The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

Betsy Potash: ELA
  • 4.9 (228)
  • HOW TO
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | 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. Love teaching poetry? Explore blackout poems, book spine poems, I am from poems, performance poetry, lessons for contemporary poets, and more. Excited to get started with hexagonal thinking? Find out how to build your first deck of hexagons, guide your students through their first discussion, and even expand into hexagonal one-pagers. Into visual learning? Me too! Learn about sketchnotes, one-pagers, and the writing makerspace. Want to get your students podcasting? Get the top technology recs you need to make it happen, and find out what tips a podcaster would give to students starting out. Wish your students would fall for choice reading? Explore top titles and how to fund them, learn to make your library more appealing, and find out how to be a top P.R. agent for books in your classroom. In it for the interviews? Fabulous! Find out about project-based-learning, innovative school design, what really helps kids learn deeply, design thinking, how to choose diverse texts, when to scaffold sketchnotes lessons, building your first writing makerspace, cultivating writer's notebooks, getting started with genius hour, and so much more, from our wonderful guests. Here at The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, discover you're not alone as a creative English teacher. You're part of a vast community welcoming students to their next escape room, rolling out contemporary poetry and reading aloud on First Chapter Fridays, engaging kids with social media projects and real-world ELA units. As your host (hi, I'm Betsy), I'm here to help you ENJOY your days at school and feel inspired by all the creative ways to teach both contemporary works and the classics your school may be pushing. I taught ELA at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade levels both in the United States and overseas for almost a decade, and I didn't always get support for my creativity. Now I'm here to make sure YOU get the creative support you deserve, and it brings me so much joy. Welcome to The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies!

  1. 6D AGO

    The Glue: One Thing You Need in Every ELA Unit

    You’ve probably heard me talk about my first poetry slam. The project that became my go-to vehicle for teaching poetry every year that followed. The book I was handed - 6 American Poets - was chock full of great poetry. Dickinson, Whitman, Hughes… but I knew that I, like every paper worth reading, would need a solid hook.  That’s how I ended up staying up til one in the morning the night before my poetry unit was set to kick off searching for poetry slam clips without swearwords.  Eventually I found some incredible clips and the philosophy that would guide much of my time in the classroom. I thought of the philosophy then as “using showcase projects.”  Now I think of it as finding the glue that would keep students engaged with my material. So how can you find your own glue? Let’s talk. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    5 min

  2. FEB 26

    Gamify ELA Review with a Colorful Memory Game

    I can still remember the faded, chipped blue print of my childhood game of Memory. The thick cardboard squares we flipped in search of pairs, thrilled when we found a match, frustrated when we accidentally revealed a match to our opponent. I’ve played a million games now as a parent too, watching my children’s eyes light up when they rack up more matches than I do, which is pretty much every time. I think my daughter was beating me consistently by the time she was four. The memory game seems to stick in our game culture like no other. I see a new twist on it everywhere, most recently National Parks memory when I stepped into the store at Sequoia National Park last week.  So how can we use this go-to in the classroom to gamify ELA? Well, in a million ways. Let’s talk about how you can make your own memory game, with pretty much any material you want to cover. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    8 min

  3. FEB 19

    ELA Electives with a Twist: Outside-the-Box Ideas to Inspire You

    Teaching an ELA elective that you've dreamed up yourself is such a joy. Today I want to stir up some ideas together for the next time you've got the chance to put your own spin on an older course or propose a new course altogether. So let's start with a few questions: Would you rather take a course called "Theater" or "Contemporary Theater: The Triumphs of Hamilton & Wicked "? "Creative Writing" or "Writing for Change across Platforms"? "Film & Literature" or "How the Oscars got it Wrong"? "Argument Writing" or "How to Get What You Want (with your Writing)." "Digital Literacy" or "Understanding Spin: How the Sites You Choose Impact What You Believe." While many schools continue to run electives like "Creative Writing" and "Poetry," which are often wonderful courses, I believe it's time for a shift in framing. Writing is EVERYWHERE today, playing a vital role in our politics, our science, our businesses, our media creation and consumption, our entertainment, and our understanding of the world. To help our students see that, we can tap into modern platforms and media to hook our students, teaching similar key skills and texts in a new context, alongside more contemporary voices. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    19 min

  4. FEB 12

    3 Easy Ways to Help Kids Build Better Arguments

    Like most of us, Christina Schneider didn't find teaching writing one bit easy at first. Despite her background as a journalist, putting all the puzzle pieces together in the classroom to help her students understand how to build a thesis, introduce and analyze evidence, and express their ideas felt like a pretty tough task. But over time she had one breakthrough after another with her high school students in California. She figured out how to meet them where they are and guide them through the process of building their academic writing skills day by day throughout the school year. Now she steps up to the plate each August with her new students feeling confident that she can take them where they need to go. She's recently written a new book, Building Strong Writers, where she shares everything she's learned in step-by-step walkthroughs to make it easy for you to try too. Today on the pod, we'll be exploring three of her top writing scaffolds, and how you can get started with them tomorrow to make argument writing instruction simpler and more successful in your classroom. Connect with Christina, from The Daring English Teacher Hi! I’m Christina. I’m a full-time high school English and journalism teacher, wife, and mom. I’ve taught every high school grade level, and I love sharing my ideas, lesson plans, and ELA resources with other teachers. One of my passions is providing engaging, robust, and differentiated learning experiences to my students while helping other teachers do the same. Explore more of Christina's work on her website: https://thedaringenglishteacher.com/  Grab your copy of her new book, Building Strong Writers: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Strong-Writers-Strategies-Scaffolds/dp/1956306854  Follow along with her tips and ideas on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaringenglishteacher/  Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Get my popular free hexagonal thinking digital toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    26 min

  5. FEB 5

    Contemporary Authors to Feature this Black History Month (and all year long)

    It's February, the perfect time to feature work by contemporary Black authors in your book talks, poetry clip showings, First Chapter Fridays, book displays, and bulletin boards. It's also a good time to look ahead to next year and consider whether you want to order some of these books for book clubs and whole class texts in the 2025-2026 school year.boo Of course, I know you know every month is the perfect time to feature these books in all kinds of ways. But today let's talk about five authors you might want to highlight especially right now, and why. As always, you know your classroom best, so be sure to preview books before teaching them to be sure they're the right fit for your students' ages and your community. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    12 min

  6. JAN 29

    The Secret Sauce to Help Students Care

    How many times have you sat in a PD meeting that didn't apply to you? One where you were learning an 11 letter acronym for a strategy you'd never use, a 3 point plan for a new program that wouldn't fit with your curriculum, or a training you'd already had? A PD meeting that was... irrelevant.  In their book, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, Kylene Beers and Bob Probst use one word to describe a key component we need in our in our curriculum in order to keep students' attention: relevance (115).   Relevance hit home for me, conceptually.  For many years, I've argued here for authentic audience, more contemporary texts featuring diverse voices, real-world projects like genius hour and podcasting, exploring modern mediums for communication, and student-led discussion.  Relevance - in the words of the latest visual trend on Insta - fits the #vibesibringtothefunction here at Spark Creativity. I want it for you, of course, in your professional learning, and that's why I'm here. And I want it for your students, in their learning in your classroom. When Beers and Probst polled high school students on what issues they'd be interested in exploring, the issues that feel relevant to them, they named things like solving hate/bullying, fighting racism, ending discrimination around mental illness, and protecting the environment (117). It's not easy to dive into issues like these if you're tied to an aggressive standardized curriculum.  As Beers and Probst put it, it's easier to create a learning environment that matters to students "if the question begins, 'What do kids want to know?' rather than 'What does the curriculum say we must cover?'" (116).  And yet, there are inroads you can make in your classroom toward relevance, while you have larger conversations with your colleagues and administration about the wider curriculum and the freedom (or lack thereof) it allows you as you design your units.  So today, I want to explore ways to build more relevance into the curriculum, even if you don't have carte blanche to teach whatever you want, however you want to. Links Mentioned: Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's Book: Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters David Kelley's Incredible Ted Talk: How to Build your Creative Confidence Jared Amato's Book: Just Read It Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    14 min

  7. JAN 21

    Art as Influencer: The Reason my Orwell Unit Failed and Why it Matters for your Students

    I've been reading Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's Disrupting Thinking: How Why We Read Matters this week, and one of their points that has really come home for me is how often the standards and the pressure to boil books down to skills leads to pulling plot-based facts and point-based evidence out of a book, blocking opportunities for students to think about what the book means in the context of their lives. How it might change them, influence them, give them something new to think about in the way they approach the world. It reminded me of a comment my son's history teacher made recently, asking for him to focus not just on the events of history, but on "making meaning" out of them. I loved this directive, and at the same time, I knew a lot of follow-up was required. "Making meaning" out of what we learn is right up there at the top of Bloom's taxonomy, a combination of "evaluate" and "create," and not something that will just happen by itself. So how DO we bring our students from memorizing plot details to creating a dialogue with books that help to shape who they become? Today I want to share a story with you, about a time I taught a novel without considering the implications in the lives of my students, and how their reaction changed me as a teacher. As you'll see from my story, helping students make meaning from reading isn't as simple as some catchy acronym or a certain type of double-sided journal. But I will share some ideas for starting points you can use in class, strategies, discussion questions, and project possibilities that can help students ask a text: what do you want from me? And why? What do I want from you? You can listen in below, or read on for the written version. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    24 min

  8. JAN 16

    Amplify Argument Engagement with a Mock Trial

    This week I want to share a project idea that you can use for a ton of different texts - the mock trial. I’ll tell you why the mock trial was one of my FAVORITE projects as a student, and one fun way I used it as a teacher. By the time you finish listening to this quick episode, I hope you’ll be excited to put a mock trial into play in your own classroom.  My senior year of high school, my AP Lit teacher thought of a wonderful way to spice up our Madame Bovary unit. She had us re-enact Gustave Flaubert’s obscenity trial. Did you know he stood trial for offending public morals with his novel? Yep. Anyway, we all took on different roles - Flaubert himself, and the lawyers and witnesses - and started meeting in class to plan our arguments, our questions, and our opening and closing statements. As Flaubert’s defense lawyer, I thought it would be helpful to have the transcripts of the original trial, so after school I headed for the local University Library to check out the transcript, which I used to create my seven page single spaced opening statement for Flaubert. It was so much fun pulling those transcripts out in class the next day. Needless to say, Flaubert was declared innocent by the trial’s end, and the project has always stuck with me as one of my favorites from school. Years later, I decided to put my own spin on it with my 10th graders in Bulgaria as we studied The Crucible. We put the judges, Hawthorne and Danforth, on trial for letting it all happen. Students took the roles of defense and prosecution lawyers, characters in the play who could be called to the stand, and jury members. Everyone had specific tasks to help them prepare, and each witness worked on either the defense or prosecution’s team in building a case. The lawyers wrote opening statements and worked to come up with strong questions for each witness. Witnesses worked with their lawyers on their answers to the questions they would know, possible questions the other team might ask, and how they would respond, and reviewed their characters’ actions and dialogue in the play. Jury members came up with argument ideas for both sides, as well as evidence to support them, so they’d have a clear picture of the text going into the trial. I was the judge, so I could run the order of the day and keep things moving on schedule. While I felt the judges were to blame for allowing the court to abandon real justice, I believe in the end the jury found Hawthorne and Danforth innocent, after a highly engaging day of official process.  I bet there’s a mock trial spin waiting to happen for at least one of your class texts… In Romeo and Juliet, you might put the priest on trial for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. In The Great Gatsby, you might put Daisy on trial for Myrtle’s death. But it doesn’t always have to be about an actual crime. You might let Frankenstein’s monster sue him for not creating a mate for him, and decide whether or not to award damages. You could try the insurance case of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman.  While a mock trial isn’t right for every book, it’s a great way to create engagement and buy-in around building skills with argument, evidence, and analysis while also practicing public speaking. It doesn’t hurt that law if a popular career many students may be considering. That’s why this week, I want to highly recommend you give a mock trial project a try the next time you’ve got a project-shaped hole in a whole class novel unit.  Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

    4 min
See All (359)

Trailer

4.9
out of 5
228 Ratings

About

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. Love teaching poetry? Explore blackout poems, book spine poems, I am from poems, performance poetry, lessons for contemporary poets, and more. Excited to get started with hexagonal thinking? Find out how to build your first deck of hexagons, guide your students through their first discussion, and even expand into hexagonal one-pagers. Into visual learning? Me too! Learn about sketchnotes, one-pagers, and the writing makerspace. Want to get your students podcasting? Get the top technology recs you need to make it happen, and find out what tips a podcaster would give to students starting out. Wish your students would fall for choice reading? Explore top titles and how to fund them, learn to make your library more appealing, and find out how to be a top P.R. agent for books in your classroom. In it for the interviews? Fabulous! Find out about project-based-learning, innovative school design, what really helps kids learn deeply, design thinking, how to choose diverse texts, when to scaffold sketchnotes lessons, building your first writing makerspace, cultivating writer's notebooks, getting started with genius hour, and so much more, from our wonderful guests. Here at The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, discover you're not alone as a creative English teacher. You're part of a vast community welcoming students to their next escape room, rolling out contemporary poetry and reading aloud on First Chapter Fridays, engaging kids with social media projects and real-world ELA units. As your host (hi, I'm Betsy), I'm here to help you ENJOY your days at school and feel inspired by all the creative ways to teach both contemporary works and the classics your school may be pushing. I taught ELA at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade levels both in the United States and overseas for almost a decade, and I didn't always get support for my creativity. Now I'm here to make sure YOU get the creative support you deserve, and it brings me so much joy. Welcome to The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies!

Information

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada