Mixing literature with art and drama can be a powerful way for students to remember and apply both the content and underlying meaning of what they have read.

The last song sung. The last good-bye said. The last dismissal bell rung. The last student departed. The teacher returns to the classroom, surveys the emptiness, and listens to the silence. The silence is deeper and lonelier than the normal after school quietness. There is no lingering echo of childish voices. There are no lessons to plan for the next day. It is the silence of waiting, an emptiness that won’t be filled until children enter the door again in a few months.

It’s eleven o’clock on an ordinary Tuesday. You’re teaching history class; but as you look across your classroom, you’re not sure how much of what you’re saying is sinking in. Sally is staring out the window. Michael is doodling in his notebook. Billy seems to be systematically destroying his eraser

Getting students who don’t like to write to do just that can actually be an incredibly easy thing to do—just give them suggestions of topics they enjoy and a few leading sentences to get the gears in their brains moving. First of all, you’ve got to know your students well enough to know what they