In today’s Teaching ELA podcast episode, we discuss a classic Christmas story, which still finds its way in many a literature anthology. Takeaways ELA Common Core Lesson PlansSurprisingly, there’s not a whole lot of Christmas short stories. If you’re going to teach irony in literature, there are very few better authors to teach than O’Henry […]
“Gift of the Magi” Lesson Plans and Activities
November 1, 2021 By
Teaching “The Gift of The Magi” One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing […]
Teaching Point of View with Short Stories
November 1, 2021 By
In today’s episode of the Teaching ELA Podcast, I discuss several short stories for teaching Point of View: “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “Cask of Amontillado, “Contents of the DMP,” “Scarlet Ibis,” “Jumping Frog and “Sniper.” I’ve got an emergency lesson plan you can get on the board right. And if there’s one short […]
The One Teacher Habit that Will Change Your Life
October 26, 2021 By
In today’s episode of the Teaching ELA Podcast, I discuss the one habit that changed my life. I know that sounds like a bit of hyperbole–because it is–but if you do this one thing before you leave school today (and every other day), you’ll sleep better at night, feel a lot less stress, and be […]
Teaching the Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
October 4, 2021 By
In today’s episode of the Teaching ELA Podcast, I discuss several short stories by perhaps the most popular American short story writer ever, and certainly one that resonates with young scholars. Let’s talk about the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Today, we’ll discuss classics, such as “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Black Cat,” “The […]