George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

English Language Arts

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

  • A Creative Way to Do Reading Station Exit Tickets

    Incorporating art by having students create a passport stamp for each station helps them explore personal connections to informational texts.
    Katie Linehan

  • Teaching Revision in a Blended Learning Environment

    Two teachers explain how they assign short writing tasks, give feedback quickly, and require revision before students can move on.
    Emily Culp, Toni Rose Deanon

  • How To Maximize the Benefits of Individual Reading Conferences

    Listening to a student read is great formative assessment that gives the teacher a clear sense of how to help them improve.
    Laura Lee

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 50 Writing Prompts for All Grade Levels

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

  • 22 Diverse Book Choices for All Grade Levels

    Suggestions from teachers who are working to offer students at every grade level book choices that represent their lives.
    Tom Berger

  • Young Adult Novels That Teach a Growth Mindset

    Use these novels to teach learning from loss and overcoming adversity to your middle schoolers and high school freshmen.
    Robert Ward

  • Developing a Love of Reading in Students

    Exposing new readers to a variety of genres can help them find the books they love. Plus, reading comprehension strategies to deepen their engagement.
    Kathryn Starke

  • How to Lead Students to Engage in Higher Order Thinking

    Asking students a series of essential questions at the start of a course signals that deep engagement is a requirement.
    Karen Harris

  • Maintaining Students’ Motivation for Learning as the Year Goes On

    Neuroscience can suggest ways to keep students working toward their learning goals after their initial excitement wears off.
    Judy Willis