Recently an invite dropped into my inbox - did I want to swing by a school in my city to talk about teaching ninth grade English for them next year? They really needed to fill a hole for a year. Just one hole - one course, one period, one group of kids. For one year. Did I want to do it? If I did, what was my vision for the course?

Whew. Honestly, the flood of emotions about knocked me over. On the one hand - maybe I could act on the ideas I've spent all my working hours cultivating for the last decade. How I would love to design my room, my booklist, my units, using all the materials I've developed, and hopefully making a real impact in the lives of this class of students.

On the other hand - the struggle. The school was already using a textbook to teach 9th grade English and I wanted nothing to do with it. I imagined total freedom to craft the course of my dreams, but of course, the school would already have arcs and norms in place. They might not want a vigilante substitute looking to repaint and refurnish her classroom with stacks of choice reading books while teaching podcasting and multimodal memoirs, hosting literary food truck festivals and one-pager fairs, and submitting to New York Times contests.

But maybe they would? I'll be taking that meeting soon, but in the meantime, I've got a question to answer. What's my vision for the course? So just in case you, too, are trying to define your vision for a 9th grade course, I thought I'd brainstorm right here with you.

For folks inside The Lighthouse, this will also serve as a fun look at how I'd use materials there to build my course. All the visuals you see in the blog version here are pulled from resources already available to you inside The Lighthouse.

Grab the Free Literary Food Truck Curriculum: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/literaryfoodtrucks

Grab the Free Classroom Design Tookit: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/evolvingEDdesign

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Maybe you weren't taught poetry with joy and pizzazz, and you don't incline to writing it yourself. Which perhaps describes, what do you think, 99% of the population? Maybe 99.99%? If you're in this camp, I get it. Poetry can feel like a nebulous enigma in the world of literature, and it's easy to find yourself nodding along when people talk about it being great without really believing in your nod, like the parade-goers in The Emperor's New Clothes.

I didn't have much use for it until I met my first performance poetry multimedia - audio recordings, a slam documentary, and the Def Poetry jam series - about twenty years ago. Then everything changed. Suddenly instead of a hoop to be jumped through, poetry opened up as a gateway I could use to help students connect to ELA.

Since then, I've discovered layer upon layer of wonderful ways to build poetry in across units, learning a great deal from others along the way. Today on the pod, I'll walk you through twelve different creative, engaging options you can tap into as you teach poetry throughout the year. And I do hope that after this, you WILL teach poetry throughout the year.

Links Mentioned:

Chrome Music Labs Song Maker Tool: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker

Poetry Blackout for Analysis Activity Episode: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2025/10/poetry-blackout-a-creative-analysis-tool.html

Blackout Poetry Activity Full Handouts Free Resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blackout-Poetry-Activity-l-black-out-poetry-l-blackout-poetry-passages-4165682

Video Interpretation of "In the Dead of Winter We": https://jotreyes.com/in-the-dead-of-winter-we

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Welcome to another episode in our occasional series of short "Highly Recommended" episodes, in which we dive into a quick idea, resource, or tip that I hope will have an immediate impact for you. This week, we're talking about an online treasure trove of authentic audience for your student writers.

Here's the link for this year, or search "NYT Student Contest Calendar" anytime: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/learning/our-2025-26-student-contest-calendar.html

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I loved the Bread Loaf School of English program at Middlebury College. It's a unique summer program leading to a Masters in English, catering almost entirely to English teachers. So the class conversations are literary, but somehow it's all infused with teaching ideas, since it's almost all teachers in every room. Through this program, I spent two summers in Vermont, two in Santa Fe, and one in Oxford. I'd be happy to talk about it here, in today's episode on masters programs, but I already shared a complete review, from my perspective, of The Bread Loaf School back in episode 223, so I'm going to direct you over to that episode if you're looking for a masters in English right now that you can do in person while you teach.

But then there's the other option for an English teacher - a masters in the field of education. There are soooo many possibilities that it's a bit hard to know where to start. So here I'm going to round up some top candidates that I considered when I recently decided to go back and get a second masters. They all appeal in different ways. In the blog post, I'll let you know the name of the program, the format, the length, the description as given on the program website, and the current deadline to apply that they have listed for the nine programs I considered. In the podcast version, I'm going to zoom in on my personal top candidates. I'll also share links in this blog post and the podcast show notes to the many ongoing conversations on masters programs always taking place in Creative High School English, and to the U.S. News and World Report Rankings for top programs.

All the Links!

The Masters in Teaching & Curriculum at Michigan State University (all online): https://online.msu.edu/programs/teaching-curriculum

The Master of Arts in Education from Arizona State University (all online): https://asuonline.asu.edu/online-degree-programs/graduate/masters-in-education/

Learning Design, Innovation and Technology Program (in person):

• At Harvard: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/degrees/masters/program/ldit
• At Stanford: https://ed.stanford.edu/ldt

Interested in a Masters in ENGLISH? To learn about a summer in-person program for teachers that I did and loved, check out Episode 223: The Bread Loaf School of English

Want to read the most current conversations about masters programs in Creative High School English? Here they are: https://www.facebook.com/groups/256927044749038/search/?q=masters%20program

The U.S. News and World Report ranking for best programs in Curriculum & Instruction: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/curriculum-instruction-rankings

The U.S. News and World Report ranking for best programs in Secondary Instruction: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/secondary-teacher-education-rankings

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I'm in a book club right now, for the first time ever. (Yeah, I know, gasp. But I've always had so much to read for so many reasons that I've never sought out a book club). It's a pretty great concept - reading a book you want to read with your friends. A concept that I've thought about for a while now should really be part of every single ELA curriculum. Book clubs allow us to offer students curated choices, present more diverse voices as part of our curricula, and expand on themes and genres to give students a wider range of experiences through their conversations with classmates. Win, win, win. Today on the pod, I want to show you how easy it is to wave your book club wand and easily turn part of your curriculum into book clubs.

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When you boil down the essentials of so much writing, what you get is the need for vivid, original detail. In a college essay, the story comes alive when a student goes way past the generalities and gives specific examples. In an argument essay, the intricate examples and counterargument that is explained with depth makes the most impact. In any kind of research, carefully exploring the core of the ideas with the most interesting possible language will hook and hold the reader's attention. And in narrative - as we've seen, eminently transferable to other areas of writing - it's the details.

I took a copywriting class once where they boiled this concept down to a sandwich. Never say someone ate a sandwich. Say it was a pastrami on rye with extra mustard and a sheaf of pickles. Say it was a PB & J positively oozing J. Say it was a double-decker smash burger with Jimmy's special sauce and extra crispy sweet potato fries.

See the difference?

But here's the thing. When you tell a kid they need more details, that doesn't exactly come alive for THEM. You need more details in your request for details. They need to SEE and FEEL what you mean, just like you need to see and feel the world of their writing. So today on the pod, let's dive into six strategies you can use with your students to help improve their narrative writing detail. Your students may already have some of these down, but others may be new, or areas that will help with something causing them to struggle. As with any set of writing strategies, teach what they actually need. Apply it to their current writing projects.

Links:

41 Authentic Audiences for Student Work: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2026/02/41-authentic-audiences-for-your-ela-students.html

Find the new narrative unit on TPT here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Narrative-Unit-Digital-Editable-3-Weeks-15700216

Hillocks Jr., G. (2007). Narrative Writing: Learning a New Model for Teaching. Heinemann.

Graham, S., MacArthur, C., & Hebert, M. (Eds). (2019). Best Practices in Writing Instruction. The Guilford Press.

Stockman, Angela. (2015). Make Writing. Hack Learning Series.

Zinsser, W. (2004). On Writing Well. Harper.

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Today on the podcast we're digging into student agency and the lessons Dr. Annalies Corbin has learned from her work pioneering microschools and portable innovation labs. Who is Dr. Corbin, you ask?

Well, she's the CEO and founder of the PAST Foundation. "From a single school partnership in 2006, Annalies has grown PAST's supporters across the nation, building a reputation for both transforming teaching and learning by understanding tomorrow's education needs. In 2015, Annalies' commitment to transforming schools led to the development of PAST Innovation Lab. Connecting directly with teachers through online professional development courses, MAEd program and on-site workshops, PAST Innovation Lab impacts more classrooms and expands learning opportunities for teachers and students everywhere. In 23 years, PAST has impacted more than 2,300,000 students, over 20,000 teachers across 42 states, hosting nearly 20,000 visitors and building hundreds of partnerships" (Foundation Website).

To connect further after the show, you can find Annalies hosting the podcast, Learning Unboxed, or read her new book, Hacking Schools: Five Strategies to Link Learning to Life.

I think you're going to be really intrigued by the programs the PAST foundation has put into action, and the ways they can be applied to ELA. So let's dive in.

Connect with Dr. Annalies Corbin:

Find out more about her new book, Hacking School, here.

Learn about The Past Foundation.

Say hello to Annalies on Instagram.

Go Further:

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