English with Mrs. Lamp

Many of us reflect upon the year as summer begins. My biggest question in June (and throughout the summer) is always “What should I change next year?”

I am not usually looking for a new program or a new curriculum. I simply want to make note of some relatively small changes that I think might make next year better. I’m hoping to land upon some ideas that will (hopefully) lead to more learning, more engagement, more authentic student work being produced, and fewer grading hassles for me.

No matter what you teach in the realm of ELA, English, or Lit & Comp, here are 80 ideas for you to ponder if you’ve been wondering, “What should I change next year?”

Reading and Literature

1. Add one more novel to your curriculum.
2. Replace excerpts with complete texts whenever possible. (Short Stories You’ll Love Teaching)
3. Build a short anchor text into EVERY unit. Even writing, grammar, group work, or speech-focused units.
4. Teach more contemporary literature. (Homegoing)
5. Teach more classic literature. (1984, The Awakening, Crime and Punishment, The Crucible, Dubliners, Heart of Darkness, Mrs. Dalloway, The Scarlet Letter)
6. Use paired texts around a common theme.
7. Incorporate graphic novels.
8. Add independent reading to your class routine or as a grade.
9. Add a choice novel reading unit. (40 Conferencing Questions for Any Book / Full Choice Novel Unit)
10. Use dialectical journals during novels.
11. Experiment more with literature circles. (Choice Novel Unit with Modern Lit Circle Activities)
12. Increase student choice in reading selections. (Choice Novel Unit)
13. Teach more short stories if novels are difficult to fit in or not allowed at your school. (Short Stories You’ll Love Teaching)
14. Teach fewer texts but go deeper.
15. Teach more texts but with lighter end-of-unit assessments or using a final 40-minute test rather than a big essay.
16. Make required texts more fun and engaging for students. (Blog on helping students enjoy texts they often dislike)
17. Build in more close reading practice. (Practice Close Reading with Contemporary Poetry, Poetry Explications, Analyzing Style and Author’s Choices, or RL Graphic Organizers)
18. Explicitly teach annotation strategies.
19. Use teacher read-alouds more often; model what good readers do. (Literacy Skills Handout, How to Read for High Schoolers Handout)
20. Balance independent, partner, and whole-class reading better.

Writing Instruction

21. Implement a writing workshop model. (Writer’s Workshop Style Units, Lessons, and Materials)
22. Require prewriting before drafting. (Graphic Organizers for Any Essay) (Blog on teaching essay writing) (Blog on Making Graphic Organizers)
23. Collect outlines and check them before students begin writing; catch big issues BEFORE students turn in a final draft! (More on making grading faster here and here)
24. Increase in-class writing time.
25. Shorten essay length while maintaining rigor. Does the essay NEED to be 5-7 pages? What about 2-3? What about a “1-pager”?
26. Require first draft submissions so you can discuss common issues with the entire class. (More on making grading faster here and here)
27. Build writing conferences into class time. (More on making grading faster here and here)
28. Create writing portfolios.
29. Have students self-assess every major piece. Add some type of reflection, whether verbal or written, after every summative assessment.
30. Use benchmark writing samples before major essays. (View TONS of sample essays here!)
31. Focus more small-group instruction on writing skills.
32. Replace one essay with a multimedia project.
33. Use single-point rubrics. (Find rubrics here!)
34. Allow revision opportunities after feedback.
35. Teach students to actually do research & include extras like charts, graphs, and tables. (Try these units! Social Issues Argumentative Essay & Social Issues Informational Essay)
36. Teach students to use critical lenses in their literary analysis essays.
37. Include more authentic writing tasks, like admissions essays and resumes.

Discussion and Speaking

38. Require more speeches or presentations, especially smaller-stakes ones that are either short (3-5 minutes) or done in small groups or with a partner. Consider allowing students to film their presentation and show it on a screen to the class. (Try this easy speech unit with no take-home grading!)
39. Use presentations as final assessments rather than a final test or essay. (I replaced my final exams with my speech unit; this meant that I had no grading at the end of the semester!)
40. Try more class discussions, like fishbowl and Socratic seminars. (Have you tried all of these discussion modalities? Want to build a “discussion-driven classroom“?)
41. Add debates to literature units. (Grab this FREE debate activity & guide for ANY text!)
42. Build discussion skills explicitly. (Tips for creating a “discussion-driven classroom” / Teach discussion skills with this fishbowl activity)
43. Try using discussion roles, kind of like lit circle roles.
44. Use small-group discussions before whole-class discussions so that students feel more comfortable sharing an idea / better prepared to speak.
45. Increase your use of student-led discussions. (Find ways to increase the extent to which your discussions are student-led here.)
46. Build community before expecting students to speak or perform: move speeches, presentations, and discussion-based units to later in the school year.
47. Practice speaking skills more regularly in class! Consider doing reader’s theatre for plays, requiring students to take turns reading the day’s announcements, or have students prepare and read a short poem or other excerpt with a new student sharing each day.

Vocabulary and Grammar

48. Create a consistent vocabulary routine.
49. Introduce key vocabulary before reading.
50. Revive Greek and Latin roots instruction.
51. Make the case for teaching grammar again in class. (Read more on this blog! Grab units that come with rationales here!)
52. Teach grammar, usage, and mechanics topics with explicit, direct instruction and plenty of practice. (Grab rigorous grammar units tailored to today’s students here!)
53. Teach spelling patterns explicitly, even in high school.
54. Incorporate morphology instruction.
55. Play more vocabulary games.
56. Connect vocabulary learning directly to texts and/or real life; have students search for the words you’ll study within course texts or their daily lives.
57. Build in monthly grammar and vocabulary review so you can keep bringing back older topics or words as the year progresses. Consider using old topics/words as bonus-point questions on quizzes and tests throughout the year.

Classroom Systems and Routines

58. Create entrance & exit ticket routines.
59. Make routines visible: create large posters outlining the steps for important routines in your room.
60. Clarify expectations from day one by actually going over your rules and syllabus. Don’t skip it because you think it’s boring or unnecessary. (Find syllabi here)
61. Make clear your consequences for rule-breaking from day one.
62. Set SMART goals with students every quarter. Allow them to make at least one goal that is related to something THEY care about outside of the classroom.
63. Figure out which units need to be longer or shorter and rewrite your pacing guide for next year.
64. If you have grades due every 3 weeks, make major tests/essays due a week BEFORE those grades are due so YOU have time to get them graded and don’t feel rushed.
65. Build reflection activities, discussions, or written work into unit endings. (I use this student academic self-reflection worksheet after each large unit!)

Assessment and Grading

66. Get rid of take-home tests and essays written at home or as homework.
67. Consider eliminating homework entirely.
68. Use completion checks more often to support slow starters and students who often do not turn in work. Consider offering points for this.
69. Require meaningful corrections; give a large grade for revisions/corrections, perhaps up to 50% of the assignment/test grade. (So if the test or essay is worth 100 points, everyone submits corrections or a revision, and it’s worth 50 points.)
70. Grade fewer assignments. Consider making some items just practice, ungraded small-group work, or something we go over in class and for which one only receives completion points for doing/correcting.
71. Provide more feedback during drafting. Consider voice notes, verbal conferencing, and brief comments on rough drafts.
72. Assess skills rather than tasks. Consider moving to “standards-based grading.” (Find rubrics here!)
73. Use quick formative assessments at least a few times a week, perhaps as entrance or exit tickets.

AI-Proofing Student Work

74. Require handwritten planning/graphic organizers/brainstorm worksheets. (Graphic Organizers for Any Essay) (Blog on teaching essay writing) (Blog on Making Graphic Organizers)
75. Collect 1-2 drafts along the way. (Planning, rough draft, first draft, final draft) — (Writing Units, Lessons, and Materials built around the writing process)
76. Use writing conferences to verify whether students know their own work. If they can’t talk about the ideas, the writing process, etc, it’s probably not something they wrote!
77. Break major assignments into checkpoints (often called “chunking” assignments).
78. Assess the process, not just the product!

Read more on stopping AI here, here, and here!

New ELA Games to Try

79) Create your own “Connections” puzzles.

Adapt the famous NYT Connections grid for your ELA students. They will take a 16-word board and group them into four specific categories. You can give them the 4 categories, or make it harder by asking THEM to figure out what the 4 categories are 🙂

Try these ready-to-use boards!

1. Literary Elements

Sort these terms into their respective literary categories:

• ALLITERATION: Peter Piper picked…
• ASSONANCE: Fleet feet sweep…
• HYPERBOLE: I’ve told you a million times
• ONOMATOPOEIA: Buzz, hiss, murmur
• ALLUSION: A subtle reference to Romeo
• IMAGERY: The crisp, cool autumn breeze
• METAPHOR: The classroom was a zoo
• PERSONIFICATION: The wind howled
• OXYMORON: Jumbo shrimp, deafening silence
• SIMILE: Brave as a lion
• PUN: An egg-cellent joke
• IRONY: A fire station burning down
• ALLITERATION (Group 1)
• ONOMATOPOEIA (Group 2)
• OXYMORON (Group 3)
• PUN (Group 4)

2. Greek & Latin Roots (All Levels)

Group words by their root meaning:

• BEFORE: Ante, pre, fore, pro
• TIME / CHRONO: Chronology, chronicle, anachronism, synchronize
• BAD: Mal, dys, mis, anti
• WATER / AQUA: Aquatic, aqueduct, aquarium, Aquarius
• BEFORE (Group 1)
• BAD (Group 2)
• TIME / CHRONO (Group 3)
• WATER / AQUA (Group 4)

3. Figurative Language Examples (Upper Elementary)

• METAPHOR: Heart of gold, time is money…
• SIMILE: Like a moth to a flame, as blind as a bat…
• ALLITERATION: Sally sells seashells…
• PERSONIFICATION: The stars danced, the flowers begged for water…
• METAPHOR (Group 1)
• SIMILE (Group 2)
• PERSONIFICATION (Group 3)
• ALLITERATION (Group 4)

4. Grammar Parts of Speech

• VERBS: Run, think, shout, create
• NOUNS: Apple, table, freedom, teacher
• ADJECTIVES: Loud, blue, swift, happy
• ADVERBS: Quickly, softly, bravely, never
• VERBS (Group 1)
• NOUNS (Group 2)
• ADJECTIVES (Group 3)
• ADVERBS (Group 4)

How to Build Your Own: Build custom boards quickly using free tools like Svalle’s Connections Generator!

80) Try ELA Scattergories!

Scattergories is a word game where you list words starting with a specific letter under a predetermined category.

How to Play

1. Pick a Letter: Choose one letter for the round (for example, “M”).
2. Set a Timer: Give players 2 minutes per round.
3. Write Answers: Players list one word starting with that letter for each category you’ve listed (project the list on the board).
4. Score Points: Players get 1 point for unique answers. Duplicate answers get 0 points. (So, you only earn a point if nobody else had that answer written down.)

ELA Category Lists You Can Use

List 1: Literary Elements

• Author or Poet (e.g., Maya Angelou)
• Literary Device (e.g., Metaphor)
• Tone or Mood Word (e.g., Melancholy)
• Character Trait (e.g., Mischievous)
• Book Title (e.g., Matilda)
• Genre (e.g., Mystery)

List 2: Grammar & Vocabulary

• Action Verb (e.g., March)
• Descriptive Adjective (e.g., Magnificent)
• Plural Noun (e.g., Mountains)
• Adverb (e.g., Mysteriously)
• Compound Word (e.g., Moonlight)
• Academic Vocabulary Word (e.g., Metaphor)

List 3: Grab Bag

• Fictional Place from Something We’ve Read (e.g., Mount Olympus)
• Character from Something We’ve Read (e.g., Medusa)
• Prefix or Suffix (e.g., Mis-)
• Four-Syllable Word (e.g., Melancholy)
• Literary or Rhetorical Vocabulary Word (e.g., Monologue)
• Metaphor (e.g., “He was ‘mousy’ “)

In Conclusion…

The future of ELA/High School English/Lit and Comp is going to need to be less about assigning work and more about witnessing learning happen…

Teachers are moving toward more reading in class, more writing in class, more discussion in class, more feedback in class, and more authentic evidence of student thinking. This type of work is harder to fake, and it allows us to SEE the learning as it is happening.

Obviously, you are not going to make all 80 changes for this coming school year. However, just a few could make a big improvement to how next year goes for you and your students. Why not pick 2-3 things to change, and see what happens? You can always come back next summer and choose three more!

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What do you want to change for next year and why?

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Related Posts You Might Love:

• Read more on stopping AI here, here, and here!

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About the Author: Carly Lamp has taught English 11/English III (American Lit) for 13 years & AP Literature for 10 years. She creates thorough, thoughtful, and rigorous materials, units, and resources for high school English teachers through her blog and her TPT store (both named English with Mrs. Lamp). She LOVES teaching high school English and helping new teachers and homeschool parents teach with confidence!