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PODCAST

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

Betsy Potash: ELA

Want to love walking into your ELA classroom each day? Excited about innovative strategies like PBL, escape rooms, hexagonal thinking, sketchnotes, one-pagers, student podcasting, genius hour, and more? Want a thriving choice reading program and a shelf full of compelling diverse texts? You"re in the right place! Here you"ll find interviews with top authors from the ELA field, workshops with strategies you can use in class immediately, and quick tips to ignite your English teacher creativity

education how to

All Episodes

14:04

395: The American Dream: A Multimedia Introduction...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/09/17

If you teach American literature, chances are you're touching on the theme of the American Dream somehow, through book clubs, a poetry unit, a look at Gatsby, or an essential question that binds together a variety of genres and perspectives. So when I received this request for our Plan my Lesson series, "How about a fun way to introduce the American Dream unit for juniors, about 36 of them," I was ready. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how you might introduce the concept of The

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10:29

394: Quick Win: Build your Reading Culture with this...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/09/10

I worked at the cutest little bookstore coffee shop last week. In that small space, the collection had to be heavily curated, with just one or two books by popular authors and launching points for popular series books for kids. But the shop still held one full bookshelf for staff recommendations, covers out. Each employee had their shelf: "Sarah recommends....," "Tia recommends...., "William recommends...," etc. And while I had plenty of my own ideas about what authors I might like to read, I

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01:03:03

393: Research-Based Practices to Ignite Creativity,...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/09/03

We know employers want creative thinkers. We know creative thinking is necessary to solve the problems we see everywhere in our world. We know we want our students to learn to be more creative. But what does that mean exactly? Where does the science of creativity meet the cultural definition we all build for ourselves just by swimming in the 21st century stream? My guest today is Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle. Let me share her bio with you: "With more than 25 years as a scientist studying

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18:21

392: A Mentor-Based Grammar Lesson Blueprint

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/08/27

When it comes to teaching grammar, the research is clear. Drill and kill is not what we're looking for. You don't want to march through a series of grammar lessons unrelated to your students' writing and reading. Here's what NCTE's "Resolution on Grammar Exercises to Teach Speaking and Writing" has to say about it: "This resolution was prompted by the continuing use of repetitive grammar drills and exercises in the teaching of English in many schools. Proposers pointed out that ample evidence

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19:23

391: A Done-For-You Literary Food Truck Lesson 🎁

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/08/21

Think of your favorite book. Now think of your favorite food. Now match those two together - your favorite book and your favorite food - into some kind of experience. Maybe you've slipped into the world of the book and you're eating your favorite food with your favorite characters. Are you smiling yet? Today's "Plan my Lesson" episode is all about launching your first literary food truck festival. I recently got a note from a teacher who had listened to our episode during the pandemic

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29:19

390: A Lesson for Book Clubs with a Genius Hour Twist

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/08/13

Have you been hooked by the idea of book clubs lately? Wondering how you can integrate book clubs with essential questions, supplementary short stories and podcasts, and everything else you're up to? Then today's episode is for you. Today's "Plan my Lesson" request comes from a creative teacher trying to blend a lot of wonderful things into her new plan for the year. Here's what she writes: "Hi, Betsy! I am a huge fan and avid listener! As a teacher who is nearing retirement, I found myself in a

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15:16

389: A First Week Project Lesson: Building Research...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/08/06

Today's request for "Plan My Lesson" is from a teacher searching for a first week project that helps students get to know each other AND introduces a few key skills along the way. Perhaps you can relate? Here's what she writes: "It’s time to switch up the first project I do in English 10… For the last few years I’ve had the kiddos research their first name, practicing basic research skills, as well as us getting to know them and them doing some self exploration. I want a similar caliber project,

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18:13

388: A Low-Stress (Dare I say Fun?) Lesson Plan for...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/07/30

If there's one thing I want for your first day of school, it's for the pressure to be off you. You've got enough to worry about without needing to pull off a 45 minute lecture that magically holds students' attention before they even know you five times in a row. That's why for this lesson, requested for our summer "Plan my Lesson" series, our goal will be to hit all the day-one must-dos while also building community and keeping things engaging and low-stress. This is your chance to start

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15:28

387: A Summer Reading Lesson with Clear Creative Purpose

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/07/23

A summer reading lesson is a nice chance to start off the year with a creative tone, while creating some of the norms you want to establish. For today's "Plan my Lesson" series episode, I'm answering requests from two different teachers in search of a back-to-school lesson on summer reading. One teacher's class will have read Scythe, another's The Hunger Games. Both are interested in reviewing the basics of literature as a springboard into the year. So how can we capture students' interest,

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21:47

386: An Essay-less Argument Lesson Tapping Humor &...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/07/16

Students need to be able to make a great argument to find success at school, and in many professions. They need to come up with an idea, find evidence, analyze their evidence, and tie it all together with a well-written bow. Thus, for many decades, students have written essays. We've taught them to write thesis statements, organizing sentences, transitions, topic sentences, and conclusions. We've taught them how to punctuate their quotations and how to analyze them. We've typed up fixes for

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26:29

385: Re-engaging Rusty Readers: A Stamina Building...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/07/09

There's a lot of conversation happening lately around student reading stamina. Rose Horowitch's Atlantic article, "The Elite College Students who Can't Read Books," helped stir the pot. I'm sure you've seen evidence of the same issues she brings up - that students are struggling to stay focused through books, and often come to you having read a lot of excerpts and short pieces rather than full novels. Test-prep, phone culture, COVID - there are all kinds of reasons, but the bottom line for you as a

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21:37

384: A Lesson for "The Paper Menagerie"(and the...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/06/25

Ken Liu's short story, "The Paper Menagerie," is an easy and powerful add to your curriculum. Not only does it explore family relationships, The American Dream, and identity (themes you can easily connect to other texts as you build units), it introduces - briefly, painfully, powerfully - China's Cultural Revolution. I'll admit I've never studied the history of communism in China with much depth until recently. In college, I took a Socialist-Realist literature course that kicked off a life-long

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23:52

383: Bleeds, Ghosts, & Flash Verse: A Lesson for Long...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/06/18

It’s a rare curriculum book that inspires NO negative comments. Ever. To hear, month after month, year after year, that a certain book turns kids into readers, ignites interest and discussion in class, hooks unengaged students like nothing else has. Long Way Down is one such book. It’s a fast read, a novel-in-verse, by the former U.S. Ambassador for Youth Literature, Jason Reynolds. In my opinion it’s perfect for 9th and 10th graders, but really, there’s a lot there for students of any age. It

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30:14

382: An Action-Packed Born a Crime Lesson Especially...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/06/11

Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is trending, and for good reason. I'm seeing the evidence everywhere. This spring, as I ran our curriculum book choice tournament across the high school levels and hundreds of teachers weighed in, I watched it soar to the finals in BOTH the 9th/10th category and the 11th/12th category. Then, as summer began and I opened up this new podcast series, "Plan My Lesson" (which starts today, right now), I immediately received three separate requests for Born a Crime lessons

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07:21

381: What if We're thinking Too Small When it Comes...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/06/04

I never met a short story I liked back in high school. If I was going to read, I wanted to READ. I wanted to get caught up in the plot, get to know the characters, inhabit the action, spend some time in another world. I certainly didn't want to finish half an hour after I began. No matter how lovely the language or innovative the miniature plot. My eyes just drifted over short story sections at bookstores and libraries like they weren't there, and I honestly can't remember the name of a

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08:19

380: The Easiest Last Day in ELA (Community Favorite)

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/05/28

Last year, at this time, I was preparing to move from Bratislava to California when I released the episode we’re revisiting today, all about the easiest way to approach the last day in ELA. And it turned out to be the most popular episode I’ve ever released, with more than 25,000 teachers tuning in. So it seems only fitting that as the end of the year approaches once again, and my life is ONCE AGAIN in boxes, preparing for our move on Thursday for a very new and exciting job for my husband in the

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13:44

379: 6 ELA Review Activities for a Strong Finish

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/05/21

A few engaging review activities for ELA come in handy around this time of year, as the calendar takes over and students pop off to random awards ceremonies, spirit events, and slideshows. Sometimes you see them for one day in a row, sometimes two, but getting in a groove is definitely a challenge! So, in case you're in search of creative review activities that will get students looking back over all that they've learned before a final project or exam, or just before heading off into the summer

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08:45

378: Improve Student Evidence Analysis: Meet Mr....

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/05/14

When it comes to evidence in their argument papers, students have a tendency to mic drop way too soon. "Here's my evidence, BOOOOOOOM!" you can almost hear them saying. Because right after the evidence, they move on. Oops. That's not what we want, and I bet you've written "be sure to analyze this evidence and explain how it proves your point" a few (hundred) times. So what do we do? How do we make the idea MEMORABLE that students must analyze their evidence before moving on? There are a lot

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10:04

377: Teaching Students to Write an Argument...

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/05/07

Sure, there's no one right way to write an argument paper. It can be three paragraphs, nine, or even seventeen. It can be loaded with research. It can be full of voice and personal anecdotes. It can be intensely academic, with a formal objective perspective and thirty-two sources cited with MLA. We want our students to understand the rich palette of tools available to them, and mentor texts, varied writing assignments, and encouragement to try new things are all so important. But so is a place

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11:46

376: Gamifying Argument Basics

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA ·

2025/04/30

I have to admit my kids have got me fully invested in "Is it Cake?" At some point in England last year, someone begged for us to watch the show while we ate green pesto pasta on the couch after a long day of hiking in the New Forest, and I said sure. It was the beginning of our "Is it Cake?" era. We've gasped, we've squinted, we've cheered. We all love trying to tell which one is a purse and which one is a cake, and we've all exclaimed in SHOCK over those cake-based faux-leather laces. All

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391 results

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