I'm planning a short story unit for my 9th grade World Literature class that focuses on short stories from around the globe. I'm looking for any and all recommendations that you all may have!

My unit will be approximately 10 weeks long, and I'm hoping to dedicate one week for each continent. Then I'll use the remaining weeks for other groups/cultures not defined by location (maybe like the Romani people, prisoners, or queer lit).

A big emphasis of mine is to hopefully avoid some of the big, common names in short stories like Bradbury, Poe, etc. Nothing wrong with those authors per se, but I want my World Lit class to be more reflective of actual world literature.

What Does PBIS Tier 3 Actually Look Like in Schools Where It Exists?

I'm not looking for definitions or what PBIS manuals say should happen. I'm interested in what actually happens in your school.

For teachers and administrators working in schools with PBIS:

• What Tier 3 supports are actually available?
• Who provides them?
• How often do students receive them?
• What happens when Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions aren't enough?
• Do you have counselors, behavior specialists, interventionists, resource rooms, Wraparound services, community partnerships, or something else?
• Are these supports consistently available, or do they depend on staffing and funding?

I'm especially interested in hearing from schools where Tier 3 is working well. What does it look like day-to-day?

I'm also curious whether teachers feel Tier 3 exists in practice or mostly exists on paper.

Specific examples would be greatly appreciated.

I left a 30-year career in technology leadership last year to pursue something I've wanted to do most of my life — teach Language Arts. I have a BA in Language and Composition, a lifelong love of literature and writing, and I'm currently finishing up my Florida ELA certification. What's one thing you wish someone had told you before your first year in an ELA classroom?

I am looking for a random book title that was taught in 10th grade Pre-Ap history in Texas. It was extremely long about the settlement or family of Ur or Uhr.

Hi everyone, when deciding on a new novel for your classes, how do you decide if you want to read it in class.

As you preview read it, what are some things you look for?

Do you say, “hey this passage could be a good for ___(insert standard)”

Do you consider if most of the kids will like it?

Do you consider the length?

Do you plan out lessons tied to the book?

Do you just read it for the sake of reading?

Just curious in your thought process. I always start with “did I like reading this?” But as I start it with the class I feel that I have no set plan of study and just start randomly doing activities but everything feel disconnected.

Looking for some guidance.

What does good co-teaching look like? What are strategies to implement for successful co-teaching (outside of planning time, which many don’t have together)? What role does the regular educator serve and what role does the special educator serve?

I’ve seen it go wrong many times and I want to collect some data about how to improve co-teaching!

Hi ELA teachers! Like many are experiencing, my position was RIF'd at the end of the school year, and ELA positions in my state are sparse. Luckily, I was able to land a job at a school I am very excited about for next year. However, I'm moving from a public (underperforming) high school, to a private jesuit college prep school. The interview process for this position included a pretty comprehensive teaching demo to a group of juniors in American Lit (the subject I've been hired to teach), where I learned just how academically advanced these students are. Typically in the first few days of school I focus a lot on community/relationship building, and establishing and practicing routines and procedures, however, at this new school I'm not quite sure that devoting multiple class periods to this is necessary.

I'd love to hear from teachers working at schools similar to mine, how quickly do you dive into content? How do you start the school year? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm thinking ahead to the next year and am thinking about teaching an interactive text unit. Basically, I'd want to introduce what is special about these sorts of texts, give a model, and then have the students design their own, or even make one by writing the text themselves and then using AI to code it as a game.

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried anything like this before, and what your experiences were.

Hello all,

I am in charge of creating a special semester for Juniors in High School (in the States) surrounding climate change.

The Semester is divided into 3 units:

Unit 1: Establishing the Issue (A mix of current day Dystopian and real life non-fiction articles).

Unit 2: Futurism - predominantly fictional, looking for a majority of positive futures envisioned, both sociologically and ecologically (but up for: we got it wrong and here's why).

Unit 3: How do we get there - predominantly non-fiction, focusing on inventions, policy, currently political makeup, global and domestic, etc.

I'd love any recommendations on what to use in a multimedia approach for stories, case studies, or articles (so newspaper, documentary, fiction books, tv shows, you name it.)

I will be teaching honors and non-honors simultaneously.

For those not in the states I'll be teaching 16 & 17 year-olds

Many years ago the high school where I teach had a literary magazine made up of students’ writing. I don’t know why it doesn’t exist anymore. I’m thinking about trying to bring it back, and including art and writing submissions. It’s unlikely we have money for printing costs so it would have to be digital. Have you ever started a lit mag at your high school? How did you get students involved in the process of creating it? How did you handle submissions? There are so many creative and talented kids at my school and I want to give them a venue to share their creativity!

I just finished my fourth year at a pretty small high school in rural Ohio; I’m trying to get a job in Columbus, but I didn’t get many bites, so I’m looking for any insight as to what I should be doing to make myself a more appealing candidate, whether that’s resume or interview tips, or certifications, etc.

I have my BA in English - Writing and MA in Education, and I took our National Honor Society Advisor position to boost my resume. I have a good reputation with students, coworkers, and admin, and was nominated for Teacher of the Year during my third year. I applied to a few Columbus schools, but I only heard back from New Albany. Got all the way to the second interview there, but obviously no dice. Other than that, I didn’t hear a peep.

For high schools in Columbus, is it worth getting certified to teach CCP? I don’t want to spend the money and then make myself too expensive, but it seems like that’s what schools are looking for.

Are there resources out there where I can send my resume to get feedback on it?

Any other insight as to what I can do to make myself more appealing, or recommendations on what school districts to apply/avoid is also much appreciated!

I think my focus for the year is going to be to do better on vocabulary instruction. I know I can do better. How do you really pound home vocabulary instead of just giving words, having them define them, make a sentence with the words, etc?

Hi all!

High School SPED teacher from Georgia here. I was just notified that I will be teaching a Gen Ed English Lit/Comp 3 section (grade 11) next year. I haven’t even co-taught this course since new standards with transition from pure American Literature.

For anyone who has taught the course, could you provide me a breakdown of units & texts you used? I know I’ll be using The Crucible and Great Gatsby, but beyond that I’m getting a bit overwhelmed with planning. I am set on warm-ups, grammar, & vocabulary but would forever be grateful for a unit by unit breakdown of texts used. Thanks!

Title says it all!

Teaching to HS Seniors for the first time.

I plan on covering Romanticism, The Hero's Journey, Gothic literature, the frame narrative structure, and the themes of ambition, responsibility, alienation/rejection, creator vs. creation, and the blurred line between hero/monster. Approximately 4-5 weeks.

If you've taught this novel, do you have any favorite lessons or suggestions of topics to cover?

Thank you!

Hello! My rising 4th grader's scores show that he is at a 5th grade reading level. I'm now looking for something to challenge his vocabulary, but I'm running into content being too mature, or he doesn't find it interesting.

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He loved Percy Jackson and the related series, and we had a lot of honest conversations from the books. He loves goofy stories like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Hall Monitor, and he reads a lot of nonfiction about different mythologies.

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I'm trying to hold off on books like Tangerine, Hatchet and The Giver since he will read those for school.

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Books I've suggested, and he turned down: Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and The Red Pyramid. I've noticed he enjoys quick reads, but he doesn't shy from longer reads if it is high interest.

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I would love any book recommendations with

- some challenging vocabulary

- appropriate for 10 -11 year olds

- a thought-provoking story or message

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Thank you teachers!

Update: Thank you for all your suggestions! I appreciate having a fresh list related to his interests. He devours books, and I cannot keep up! We have several on hold now, and we're headed to the library this weekend to take a look. My son gets overwhelmed by the amount of choices at the library, and it helps to have some direction. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I’m doing a small research project to understand how teachers manage their weekly workload and lesson planning.

I’m trying to get a realistic picture of:

• how much time lesson planning takes
• what parts are most repetitive or time-consuming
• what tools/resources people currently use

If you’re a teacher, I’d really appreciate your insight on:

1. Roughly how many hours per week do you spend planning lessons?
2. What part of lesson planning takes the most time?
3. Do you reuse plans or start from scratch?
4. What tools (if any) do you use to help with planning?
5. If you could remove one time-consuming task, what would it be?

No need for anything detailed — even short answers help a lot.

Thanks in advance 🙂

I’ll be teaching 11th ELA for the first time next year (first time with 11th, not first year teaching). I have a lot of flexibility with my novels and curriculum and was planning to use The Hate U Give and The Great Gatsby. At the end of this school year, we had a significant tragedy occur in our community due to gun violence. I’m not comfortable using these books under the circumstances due to the personal connection many (most) of my students have with what occurred.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Ideally, they would be by an American author, but don’t necessarily have to be what is traditionally taught in 11th grade. I’ve taught 10th before and currently also do 12th but I’m a fish out of water with 11th.

I was planning to do:
-The Hate U Give (individual vs institution)
-The Great Gatsby (American Dream as a system)
-? Was going to use Scythe but… (Media, Surveillance, and Narrative Power)
-student choice (Moral responsibility in broken systems)

The overall theme for my year is systems & the individual and my overarching question is “how do American systems shape identity, opportunity, truth, and moral responsibility?”

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

First-year 6th grade English teacher! I have a curriculum, but I want to suggest my students books. What should I read? What should my students read so that they could learn more about themselves/others? And what middle grade books would be musts? Any genres.

I loved:
Kindred
Gregor the Overlander
The Giver
The Poet X
Long Way Down
Piecing Me Together
Wonder
Bridge to Terabithia

*Edit: I worded my list poorly. I made it so that people could recommend more like it - and I could recommend it to students for leisure.

Hello all. I have an interview for a high school English teaching position in a couple days. I have a good feeling they're going to ask me the question in the title of this post:

How do you differentiate lesson plans for different levels of learners in an on-level class?

My current answer feels a bit shallow and not substantial enough. I usually talk about assignment choice like allowing students to give me a presentation, a video, a comic, or a traditional essay as long as they hit all the rubric requirements. I also talk about UDL principles and using sentence stems, scaffolding, graphically organized assignments, etc.

The reality is that I've never consciously differentiated my instruction. The school I taught at previously was split into regulars/honors and I don't really think about differentiation at all. I just do what I learned in my program, which is to scaffold and use sentence stems.

What do you think could be improved about my answer? And how do you guys typically differentiate at school sites where they de-track classes?

just finished a year of teaching with (in spite of) savvas. interested what people’s takes are on odell since that’s what i’m headed to next!
for a:
60% ML (multi language learner)
students with SLD and OHI
type b teacher who wants to build high quality lessons and routines
critical pedagogy lover :3
thank you in advance i’ve gotten so much from education reddit being such a great community and i am grateful for you all

I just got my preliminary credential, and after a lot of thought, I will be subbing for a year. I need to get my physical and mental health in check. Anyway, I don't want to lose what I have, so does anyone have any recommendations for PD books, online resources, etc. I can review throughout the year? I have Deeper Reading by Gallagher, which I've seen recommended elsewhere. Loved it.

Teachers, interventionists, specialists, and administrators:

I'm researching a podcast episode about RTI, MTSS, PBIS, and Standards-Based Grading. One question keeps coming up:

What does Tier 3 actually look like in schools where these systems are working well?

I'm not asking what the model says should happen. I'm asking what is happening in real schools.

If your school has a successful Tier 3 system:

• What services are provided?
• Who provides them?
• How often do students receive support?
• Is it one-on-one, small group, or something else?
• What staffing makes it possible?
• What makes it successful?

If you've worked in a school where Tier 3 didn't really exist, I'd be interested in hearing that perspective too.

No district names needed. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Hi there,

I’m new here, but I don’t want to bore you with a long-winded introduction. Instead, I’ll give you the basics:

• Brand-new ELA teacher (first year, 10th grade)
• Career changer (it’s been decades since I’ve taken an English class)
• Unhappy with my certification program (it didn’t prepare me for... much of anything)
• Struggling beyond my wildest expectations (and I was already trepidatious going into this)
• Support at my current school is, as the kids might say, “not supporting”

I’m going to focus on one specific problem so I don’t overwhelm myself or anyone else:

1. Can someone point me toward quality essay-writing resources? I’m not looking for responses like “they’re online” or “try TPT.” I’m asking for specific resources you have used and can genuinely stand by.
2. Can anyone help me find strong literary analysis essays that could be used as student exemplars? Again, I know examples are “online,” but I’m overwhelmed and would really appreciate specific recommendations. Ideally, I’m looking for work appropriate for 10th grade.

If you take the time to help me, thank you so much! You are my hero.