TEA4TEACHER

Model texts remove guesswork. They make success visible, achievable, and repeatable. When used well, they accelerate learning, reduce anxiety, and lift the quality of student writing across all ability levels.

The problem is rarely commitment or capability. More often, it is planning that doesn’t reflect real classroom conditions. Units that truly tick all the boxes are not packed tighter or delivered faster. They are built with realism, prioritisation, and intentional pacing at their core.

Short stories offer depth without overload. They allow teachers to teach the same high-level skills demanded by novels and films, but in a format that is flexible, repeatable, and far less exhausting for students and teachers alike. When used intentionally, short fiction can drive some of the strongest learning outcomes in the English classroom.

One of the most common frustrations in high school English classrooms is this: students do the work, but they don’t really think. They highlight quotes, answer questions, and write paragraphs that technically meet the criteria — yet their responses feel surface-level, repetitive, or disconnected from the deeper ideas of the text. This is the difference between compliance and curiosity. Compliance looks productive. Curiosity is productive.

Two short stories that excel at this are Evan Hunter’s The Last Spin and John Collier’s The Chaser. Though vastly different in tone, both texts give students opportunities to examine human motivation, peer pressure, manipulation, and personal responsibility. These themes are not only deeply engaging for teens, but also crucial for building empathy and moral reasoning skills.

While banning AI outright isn’t realistic—or necessarily desirable—ELA teachers can get ahead of the problem by crafting “AI-resistant” tasks. These are assessments that emphasize personal voice, lived experience, process, and creativity, making it much harder (and far less useful) for students to outsource their work to machines.

Australian poetry is more than words on a page—it’s a reflection of who we are, where we’ve come from, and the values that shape our national identity. Few forms capture this better than bush poetry, with iconic works like The Man from Snowy River (Banjo Paterson), The Man from Ironbark (Banjo Paterson), My Country (Dorothea Mackellar), Up the Country (Henry Lawson), and Bell-Birds (Henry Kendall). These poems were written during a formative period in Australian history, when

Transforming Your Walls into Tools for Learning and Motivation Walk into almost any high school English classroom and you’ll probably see colorful posters covering the walls—quotes from famous authors, grammar rules, literary terms, and motivational phrases. But while posters can brighten up a room, they can also do so much more  than just make a space look pretty. When used intentionally, classroom posters become active teaching tools, memory aids, and sources of daily inspi

High school ELA teachers are discovering that AI can lighten their workload while enriching student learning. But they are also navigating new ethical questions, concerns about plagiarism, and the need to preserve authentic student voice. Below, we’ll explore how teachers are using AI successfully in ELA—plus strategies to integrate it responsibly, and ready-made resources to support your journey.

Short stories hold a unique power in the English classroom. In just a few pages, they can spark intense discussion, raise profound moral questions, and immerse students in unfamiliar worlds. For high school students, who are at a pivotal stage in forming their worldviews, stories that push them to question society’s norms can be transformative.

Short stories give students the chance to step briefly but deeply into someone else’s shoes. In just a few pages, they can witness unfamiliar struggles, question assumptions, and test their own values against those of the characters.

As AI tools like ChatGPT and other large language models become part of everyday life, high school English teachers face a new challenge: guiding students to use AI ethically. In English Language Arts (ELA), where originality, interpretation, and voice are central, AI presents unique risks—and unique opportunities. Students need to learn how to use it as a support, not a shortcut, while still developing their own thinking, writing, and creativity.

In a media-saturated world, students must be able to interpret, evaluate, and challenge the messages they encounter daily. Film study units offer a dynamic, engaging way to teach these skills while supporting traditional literacy objectives. They help students become informed consumers of media, critical thinkers, and effective communicators. Most importantly, film allows students to see stories—and themselves—in new ways, deepening engagement and understanding.

Adolescence is a time when students begin to grapple with ethical questions: What does loyalty mean? How do you know when to stand up for something? What does justice look like? Literature gives them models for exploring these dilemmas, but creative writing allows them to test those ideas themselves.

By incorporating podcasts, infographics, video essays, graphic novels, digital stories, blogs, performances, and multimedia presentations, high school English teachers are equipping students with tools that reflect the realities of communication today.

The Book Thief is a profoundly moving and richly crafted novel that invites students to consider the human heart beneath the horrors of history. Through its poetic narration, themes of resilience, empathy, and the power of words, it remains as relevant today as ever.

The last few years have transformed the way high school English classrooms function. Between the sudden shift to remote learning, the surge of educational technology, and the arrival of powerful AI tools, teachers in 2025 are navigating an entirely new landscape. Yet one question remains at the heart of English Language Arts (ELA): how do we re-engage students and bring them back into meaningful, authentic learning experiences? Here are four practices that are making a real d

It's that popular question English students ask - Why should I bother with essay writing in High School English? We all know they love to hate this skill. But there are a lot of good reasons why they should learn it. Essay writing is still a relevant and important skill in today’s education and professional world for several reasons:

Close reading is a reading strategy that involves reading a text carefully and critically, paying attention to details, and analyzing the author's use of language and structure. Close reading can help improve student comprehension in several ways:

Improving vocabulary can be a challenging task for students, but it can also be fun and engaging when approached in a creative way. Here are some fun ways to help students improve their vocabulary: Word of the Day: Assign a "word of the day" and encourage students to use it in their conversations and writing. You can also have students create flashcards or posters to help them remember the meaning of the word. Vocabulary Games: Engage students in vocabulary games such as Scra