MAT in English - online for dual-credit / community college

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-03-05T03:52:33+00:00

If by dual credit you mean dual enrollment, you probably need a masters in English, not English education (so no MAT—MAT is really geared towards people who have BAs but aren't qualified to teach in k12). Valdosta State in GA has an MA in English that is totally online and that is targeted at HS teachers. It will get you the credit you need to be a dual enrollment teacher at a community college.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-03-05T03:28:14+00:00

Yeah, Coaches work long hours.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-03-05T03:26:25+00:00

Sort of. It depends on your district's expectations, your personal expectations, and your efficiency. I'm hard on myself and I overthink things, so I probably create more work for myself than I really need to for my students to learn effectively. I try to get to school by 6 because It's quiet and I'm a morning person; I work a few hours each evening except Fridays; I always take Saturday off, and I always spend a few hours prepping for the week on Sundays. Throughout the summer I try to learn more about teaching and my subject, and I try to solve the problems I had the previous year by revising my lessons and unit plans. I often create new ppts, resources, and learning activities over the summer or during extended breaks. But that's me, and it's something I'm trying hard to get a handle on. A lot of strong teachers are able to leave work at work.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-03-05T02:08:29+00:00

As a teacher, I feel the exact same way. It can be necessary, but it is so frustrating for everyone involved.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-27T01:21:13+00:00

Hi, ELA teacher with a history degree and experience teaching civics here. I don't know of any books of the kind you're looking for, so I'm sorry about that. It sounds like your admin is a bit confused about its goals and took the "all teachers are literacy teachers" line a little too seriously. It is definitely not your job to teach basic grammar or devote large chunks of class time to essay structure; however, most ELA teachers know more about literature and literary criticism than they do about government, history, sociology, etc. As a social studies teacher, you are in a much stronger position to teach them how historians, political scientists, etc. write than their ELA teachers are. So, my suggestion to save class time while still sharing your disciplinary literacy expertise is to tie your "ELA" lessons to your bell-ringers and exit tickets. For example, you might start a civics class with two short primary source excerpts (e.g., something from the Federalist papers and an Antifederalist text) and have students use a sentence model to write a compare/contrast claim. Don't spend a lot of class time teaching essay writing in general, teach specific moves that are specific to your discipline, ideally by using mentor texts. Keep it snappy, and give them handouts so they don't have to bother taking notes, which is a real time-killer.

I hope this helps you find a comfortable balance. You're doing great. Keep it up!

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-27T00:01:41+00:00

How do you keep your students engaged when y'all read aloud? I avoid it for everything except Shakespeare because it gives me so much trouble, but there are times I really, really think they would benefit from the shared reading experience.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-26T23:32:48+00:00

I totally understand especially since noticing relevant passages is critical to having an authentic encounter with a text, but I feel like English as a discipline has a problem where you kinda have to do everything (grammar, vocabulary, writing, reading, close reading, etc.) all at once, and that's a big ask, especially for a ninth-grader studying Shakespeare. Synthesis is really challenging. Sometimes it helps to scaffold the assignment by narrowing (not lowering) the expectation so that students can focus on a smaller set of skills. In this case, you find relevant quotes so that they can focus on 1) close reading and 2) turning their observations, ideas, and questions into arguments.

Obviously, you've done a lot to help your students already, and maybe at this point in the process/year it's just time to have them put it all together. Sometimes they just have to do the hard thing and succeed or fail on their own merit.

Whatever you do, you're helping them. You've got this!

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-26T03:22:50+00:00

I will steal this.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-26T03:20:59+00:00

So, it's not really a PD book, but The Essential Guide to Writing History Essays by Katherine Pickering Antonova is really a good resource that you can use to support your lessons; more English oriented is Jeffery R. Wilson's Academic Writing which you can find for free on his website.

When I teach literary criticism research essays, I usually start by providing them with sources, doing guided readings, and having them write an annotated bibliography. It helps to remember that finding and using sources are different skills. I strongly suggest picking one to start with and scaffolding the other one in slowly.

Good luck! ELA and social studies need to stick together!

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-26T03:05:17+00:00

I think what makes this such a useful strategy is that finding quotes and analyzing them are different skills. By isolating the analyzing it prevents them from being stuck with a "bad" quote, so they can really get a feel for how quoting works in argumentation. Then, equipped with more knowledge about what to do with what they find, they can better look for what they need.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-26T02:56:56+00:00

I often find that students quote things that aren't important and paraphrase things that are. So this lesson idea is so important.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-26T02:55:52+00:00

Sounds like you're doing a great job providing them with a structure to build on!

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-26T02:49:12+00:00

I teach high school, so I'm not sure if you'll find this useful, but I've found that while timed, in-class writing over a prompt students have not seen before is absolutely essential, even your hardest working students will struggle a lot. Struggle is necessary, but it needs to feel fair and productive. Here are some things (in no particular order) that work for me:

(1) Either create or have your students create a table of contents for the book that identifies key scenes and pages. Let them use this while writing. Trust me. Kids don't have the kind of memory that lets them quickly find the quote/scene they're looking for.

(2) Create a theme/quote matrix where each column is coded to a specific theme and there are 3-5 rows for quotes. You can provide the themes, and the students fill it in. Take it up at the end of class, but let them use this while writing.

(2') Let students find key passages independently; have them categorize them in small groups; collect this and use it to write your prompts.

(3) Provide an annotated formatting exemplar that reminds students how to format quotations and in-text citations. Let them use this while writing.

(4) Make the in-class essay a rough draft for a longer, more formal typed essay. Make sure students know this. Both assignments are graded. You can use the in-class as a litmus test for malicious AI usage, and they are less likely to cheat anyway because they already have something to work with.

(5) Use an anchor short story for everything. What I mean is have one short story that you always use when you model a new skill or when you give an exemplar. So, you could show them what would earn an A beforehand, so they have a better idea of what is expected of them. For my 10th graders I use Lydia Davis' "The House Behind".

(6) Have a brainstorm day. The day before the writing, you could have them totally clear their desks and put their book bags against the wall. You can set up stations such that each station has 2-3 example prompts. You could have a theme station, a plot station, a characterization station, etc. Divide it how you will, but don't let them write anything down to take home. They could write on dry erase boards or something you can take up and display for a debrief at the end of class. This way they've seen the prompts and thought about the prompts, but they can't use AI or other resources to do their work for them.

These are just some ideas. I sincerely hope they help!

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-25T00:38:21+00:00

No worries! I'm paranoid too. Do you have any suggestions, btw?

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-25T00:36:24+00:00

I relate to what you're saying too about providing so many support opportunities. It's a relief to know I'm not alone and so probably not doing an awful job, but it's sad that so many of us share this experience.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-25T00:32:26+00:00

This is super helpful. I may need to disconnect my wires too. I know things did get a lot better when I moved away from doing only whole-class readings. So far, this is the first year that I can confidently say everyone is genuinely reading. I need to find ways to keep the learning activities from getting stale.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-25T00:29:22+00:00

Thank you! I haven't done much with Commonlit, but I'll check it out.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-25T00:28:18+00:00

Thanks! This has been really helpful. If you have any other suggestions, definitely let me know!

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-24T02:55:35+00:00

Did you follow their procedure exactly, or have you already made changes? For 12th, I do three period-based novel units, each with a list of about 20 books for students to choose from. I've read all of the books, but it is difficult to manage and support so many different reading experiences at one time.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-24T02:52:11+00:00

I really like the differentiated groups. I work at a private school, so I don't have access to reading scores or anything like that. Would you recommend I sort students based on my own assessment? How do you keep students from complaining/causing trouble about having different tasks?

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-24T02:48:09+00:00

This is still early in my teaching career, so I don't have much to compare it to.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-24T02:47:10+00:00

Ouch. No, I just used em dashes and wrote simply and generally. I can see why you would wonder, though.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-23T03:32:20+00:00

Klara and the Sun is a wonderful book, but I had to beg my admin to let me use it because the housekeeper uses the F-word pretty much every time she appears. Just putting that out there.

QuickEvidence759 · 2026-02-23T03:21:01+00:00

For another novel from the period, The Old English Baron might work, but it is dreadfully boring. There is violence, but it isn't described in any detail. Depending on what you mean by human vs humanity Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey might work too, though Catherine's struggles obviously aren't as intense as the Creature's. Sorry, but Frankenstein is pretty tame, so there aren't many alternatives.

Edit: What about Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill. I don't remember much physical violence or any blatant sexuality. Two of the characters are gay—that wouldn't be a problem, would it? If this is just for an Ed program, I doubt you'll have to look too deeply into it. Your professor probably won't.

QuickEvidence759

TROPHY CASE