The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

This week I’m thinking about those moments when the system collapses. Your toddler wakes up at 3 am and stays awake until 7. Your careful planning for a poetry slam explodes when you feel a sore throat lurking the day before and you get one of those icky awful chills on your way out to the parking lot. Your partner has to work overtime when you were counting on him to do dinner and bedtime while you graded 100 papers and prepped the next day. Today’s one of those days for me, with my partner on an international work trip with his students as what everyone is guessing is norovirus has hit our community and my household. Just before my daughter’s winter concert, my elaborately planned community cookie exchange, and my son’s golden birthday. As we say in Minnesota, uff-da.  So without further ado, I want to share three free resources I’ve created for you that you can use at times like this, when all else fails. Don’t worry, I’ll drop links to grab them all in the show notes.  First of all, my old faithful, now in use in over 10,000 classrooms. The one-pager templates. You can bust these out and modify them to suit pretty much whatever you’re reading. The specific directions guide students in how to represent the text through imagery, quotations, and analysis on the template, taking away that fear of the blank page. A little creative constraint paves the way for students to share their top takeaways and make connections beyond the page, giving even your art-wariest students a chance to succeed with this colorful, creative, reading reflection.  Next, there’s the Book Face challenge. This fun activity will promote your reading culture, and all you need are books. Have you seen the #bookface flood on Instagram in recent years? The idea is simple. You find a book with a picture of a face on it, then find a way to recreate the scenery featured on the cover and take a picture of the cover with the face in the book shown over your (or your partner’s face) so it seems like the book is actually part of the photo. It’s so hard to describe, but so cool to see! I created a bunch of examples and a quick guide so your students can easily try it. If you’re having a ridiculously stressful week, a day setting up fun #bookface photos with your students and then showcasing them in a big display can help. At least a little.  Finally, there’s blackout poetry. If you haven’t tried this yet, take this as your sign. Download the free guide, put some old books in a corner of your classroom, and keep this activity handy for the next time all else fails. For blackout poetry, students choose words on an exciting page to arrange into a poem, then doodle around the words and black out everything but the doodle and the chosen words. OK, that’s a bit of an oversimplification but that’s why I made you the GUIDE. This project has a history of turning out amazing, and you can make it go with anything. You invite students to create a blackout poem that connects with a theme from your reading, an essential question from your unit, or just let them float free with their topics. OK, my friend. Time to go deal with the fact that there’s a lot to deal with. I know you know, and I hope one of these activities can help the next time you’re doing the same. Remember, I’m going to link to all these free downloads in the show notes, and I’m ALSO going to link to a fun recent collab I did with 9 other creative curriculum designers to showcase emergency sub plans. If you grab these three and a bunch of those too, you’ll have a dozen or so options ready the next time all else fails.    Links Mentioned: Pick up the free one-pager templates: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/ready-for-one-pager-success  Grab the free Bookface Activity: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/bookface Get the free Blackout poetry guide: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blackout-Poetry-Activity-l-black-out-poetry-l-blackout-poetry-passages-4165682 Go further with 10 more emergency sub plans: https://buildingbooklove.com/ela-emergency-sub-plans-for-middle-school-and-high-school-english/    Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!   

Join Claire English, an experienced Australian secondary English teacher and author of 'It's Never Just About the Behavior,' as she shares her insights on classroom management. Discover how to embrace restorative mindsets, transforming disruptions into learning opportunities. Learn effective strategies like using non-verbal cues to improve student behavior and fostering emotional intelligence in your classroom. Claire also emphasizes the power of reflective conversations for accountability and the importance of community support for teachers.

Discover how to ignite student creativity with a poetry video project! Explore the power of popular poetry videos, from Amanda Gorman to Rudy Francisco, and learn how to analyze their techniques. Students can interpret classic works or create original pieces, blending literary analysis with multimedia skills. The process involves sketchnoting, storyboarding, and considering the impact of visuals and audio, making poetry more relevant to today’s digital communication.

So you want to give the nod to the season, but you also want to make sure all your students feel included. Good for you! I've been privileged to see the holidays I celebrate centered in The United States for much of my life, but I've also had a lot of opportunities to see what it's like beyond this glow. I've lived in four other countries where some of the holidays I am used to are not very important at all. At one of my schools, I had the role of international-student coordinator. As part of that role I got a chance to work with kids from around the world to share their cultures through different types of holiday celebrations, like a Day of the Dead dinner and a Lunar New Year party. I married into a family with a different religious background than mine, and I've seen how it can feel difficult when other traditions take the limelight at this time of year.  It means a lot to have your traditions acknowledged at any age. But I'll be the first to say it's not uncomplicated territory in the classroom. I know I've messed up, learned, and evolved. I keep trying. I very much believe that when we can expand our cultural viewpoints, we all benefit. Of course, perhaps your school or community won't allow you to discuss or celebrate any type of holiday at school. I can understand the circumstances that might lead there. If that's the case, you might want to choose one of the other hundreds of episodes to listen to today. But if you've always loved - like me - to give a nod to big days on the calendar throughout the year, I've got ideas to share today - ways to enjoy fun wintery activities in the next few weeks that make space for kids to celebrate whatever special days they want to, whether it's Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Christmas, Lunar New Year, Snow Days, or one of the many other holidays flowing out of our rich worldwide blend of cultures. Links Mentioned: Liz Kleinrock's book, Come and Join Us: https://www.amazon.com/Come-Join-Us-Holidays-Celebrated/dp/0063144476 Holiday Makerspace Project (Free download): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Holiday-Maker-Space-Writing-Project-3505860  How to make Digital Poetry Tiles: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2020/11/109-how-to-make-digital-magnetic-poetry.html  Holiday Lipogram Project (Free Download): https://spark-creativity.kit.com/c9338cdf76 Winter Book Tasting (Free Download): https://spark-creativity.kit.com/cc185a4a77  Poetry Foundation Winter Poems Collection: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/144637/winter-poems         

Welcome to day five of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today, on our final day, we’re looking back at an interview with my friend Angela Stockman about how to get started with her innovative writing makerspace concept. She is a force of creativity, hope, care, and innovation in the education world, and I’m grateful to know her and to share her work with you.  Check out the original show notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2018/09/the-power-of-writing-makerspace-with.html    Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! 

Welcome to day four of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today we’re looking back at an interview with Dave Stuart Jr. about how to help fight apathy in the classroom. I’m grateful for Dave’s hopeful voice in the world of education, and glad to share his ideas with you today. Check out the original show notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2019/07/070-help-for-student-apathy-with-dave_16.html  Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! 

Welcome to day three of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today we’re looking back at an interview with Dr. Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica and Dr. Allison Briceño about just how important it is to provide students with diverse books and choice in their reading experience. I’m grateful that they took the time to talk with us, and to be able to spotlight their work here again.  See the original show notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2023/07/students-need-diverse-texts-and-choice-heres-help.html  Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! 

Welcome to day two of gratitude week here at Spark Creativity. Today we're revisiting a popular interview with Dr. Sarah Fine, whose insightful work around deeper learning I am so grateful to be able to share with you. She crisscrossed the nation in search of the places and programs where students were truly engaged in deeper learning, and she shares what she found in this conversation.  See the Original Show Notes: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2020/02/086-take-action-for-deeper-learning.html    Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! 

Join Penny Kittle, a dedicated teacher and literacy coach, as she dives into transformative reading practices that prioritize student engagement. They discuss the courage needed to challenge outdated educational methods and the importance of connecting students with relevant texts. Penny emphasizes the power of writer's notebooks in fostering creativity and confidence, while also sharing essential book recommendations that inspire young readers. With insights on community impact, this conversation is a heartfelt look at the role of choice in literacy.

In today’s short episode of “Highly Recommended”, I want to recommend an article I read at Edutopia this week, because it’s chock-full of the research you need to support conversations at your school about grading less. Changing the culture of grading in our ELA classrooms won’t just benefit teachers, it benefits students too. So today I want to share two highlights from the article, “Why Teachers Should Grade Less Frequently,” by Stephen Merrill and Youki Terada, and then give you the link in the show notes so you can go read it and send it to everyone in your department. Seriously. Terada and Merrill share the research around nine reasons that grading less benefits both educators and educatees (students). This is not a both-sides-of-the-story type of article. It is VERY clear about its argument. Less grading for the right reasons is the way to go. Hopefully, if you’ve been around here for long, that sounds like a familiar story. One of my favorite points in the article is #3, “Grading Obligations reduce teacher creativity and innovation.”   According to the research, most teachers are splitting their time between grading and lesson planning, devoting about the same amount of time to each. As a result, and I imagine you’ve experienced this at some point or another, many folks are unable to give the necessary time to the reflection and discovery that would let them unlock their most creative classroom ideas.  Another key idea comes in #6: “Grading reduces opportunities for student practice.” According to the research, repeated practice counts for a lot when it comes to improving writing, and prioritizing feedback over reps isn’t the answer. If teachers feel they must grade everything students do, students won’t have as many opportunities to build the pathways that lead to better writing. The big components of this article are ones our teaching community has been talking about for a long time. But what I love about this article is how it boils the ideas down into a three minute read with clear evidence and research links to back up what English teachers have learned through experience. That means you can point to the evidence online as well as the evidence in your classroom when you take these ideas to your colleagues, and explain your methods to parents who think papers are meant to be coated in red ink before they’re returned. Remember, I’m dropping this link in the show notes right now, so be sure to click over and read this great article from Stephen Merrill and Youki Terada! READ THE ARTICLE: https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-teachers-should-grade-less-frequently  Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!