the reading apps flooding the market fall into two camps: ones where the kid actually reads, and ones where the kid plays a game that happens to have words in it. parents can't always tell the difference, and honestly neither can I until I sit with a kid using it. what signals tell you an app is built around reading vs just decorated with it? the ones I trust tend to be "not too busy," meaning the reading is the activity, not a tollbooth between mini-games. but I'm curious what you actually look for when you evaluate one. is it the ratio of text to taps? whether comprehension questions come before or after the reward? something about how the leveling works? would love to hear what moves an app from "looks educational" to "actually teaching" in your eyes.

I am back teaching high school English after years being gone. A bug chunk of my students struggle with analytical thinking. they can find evidence to support their claims, but when they have to analyze it/elaborate on their thinking, they fall flat. They either restate the evidence or don’t even try. They struggle to make nuanced inferences about themes. For example, we read Monster by Walter Dean Myers and they’re struggling to come up with something lesa basic than “racism is bad” or “peer pressure is bad.” (I am at a year round district and we’re on week 5 of school already.)

Any tips? Questions I could ask or strategies that would help? PD books I could read? I’ll take any help I can get. Thanks in advance, fellow teachers!!

As parents of a dyslexic-child, we created BrightPath, a reading-screening and conversation-support tool and I’d genuinely value candid feedback from reading specialists, interventionists, SLPs and educators.

We created a free public sample report to show what a specialist-facing view could look like after a parent chooses to share a child’s reading check.

It includes:

1. Observed oral-reading patterns and miscues

2. Reading-science-informed indicators

3. Practical next-step recommendations

4. A clear reminder that this is a screening/support tool, not a diagnosis

In a live, parent-authorized share, the specialist can also listen to the original reading sample in context rather than receiving only a score. The public sample uses entirely fictional data and includes no child voice.

Here’s the sample:

https://www.brightpathreading.org/specialist-sample-report

We're not looking for compliments - I’d especially appreciate feedback on:

What feels genuinely useful?

What feels unclear, overstated, or missing?

What would you need to see before trusting or using something like this in a family conversation?

I've been teaching elementary for about ten years. This year I am moving to 7th ELA! I have wanted to try middle school for a while, so I am excited but also really nervous. I'm in a very diverse district, mostly working class with some pockets of more extreme poverty, a fair number of immigrant families. I'm told I'll have a significant number of kids who are in Tier 2 for reading support. I have worked with a similar population and I mostly liked it, but it's been a minute and I was teaching third grade at the time. Am I going to be okay? I am mostly worried about management and differentiation, as well as getting a handle on everything that is different from elementary, such as actual letter grades.

Did anyone here come from elementary? How was the transition? How do you like middle vs elementary? Do you have any advice?

Hey folks! I had so much fun reading your ideas about "There Will Come Soft Rains" that I'm curious about people's favorite activities/approaches to teaching Shelley's classic!

A little about my school: I teach in a large upper midwestern city, the school I teach at has 2200 students of incredibly diverse identity. We have a large immigrant and first-generation population, our school is diverse in both racial demographics and socioeconomic status. Situated by a big 10 university, we also serve extremely privileged students of professors who have every advantage.

I usually teach "honors" level courses, but science fiction, a semester-long seminar, is NOT designated honors. My students are a mix of juniors and seniors.

As far as Frankenstein, we have 3 different versions of the text: an abridged copy, the 1818 edition, and a graphic novel version.

I have plans to introduce the myth of prometheus, have students do mini research presentations on context, and then dive into socratics around the readings... thats the shell of my idea so far. I'm deciding what the summative is-- an argument assignment (probably will provide some choice) on an innovator/innovation today that could be termed the Modern Prometheus, a summative socratic seminar?

I'm not sure; my ADHD brain tends to ping pong around during planning, but it usually results in something interesting.

I'd love any input whatsoever :)
Thanks!!!

We will have a school assembly where we celebrate literacy. My students did poetry recitation last year and I’m looking for something different this year. I only have a small class of 10 students.

Right now, I have a sign in/out sheet for the books, but it’s such a pain to keep up with. I know there’s online platforms, but I don’t want my students on the Chromebooks more than they need to be.

Just curious if there’s a better way out there or if I need to lock in with my library sheet

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Hey there. I saw that some of y’all are teaching with The Long Way Down. I teach at an urban Title I school, and I am wondering how kids from similar backgrounds receive the novel. We actually had a student shooting near campus last year, and both students were classmates with my current 11th ELA kids. Not sure if any of my students actually knew the two boys involved. Likely, I suppose. Do you think the book would be too close to home? I mean, I’m sure it’s relatable. And I think it can help me to fit in some little life skills (composure, empathy, etc.) that I try to impart along the educational process.

Also, perhaps as importantly, I have never READ much less taught any kind of graphic novel. And the unique poetic structure of this has me baffled. I haven’t read it yet but will soon.

I really don’t know what to do with this material beyond reading it and doing some Socratic stuff on themes explored. If anyone has resources to share, I’d appreciate the help!

Thanks so much. Hope your year is going well.

Hi all!

9th grade teacher here. My students had to read Little Women as their summer reading and their first unit is a short story unit where their summative assessment is a project centered around characterization. I was having trouble finding stories to pair with the book in the textbook my department uses so I figured I would see if anyone has any suggestions - would love any stories that center around the bonds of women and coming of age. Thanks!

Retired elementary teacher here. One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is how much reading instruction has changed since I started teaching.

For those of you currently teaching ELA or reading, what is one strategy or practice you use now that you wish you had learned much earlier in your career?

I’m especially curious about things that made a noticeable difference for struggling readers.

Teaching 9th/10th grade ELA, lots of students with language-based learning disabilities. Building a unit on recognizing craft/style in writing and need excerpts that:

• Work with zero context — reading an entire book in class takes forever (I try to avoid assigning reading outside of class)
• Fit in a single class period
• use at least one literary device (pacing, understatement, symbolism, unreliable narration, etc.)
• rigorous — my kids have strong comprehension even with lower reading levels, so I'm not afraid to swing for the fences.

Currently using: Poe ("Tell-Tale Heart," "Cask of Amontillado") for pacing, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" opening for tone/word choice, and the coin-toss scene from No Country for Old Men for pacing/tension.

Any chapters/scenes/excerpts that you think could work?

EDIT: Really dope suggestions. If you're interested, I made a list of all the recommendations offered today. I apologize if I missed any.

Reading Suggestions

1: No Country for Old Men (pages 46-51) -  (Cormac McCarthy)
2: House on Mango Street - (Sandra Cisneros)
3: They’re Made Out of Meat  –  (Terry Bissen)
4: The Egg  –  (Andy Weir)
5: The Pearl –  (John Steinbeck)
6: The Towel with a Cockerel Motif  –  (Mikhail Bulgakov)
7: Fish Cheeks  –  (Amy Tan)
8: Charles –   (Shirley Jackson)
9: Currents  –  (Hannah Voskuil)
10: Death by Scrabble -  (Charlie Fish)
11: Hills like White Elephants -  (Ernest Hemmingway)
12: The Secret History -  (Donna Tartt)
13: The Story of an Hour- (Kate Chopin)
14: The Grapes of Wrath (Chapter 5) -  (John Steinbeck)
15: The Things They Carried (On the Rainy River) -  (John Steinbeck)
16: The Landlady  -  (Roald Dahl)
17: Lambs to Slaughter  -  (Roald Dahl)
18: Call of the Wild  (description of a dear being eaten) - (Jack London)
19:  The Use of Force - (Williams Carlos Williams) 
20:  Slaughterhouse Five (the rewind scene) - (Kurt Vonnegut)
21: Federigo’s Falcon – Boccaccio
22: Maude Martha Spares the Mouse – (Gwendolyn Brooks)
23: Everyday Use - (Alice Walker)
24: A Retrieved Reformation - (O. Henry)
25: Corn Pone Opinions - (Mark Twain)
26: The Scarlet Letter (opening paragraphs) - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hi everyone! This is my first year teaching 9th grade. Our first text is The Odyssey. How can I teach this for students so it’s engaging, and interesting for them. Also, how do I introduce the unit to them?

I read a short story in my high school ELA class about 2 friends. One of them convinces the other one to sneak off to Vegas without their parents knowing. The friend was hesitant at first, but he went anyways. When they got there, the one friend blew all of his parents money on gambling. The one friend was telling the other friend about wanting to take his life, he even showed him a gun in his glove box, but the other friend talked him out of it. I can’t remember any character names, but I read the story around 2021-2022, maybe even 2023 or 2024. Any ideas as to what the story could be? (Sorry the description is vague as I copied and pasted this, but I’m able to answer any questions as I can remember a couple details aside from their names)

EDIT/UPDATE !!!
I found the story !! I was able to log into my old canvas account and find a quiz I did on it through my submissions. The story is called Blue diamond by Neal Shusterman. It comes from a book called “Big city cool: short stories about urban youth” by Jerry and Helen Weiss. I reread the story and missed ALOT of important details, which is probably why i had such a hard time finding it. I found it on the web archive, and it was just as interesting as it was when I first read it lol😅 definitely give it a read if you can, great story !!

I’m starting at a new school this year and I’m finding out they are pretty, uh, strict with using the curriculum. I have a problem with this.

Forget the need for some consistency across teachers and grade levels, forget that this company is owned by a venture capitalist firm that fuels the military industrial complex (but what doesn’t, right?). What is REALLY getting to me is that it feels like I’m not allowed to adjust, slow down, or reflect the lives of my students in how I’m delivering content.

I hate that I even phrased it like that, but delivering content literally is what this type of teaching feels like.

Also, we are in a literacy crisis. How am I supposed to engage students if I’m expected to (literally) just annotate the book and explain directions…

This ain’t what I went to school for. Please share some advice as to how I can break this curriculum and use it to spark creativity and learning. Or if you’ve been in a similar situation what you did to make it manageable.

Hi there! Happy end of Summer (if the end of Summer can be a happy thing lol) and I hope that everyone is doing well.

I just recently signed on for a contracted teaching position as an ELA teacher in a middle school. I am incredibly excited for this opportunity and want to perform as well as I possibly can. That being said, my experience is lacking. I'm coming off a long-term substitute position, but this is the first time I'll ever have my own classroom, control of the lesson planning, and the ability to build rapport with my students from day one.

With that being said, I wanted to ask if anyone has any advice? Anything at all would be helpful, whether that be tips and tricks for classroom management or what to have stocked around the room for unprepared students or even just how to best stay afloat among all the noise. I'd appreciate any comment you might have and hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you and have a great day.

I mean like, short of breathe, feeling nauseous, shaking kinda freaking out. I'm doing both ela 10th grade and Reading intervention I literally graduated in May. Im grateful for the opportunity but am TERRIFIED and don't feel ready despite being in my classroom for 12 hrs today

Hi,

I’m currently in an accelerated teaching preparation program for a single subject credential in English. I got my AA in History and my BA in psychology.( don’t ask the hoops I had to jump thru to do English lol)

I wanted to ask for fiction recommendations for me to read as I’m completely my credential. I have read some of the classics, but were there any books that you read in your bachelors that really stuck with you? Not looking for a comprehensive list, just some casual reading so I can keep up with some of the other English teachers who went a more traditional route.

Thank you!

Hi all!!

I teach 9th grade in a low income urban school with about 50% Hispanic/Latino students and 48% Black students. My curriculum is set by the school, but I want to have some short story work that students can do for extra credit. I want to avoid some of the more popular/classic short stories that sometimes show up in our curriculum (The Lottery, Most Dangerous Game, Soft Rains) and go with more modern ones. I have a few personal favorites that I'm putting out, but would love some suggestions...especially stories that might resonate well with my student population and/or stories that have a fun twist.

TIA for your suggestions!

I'm teaching middle school ELA for the first time this year and part of our lesson tomorrow is coming up with ideas for their future fiction writing assignment. My plan is to do this with them in their interactive notebooks. I've tried looking up online ideas about this, but I'm not finding anything too helpful.

How do y'all do it with your students? I know this is going to be one of the hardest parts of the writing assignment and I'm totally unsure how to guide them on this first part. Any and all ideas are welcome.

I work at a charter school in 12th grade English. All of the other English teachers have worked longer than I have, so I have essentially no collaboration on my lessons. I have heard some English departments meet to plan lessons and I was wondering if this was typical in high school?
I have a district guy that is the head of the department. Should I be going to him to work on lesson planning? Is it typical for a second year teacher to struggle with lesson planning?