Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA

Every new professional needs a mentor, and beginning teachers benefit from the kind veteran teacher down the hall. Johnson, Kay, and Stuart give us just that: the helpful voices of wisdom and experience. They welcome us into the best professional conversations with each other and leaders like Penny Kittle and Thomas Newkirk.
Their advice is sound. John Hattie’s research provides the underpinning, and the authors show how to set up and run classrooms truly responsive to students.
Their advice is so practical! They offer multiple techniques, such as many ways to quote students in your classroom and how to leverage the grading load.
Best and most rare of all, their advice models learning. Pointing us toward online sources like the Cult of Pedagogy and the National Writing Project, they share how they have evolved as teachers, even creating language (buzzwordified!) and crackling the prose with concepts like literacy evangelism.
If I can’t teach down the hall from these three, this book is the next best thing. -- Gretchen Bernabei * Teacher, Consultant, and Author *
Johnson, Kay, and Stuart are asking great questions that will lead to life-giving, sustainable ELA teaching and learning. The practices they describe in their own rooms leap off the page because of their authenticity and dynamic delivery. We need more books like this by teachers who love students and have a passion for building our profession by inviting others into their classroom practices in ways that allow educators and students to flourish. -- Jonathan Eckert * Author of Leading Together: Teachers and Administrators Improving Student Outcomes *
Reading this book is like having three experienced mentors give you all the answers on the ELA teacher test! If you are looking for teaching moves, engaging assignments, and resources to cultivate a true learning community, get ready to be inspired. Truly a gift for early-career teachers looking for ideas, midcareer teachers who need a boost, and veteran teachers who are ready to be refreshed. Johnson, Kay, and Stuart shine a united voice of optimism on teaching in today’s classrooms. -- Carol Pelletier Radford * Author of Teaching With Light: Ten Lessons for Finding Wisdom, Balance, and Inspiration; Mentoring in Action: Guiding, Sharing, and Reflecting With Novice Teachers; and The First Years Matter: Becoming an Effective Teacher *
Matthew Johnson, Matthew Kay, and Dave Stuart have hit a home run with their new book Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA. Their practical suggestions for cultivating classroom community and instructional ideas are valuable for not only the novice educator, but the seasoned one as well. I found myself thinking of ways I could use their suggestions in my own university literacy teaching! This trio has crafted a text that ELA folks will want to keep on their desk so they can quickly reference these easy-to-implement classroom ideas. -- Rebecca Harper * Author of Write Now and Write On, Grades 6–12 *
Johnson, Kay, and Stuart have written a book to help navigate the burning questions early-career teachers long to understand. From ways to build a community of learners to motivational instruction to feedback that works for students and teachers alike, these inspirational teachers share what it takes to craft a career for the long haul. -- Andy Schoenborn * Coauthor of Creating Confident Writers: For High School, College, and Life *
Matthew Johnson, Matthew R. Kay’s, and Dave Stuart Jr. book Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA is an excellent resource for teachers looking to implement best practices in classrooms immediately. New teachers will find inspiration and resources as they plan and implement ELA curriculum in both the middle and high school English classroom. Johnson, Kay, and Stuart detail common challenges in the ELA classroom and provide practical strategies and solutions for the new and experienced teacher. -- Theresa Walter * English Teacher, Nationally Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) *
Johnson, Kay, and Stuart have written a book that would seem to answer every question I asked myself in the last year. They not only answer the questions with immediately useful suggestions one could apply to their class on the spot, but they also offer responses that are grounded as much in research as they are in optimism and joy. Though they began this book with beginning teachers in mind, they realized, as we all have in the last few years, that we are all new teachers who need the wisdom and practical strategies these three generous teachers offer us to do our job. My wife and I, because of the overwhelming demands of our personal and professional lives in the last few years, started getting one of those meal kits
delivered a couple of days a week. I was reminded of those kits and how much they have helped us be a bit more healthy and balanced as I read Answers to Your Biggest Questions, which Johnson, Kay, and Stuart would no doubt appreciate, for in their introduction, they say we should use and think of their book "as a serious cook uses a new cookbook." This book will help any teacher cook up lessons that are as consistently delicious as they are healthy—both for students and their teachers. -- Jim Burke * English Teacher, Middle College High School and Author of The Common Core Companion series *
Under the weight of overwhelming expectations and intimidating systems of power, ELA teachers can ease their heavy load by hitching up with Johnson, Kay, and Stuart. From each of their unique teacher zones, the authors provide do-able options—rather than do-it-all presumptions—to help teachers strengthen learning communities with empathy, engagement, and equity. Answers to Your Biggest Questions offers a hope, clarity, and practicality needed to make this work lighter and brighter. -- Erica Lee Beaton * Author of The Good Enough Teacher *
In Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA, three great yet distinctive teachers have put together a book that hits that rare balance of big-picture inspiration and down-home practical advice. Matthew Johnson, Matthew Kay, and Dave Stuart make their teaching visible in a way that will work both for early-career teachers and (as Matthew writes) "anyone who wants to be new." Most importantly, they keep it real: real questions, real dilemmas, and real responses full of options and activities. ELA teachers will want to keep this one close at hand. -- Elyse Eidman-Aadahl * Executive Director, National Writing Project *
Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA pools together the extensive classroom experience of Matthew Johnson, Matthew R. Kay, and Dave Stuart Jr. There are moments from their classrooms, their best strategies, and their favorite resources, all contextualized by powerful mental framing to help teachers of English language arts narrow their focus, work more efficiently, and make sure our valuable minutes with students move them forward as learners. Open up the book to any page, and you’ll find something you can use now—for example, my students have already considered the authors’ meaningful list of five reasons to read. This book will invite you to imagine better possibilities for you and your students. -- Sarah M. Zerwin * High School Language Arts Teacher, Instructional Coach, and Author of Point-Less: An English Teacher’s Guide to More Meaningful Grading *
Johnson, Kay, and Stuart are three of the best writers, sharpest thinkers, and kindest humans in our profession. These are the mentors every teacher should have! Written in engaging, heartfelt prose, Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA rings with teacher truths on every page. This book is a gift not only to new teachers but to all of us seeking a renewed commitment to our life’s work. -- Jennifer Fletcher * Author of Teaching Arguments (2015), Teaching Literature Rhetorically (2018), and Writing Rhetorically (2021) *
As a former high school English teacher, this book is the book I wish I had. As a high school principal, this is the book I will make sure is in the hands of every English and Language Arts teacher in my school. It is a thoughtful, practical and kind text that will help teachers build a student-centered English classroom with a culture of reading and writing that will help students years after they leave its walls. -- Chris Lehmann * Founding Principal—Science Leadership Academy Coauthor of Building School 2.0 *