If a student encounters an unfamiliar word, he or she should examine the word's ending for a clue to its meaning. This week's worksheet helps students discover how words ending in certain suffixes (-ee, -er, and -or) may have something important in common.  Continue reading...

Ever ask a group of students the difference between a regular word and a vocabulary word? They would probably respond by telling you that vocabulary words are words that they are supposed to learn in school, unfamiliar words that they encounter in newspapers and novels, or words that show up in workbooks with titles like "100 Vocabulary Words You Need to Know by Graduation."  Continue reading...

By the time you read this, my babies will have graduated. Yes, Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School, founded in 2007, graduated its first class on June 24, 2011, at 9:30 in the morning in what's got to be one of the largest school auditoriums in New York City.  Continue reading...

Words with similar definitions can have wildly different connotations. This week's worksheet ask students to analyze a group of related words and to figure out how they could be placed in a word spectrum — ranging from the word with the most negative connotation to the word with the most positive connotation.  Continue reading...

Teachers at Work contributor Shannon Reed had a "bad class" this year at the Brooklyn public school where she teaches English and theater. Shannon describes how she found a way to engage with the students through "spoken word" poetry.  Continue reading...

When English scholar E.D. Hirsch, Jr. was called upon to try to figure out why the communication skills of contemporary Americans were deteriorating, he answered that call by bemoaning this generation's lack of "cultural literacy" — a cultural knowledge base that previous generations of well-educated folks supposedly shared.  Continue reading...