(｡ꏿ﹏ꏿ)ﾉﾞ
THIS IS MY PASSION!!!!!!!  (┛✧Д✧))┛彡┻━┻

So I’ve decided to knock out And Then There Were None with my Juniors in the last couple weeks of the year. Although I know the premise, I haven’t read it myself, so I’ve decided to read it along with my classes. My students like coming up with word/logic puzzles for me to solve, and I thought it would be fun to have us all compete with each other to see who can predict the deaths and figure out the killer first.

Here’s my problem: Obviously I don’t want to know who dies in what order, but I do want to know when those deaths happen so I can lesson plan around each reveal. So—does anyone happen to know the chapters where characters die? Or could anyone direct me to a source that gives the death chapters without revealing the characters?

This is a weird ask, I know, but I really want to enjoy the reveals while also planning for each day. Thank you in advance!

EtA: I'm still teaching them about the genre, Agatha Christie as an author, the golden age of detective fiction, and deductive/inductive reasoning. I also have supplementary materials to help students keep track of the characters and plot. So no, I'm not going into the unit with no goals or sense of direction. Literally the only part I don't want to know is who dies when.

Hello all! I recently posted the English Department Superlatives picture. But now, instead of celebrating the reading accomplishments of our high school students, I’m seeking some help. My superintendent just ordered my transfer from Honors juniors and seniors to sixth grade ELA to help fill a hole down there. They are going to dissolve my position at the HS.

I’ve tried defending my effectiveness at the HS level In the three years I have been at our district, our English and Reading ACT scores are up; seniors have earned more scholarship money; our curriculum from sophomore to senior year is perfectly aligned. But after explaining all of my data, my superintendent is still going to follow through with the move. His only criteria is that I have been at the district for the least amount of time, even though I’m a successful teacher

So basically, I need some advice. I’ve been a teacher for ten years—all of which has spent teaching juniors and seniors. I have zero experience with 6th graders. Looking through all of the materials I have created, I don’t think any of my materials will work for that age level. My start-of- the-year slides, grammar activities, writing resources, etc. are all too mature or advanced. I’m going to have to store my classroom library somewhere because I know those books aren’t appropriate for middle grades. I don’t know what books are normally taught in 6th grade or how much work I can realistically put on these students.

I’m honestly am feeling extremely overwhelmed. It’s so late in the year that neighboring schools have already filled their vacant positions, so leaving isn’t an option for this coming year.

Thanks for any help or advice. I love teaching, but I’m so depressed by this move.

I teach 11th and 12th grade ELA and AP Lit. ChatGPT and other AI writing tools are ruining my ability to do my job. I have tried making every writing assignment in class only, but sometimes that’s not feasible due to time constraints. Even when assignments are in-class, kids still manage to cheat on their phones (which are banned) in the bathroom. I’ve made all essays hand-written, but that seems worse because they just copy it from the screen and then there is no version history to check. Even the kids who don’t plagiarize their whole essay use it to “get ideas.” I really don’t know where the future of English education is going. There is no protocol in place and no way to prove it; a kid will turn in 3 paragraphs on diction, but when I ask them to explain diction to me in their own words, they cannot. Even when I catch them in their inability to orally defend their writing, they deny it until they’re blue in the face. I’ve had kids go to admin complaining that I’ve wrongly accused them. It’s to the point where I dread assigning essays due to the inevitable percentage that will be AI generated.

I need suggestions for a women’s literature class I will be teaching next spring. I am a very new teacher, so I was very surprised when they took my course suggestion. However, I was told by another teacher that two of my initially slated novels would likely not fly at my school (private/Catholic).

I originally planned for:

- Jane Eyre
- Little Women
- Beloved
- The Color Purple

The last two are the stories I was told may be too much. I’m not too happy about the coworker’s comment, as I am kind of lost as to what direction I should go in, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, if any of you have suggestions for poems or short stories I should include, I would appreciate it! Like I said, I am very new at teaching and want to make this elective as enjoyable as possible!

I don’t want to cause any issues for myself with admin or parents, but I do want to introduce these students to stories and themes they may have never thought of and could have an impact on them.

Thank you! :)

UPDATE: I talked to admin, and they said I just need to make a list for them to look into. They seem to agree with me at least on teaching TCP! I still want to explore topics over summer/narrow down a list, so thank you for all your suggestions. :)

My district admin sent out an email today concerning the rollout of mandated books. We will start incorporating them next year in a sort of wacky fashion. However, two things:

1. They have not provided these books to us yet. I guess they think/know we will buy them ourselves.
2. The timeline means we need to read them on our own free time.

Are we all really going to do this? I mean, yes, we are. I know I will. I'm an idiot though. I just wish there was some sense out there that it's time for us to stop being such f*cking idiots and working more for free. Again. Like we do with everything. Pretty sour note to end the year on.

Hi everyone,

I’m a first year middle school ELA teacher and honestly I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed with classroom management lately. Students start talking to each other constantly while I’m teaching, and it becomes really hard to keep the lesson going.

I also struggle to get them to work independently when I give them activities, and it’s difficult to get them genuinely engaged with literary content in general. Respect between students is also an ongoing issue in the classroom.

I’d really appreciate any concrete strategies, routines, or systems that have worked for you.

I'm trying to remember the books that I was required to read in school think prior to 2020. If anyone has any additional books please let me know!

I’m also extremely curious to hear what grade the book was read and in what state. I’m noticing that some students were reading the same book in 6th grade as another student in 11th.
Would also love some discourse on if the book is actually grade level or not.

5th If You Come Softly Jaqueline Woodson

6th- Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Lyddie
7th- The crucible

8th- Lord of the flies, 1984, unbroken

9th- Romeo and Juliet (folger)

Tell Tale Heart+ other edgar allan poe all in one book

10th-Metamorphis

12th- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Great Gatsby

Hey, I'm a 12th grader who had to make a poem for a language arts assignment. I truly put a lot of work into making it and finding vibrant and descriptive words, but it got flagged for AI. I didn't use AI in this assignment, and I'm really really disappointed that it was detected as such. I received a 0 on the assignment, and I'm not sure what to do.

Here's my poem:

Five husbands buried
or nearly buried,
depends who tells the tale.

The road to Canterbury
shakes beneath my horse
like laughter in a tavern.

Men stare.

Let them.

Their eyes cling to my scarlet stockings,
my broad hat tilted toward spring sunlight,
my gap-toothed grin sharpened
like a needle pulling thread through cloth.

I know what they whisper

Too loud.
Too bold.
Too much.

And still I ride.

The Knight rides polished as a prayer,
the Monk jingles rich bells through muddy lanes
yet somehow
my laughter is the scandal.

Well then.

Let scandal sing.

I have crossed rivers wider than judgment,
kissed relics in Rome,
and learned this truth:

A woman survives
by belonging to herself.

The birds cannot keep quiet in April.

Why should I?

When my turn comes,
I will speak so loudly
even Canterbury’s stones
will remember my name.

What should I say to my teacher so then this hopefully gets unflagged and I receive a grade for this?

exactly what the title says! I’m going to be a second year teacher going back to teach middle school (switched from ms to high school mid way through this school year, long story) and I need to get back into the groove of things. what is something that saved your classroom from being total chaos? any and every piece of advice helps! my middle school group deserved a better teacher during our first semester, and I know the switch I made helped, but I want to make sure I’m prepared come August.

I have resigned myself that I have to teach Hamlet next year, but I need to pare it back. It takes me currently about 6 weeks to get through Macbeth, which is literally half as long, and I do not have 12 weeks to give to Hamlet and still get through the curriculum I need to. (Whoever designed some of these pacing guides has obviously not been anywhere near a classroom in some time.)

At the end I want to them to be able to write a persuasive paper on if Hamlet's mental health is real or if he is faking it.

I'm trying to figure out what to cut. I know I can cut a lot of the Fortinbras/Norway stuff, what else could I get rid of to get through it in 6 weeks or so and still let them have the evidence to write the essay that I want. The R&G/England stuff? Anything with the play within a play?

If you could show ONE movie related to the Holocaust to 8th graders, what would it be? There are SO MANY to choose from and I'm stuck...(we've read "The Diary of Anne Frank" and watched "One day in Auschwitz"). FYI, "Boy in Striped PJs" and "Schindler's List" are not options for me. Thanksssss!

I teach seventh grade ELA and I want to talk about something that's been sitting with me since last semester because I think it's more common than people realize.

I had a student who is genuinely one of the strongest thinkers in my class, reads voraciously, verbal contributions to discussion are always the most layered and interesting in the room, and his written work was consistently underdeveloped in a way that didn't match anything else I knew about him.

in November I pulled him aside for a quick check-in because the gap between his verbal contributions and his written work wasn't adding up. when I asked him about it he said something that stuck with me, that he always knew what he wanted to say but by the time he got it typed out he'd already lost half of it. the keyboard was slowing him down enough that he'd lose the thread entirely and just settle for whatever shorter version he could get out in time.

The problem wasn't his writing, the problem was the interface between his thinking and the page.

We started doing fifteen minutes of keyboarding practice three times a week using typing .com, structured rather than game-based because I needed accuracy data not engagement scores, his WPM went from twenty-two to forty-one over the semester, and more importantly his written work in the second semester was noticeably more complex, longer sentences, more subordinate clauses, ideas he'd been leaving on the table started appearing on the page.

I'm not saying typing instruction is ELA instruction, I'm saying that for some students the keyboard is a bottleneck that compresses their written expression below their actual thinking level, and addressing the bottleneck changed what I could see from him.

Mavis Beacon and KeyBlaze come up in these conversations sometimes as older alternatives, they're functional but the teacher-facing reporting is limited compared to what's currently available, I needed per-student accuracy data over time and both of those required more manual tracking than I had bandwidth for.

I am currently developing curriculum for next year, and I’m making a science fiction unit in which the central question is how does technology impact different areas of our lives. For example, I’m using the Veldt to talk about technology’s effect on family dynamics. Nosedive from black mirror to talk about how tech affects social dynamics. I want to use IHNMAIMS to talk about how evolving technology impacts our relationship with technology itself. However, I’m unsure if the story is school appropriate. I am a first year teacher, and I’m still getting a feel for what can be used in a classroom setting. My district is generally pretty liberal as far as what content you can use goes, but I don’t want to cross that boundary. I appreciate any thoughts or feedback!

Edit: Okay heard, I will be steering clear. Some of our curriculum books (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian) have some pretty intense content, so I thought this story might not be much more mature than that. However, I totally get where people are coming from, and I think this text is generally taught at the college level for a reason. I appreciate all of the insight, and I’d love to hear suggestions for alternative pieces to fill the same role!

I have taught English to college freshman overseas, and just accepted a HS ELA position in the States. I’m returning to the classroom full time after scaling back for 5 years, but have been subbing for the last year.

The overuse of tech and AI seems to have greatly shifted how ELA is taught. I’m worried that most of my time will be spent on deciphering if students’ writing was AI generated. Are there actually efficient and reliable programs that aren’t incredibly time consuming for the teacher?

Seems to me the best way around it is to have students do as much in-class writing as possible. My classes will be 90 minute blocks, so I think it may be doable. I’d even go old school and offer paper thesauruses. But how are teachers assigning research papers and not getting everything copied and pasted?

Has AI made teaching writing and ELA miserable?

Btw I’m all for teaching students how to effectively use AI, but I don’t see how that can be added to a course that’s full of standards to meet. High schools should be including entire courses about how to use AI, if they haven’t already.

Coming in as a conditional teacher so never did student teaching. Just subbed for a year and now I find myself with a new classroom! Where do you all get posters/desk items, etc.

Any help is appreciated!

I was in over my head at the start of the year. I had never taught before, and I had very little education knowledge. I was thrown in. I didn’t have a mentor. I did my best. It was never good enough for my principal.

I got reprimanded, I was accused of things I didn’t do. I made a ton of mistakes and learned a hell of a lot.
I had students confide in me. I had a student attempt suicide twice. I was berated by admin for caring too much. I was accused of having inappropriate relationships with students because I told a girl with obvious mental health problems that she wasn’t alone even though her parents “don’t believe in mental health.” I was interrogated. I was told “we aren’t trying to intimidate you” as I sat in a room with two SROs and the assistant principal. I cared too much. I realize this now and made changes, but in my mind I was being human.

I had a student tell me I was the reason they didn’t hate school. I had a student with dyslexia tell me English was his favorite subject for the first time. I was told I was the only teacher they had that didn’t scream at them. I was told other teachers sit behind a desk and give worksheets and have the students watch videos all of the time. I was told it was nice to have someone who listened. I broke up two fights because other teachers weren’t doing anything but yelling.

I came close to quitting at least three times. I’m glad I didn’t. I was held accountable for things I had no way of knowing. I will do a lot of things differently next year. I will probably go to a different school, but I will not give up on education.