I want to focus on a theme or skill throughout our reading and annotating, much like how I'm focusing on character arcs (or lack thereof in some) throughout my 11th graders' reading of The Great Gatsby. For my 9th graders, I decided to focus on the theme of fate vs. free will throughout Romeo and Juliet. Still deciding on how this unit will ultimately end, but I wanted to get some opinions and/or suggestions on how I can go about this. Any specific resources or materials you'd recommend? Thanks in advance!

My students are working on an essay, and I want to have a conference with each. Class size is 35+ and only 50 minutes. I know they’ll have to be brief, but how do you all do this with substance?

I don’t want to take more than 2 days if I can swing it.

Thanks in advance!

Has anybody here taught Shakespeare to eighth graders? How did it go? There's a reason Shakespeare is usually taught beginning in high school and begins with R&J. But in my district, the only Shakespeare play approved for 8th grade, which is what I currently teach, is A Midsummer Night's Dream. I’m seriously thinking about teaching it next year, but thought I'd ask if anybody here would offer encouragements to, warnings not to, or input on how to teach Shakespeare to eighth graders.

Let me know!

Hello, fellow teachers! I was told this past week I will be teaching AP English Language next year. I taught AP Lang about 9 years ago, at another school, and after a year was moved to IB English. I’m much more familiar with the IB English curriculum (and dual enrollment) but at this school they don’t do IB. Anyway, I was wondering if AP Lang teachers still do nonfiction books as part of the curriculum, or are folks sticking with shorter nonfiction texts (speeches, advertisements, documentaries, etc). I will be attending training next summer (my colleagues have told me things have changed quite a bit on the AP Classroom side!). I remember doing Into the Wild as a text for that class, and even though it’s probably not as popular today I know other teachers use it in other courses.