George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

English Language Arts

Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for helping students develop in English language arts.

  • Starting the Year in Reading on the Right Foot

    Like runners, middle and high school readers get better with practice, goals, and individual feedback.
    Chris D’Ippolito

  • Fast and Efficient Ways to Provide Feedback

    Three simple strategies to provide feedback that save time and improve student performance.
    Laura Lee

  • Teaching Young Students How to Use Multiple Sources

    Two literacy experts offer strategies for helping elementary and middle school students understand how to use and synthesize different sources for research.
    Laura Lee

  • Using Children’s Books to Teach Literary Theory in High School

    Literary theory can be a tough topic for high school students—a simple story may be just the scaffold they need to start figuring it out.
    Crystalee Calderwood

  • Reading Aloud to Middle School Students

    Hearing books read aloud benefits older students, enhancing language arts instruction and building a community of readers.
    Kasey Short

  • If We Want Bookworms, We Need to Get Beyond Leveled Reading

    When it comes to nurturing kids’ love of reading, research suggests variety, choice—and encouragement to stretch—can make a difference.
    Sarah Gonser

  • What Doesn’t Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon

    The number one concern that I hear from educators is lack of time, particularly lack of instructional time with students. Although we can't entirely solve the time problem, we can mitigate it by carefully analyzing our use of class time.
    Nell K. Duke

  • 3 Alternatives to Reading Logs

    Teacher-tested ideas to keep reading homework from feeling like a chore.

  • 22 YA Novels to Help Students Process the Pandemic (or Forget It for a Bit)

    A former school librarian shares recent young adult novels to boost kids’ resilience or give them some laughs. A few dystopian picks may provide a new perspective on the current situation.
    Terri Grief

  • 5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension

    These strategies can help students who are able to decode well but have difficulty understanding what they read—and they’re beneficial for all students.
    Nina Parrish

  • Borrowing a Literacy Strategy From Band Class

    A band teacher explains how a process he uses to train budding musicians’ inner voice can be used to help struggling readers improve.
    Brian Campbell

  • A Handy Strategy for Teaching Theme

    Analyzing the themes in a literary work can be tricky for students, but a simple formula can scaffold the process.
    Zach Wright

  • Co-Teaching in Distance Learning

    A middle school English and special education teacher share how they meet the needs of all of their students—and the new practices they’ll bring back to the classroom.
    Sarah Kesty, Joshua Dye

  • 50 Writing Prompts for All Grade Levels

    Sometimes students need a little push to activate their imaginations.
    Todd Finley

  • 11 Meaningful Writing Assignments Connected to the Pandemic

    Writing gives students an outlet to express their feelings and connect with others during this unsettling time in their lives.
    Shveta Miller