Free Daily Podcast Summary
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA: Daily Summaries Delivered
by 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. 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!
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- 4 days ago14 min
449: 6 Compelling Novels-in-Verse for ELA Teachers to Know
Jason Reynolds made me a novel-in-verse believer. "If you were to tell me you were afraid of dogs," he said, in an interview with PBS on why he wrote a verse novel for kids, "I wouldn't then return to you with a pack of pit bulls. I wouldn't invite you out to a quiet evening over dinner and Cujo. However, what I might do is casually walk you by one of those doggy daycares. The ones with the pups small enough to fit in the palm of your hand." Reynolds argues that verse can help kids gently return to reading when they've turned completely away from it. He equates the poetic form with the tiny puppy. "Poetry," he says, "has the ability to create entire moments with just a few choice words. The spacing and line breaks create rhythm, a helpful musicality, a natural flow. The separate stanzas aid in perpetuating a kind of incremental reading, one small chunk at a time." Recently, I've been teaching novel-in-verse as a genre, as we've explored Jason Reynolds' Long Way Down in my 9th grade class. I've also been spotlighting them through displays and book talks, which has meant previewing books as fast as I can. This fall, I've read Rajani LaRocca's Red, White, and Whole, Kwame Alexander's Solo, Julian Randall's Shook (up for the national book award), and Rex Ogle's Absent (told in alternating graphic novel, verse, and narrative as it follows three linked teen protagonists). All this time in the multiverse (see what I did there?) has got me thinking a lot about this emerging form, and how we can use it to help students get more into reading. We've already talked on this podcast about verse novel book clubs, with Caitlin Lore. So that's one way to put titles like these to use. They might also be great ace-in-the-holes for you in your choice reading program, to help students find on-ramps to reading. Poetry units could lead to verse novel units, and vis versa, because they share so many commonalities. I'm about to move from a verse novel into a spoken word unit, and I absolutely feel our exploration of Long Way Down has set us up for success. My goal today is not to tell you how to use these verse novels, each wonderful in their own way, but rather to tell you ABOUT these verse novels, so you can use them however you wish. Ooh, and quick note. Of the ones I'm talking about today, most I'd call middle grade with likely appeal all the way up to 9th for many kids, and Long Way Down falling more in the 9th/10th range. As always, though, you know your students and community best. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Activities and Projects for Long Way Down: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2025/04/long-way-down-lesson-ideas.html Alone Read-Aloud with Megan Freeman: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2024/01/first-chapter-friday-megan-e-freeman-reads-from-alone.html 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! Sources: "How poetry can help kids turn a fear of literature into love." (2017.) [Youtube Video.] PBS News Hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsQNaSLziGI
- 1 weeks ago10 min
448: The One Discussion Model to Avoid (and what to do Instead)
Discussion can be a huge win or a dudsplosion. When kids are prepared, the set-up is solid, and the conversation is humming, it's so energizing! When you're standing at the front with desperation in your eyes, and the same two kids have their hands in the air again, it's like wading through congealed lime jello in a snowsuit. So what can you do to make sure you're always in the huge win category, and not picking lime jello out from between your (metaphorical) toes? Today on the pod, we're taking a look at the one scenario to avoid as much as possible, and a gallery of options that can help you do better. Check out the discussion playlist: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1C-zD-DNeloofl6L8mDvLXtnDc0wTZp8EB78vaPwsnr0/edit?usp=sharing Sign up for the free discussion toolkit: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/discussiontoolkit Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides 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!
- 2 weeks ago8 min
447: Good Group is NOT Automatic (Here's What I Did)
"Do you think group work skills are important out in the world?" my student asked me. We were walking around, interviewing each other about our prior experiences with group work - the good, the bad, the ugly. I thought about what he was asking, and about my life and work now. "Yeah, I do," I said. "Right now I'm writing a book, and you'd think that would be pretty solo, right? But actually, I'm working with teachers all over the world who are sharing their stories for the book. And I talk over ideas with my editor and my agent. And in my work at this school, I go to faculty meetings and we work together. And even in this class, it's kind of like we're one big group. I want to know what you all think about things." He jotted down my answers, gave me his, and moved on to his next interview partner, as I reflected on just how much I think my students need collaborative skills for the lives ahead of them. When I was in school, no one ever taught me how to do group work. Or share the floor in discussion. I had no idea what made group work go well, I just knew that it never did. Recently, as my students embarked on a massive group PBL task, I wanted to set the stage by talking about an elephant in any room involving collaboration: How do we even do group work? I tapped some helpful resources in The Lighthouse, and I was really happy with how it all went down. So let me walk you through it. 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!
- 3 weeks ago7 min
446: Try My Green Smoothie Approach to Summary Practice
Reading comprehension questions and summaries are no one's idea of big fun. They often feel like a game for a grade, and they don't inspire much engagement. And yet, we do want kids to be able to look back on their reading and remember what happened. Cleary, being able to pull together a quick mental summary of a text is a useful skill for argument, conversation, research analysis, debate, and more. So how do we help kids grow the ability to look back over a text and pull what's vital without relying on questions that feel like busywork? For the answer, I'm turning to my favorite smoothie. I start by blending spinach and orange juice. The juice quickly turns a beautiful bright green. Then I add a half banana and a lot of frozen pineapple and mango. Once I blend it, no one can taste the spinach at all. It's a family favorite. So how do we turn summary skills into a green smoothie? That's what we're talking about on the podcast with today's quick tip. Grab the free Discussion Toolkit with 15 Discussion Warm-Ups ready to go: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/discussiontoolkit Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. 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!
- Oct 14, 20267 min
445: The Poetic Structure Lesson I Can't Wait to Do (Today)
Today on the pod, let me walk you through a fun new way of teaching poetic structure. I'm doing it TODAY, and I'm so excited about it, I just had to share it immediately. Poetic Terms you could explore: form, structure, concrete poem, line break, enjambment, stanza, repetition, rhythm, rhyme Access the post, "How to Make Digital Poetry Tiles," here: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2020/11/109-how-to-make-digital-magnetic-poetry.html Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides 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!
- Oct 7, 202633 min
444: How One Teacher used Panel Discussions to Help Students Find their Voices
When you think back to your high school English classes, is there a certain activity that really sticks with you? One lesson or project that still hums through your brain and puts a smile on your face when you look back? I have a feeling that today's guest, veteran teacher Wendy Eberhardt, will have a lot of students who look back on their lives in high school and think about the activity she's about to share with us. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so let's just say that Wendy has come up with an incredible way to help her kids find their voices, and she's about to give us all the details. Grab Wendy's guide to panel discussions: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iVAMzrYrhljA_9NvxcL2wNHeuF6ENzd44v161JjiETA/copy Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. 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!
- Sep 30, 202614 min
443: What I've Learned about Teaching Reading Strategies
As a fairly constant reader for the last few decades, I sometimes forget how challenging reading can be. But then I get into, for example, a dense thirty page research write-up about the study of how different factors affect relationships between kindergarten teachers and kindergarten moms in Finland, and I remember. Reading can be so hard. So how can you make it easier for your students, as they dive into the books you share? Well, one option is to share explicit strategies they can plug into along the way. Penny Kittle does such a beautiful job of demonstrating the way she does this in her book, Book Love, and in the reading conference videos she and Kelly Gallagher share alongside their book, 180 Days. Another go-to source on this for me is Shea Kerkhoff, whose recent book, Adolescent Literacy: Integrating the Sciences of Reading and Writing in Grades 4-12, is full of strategies teachers can pull out to help students who struggle with comprehension. But how and when do you tap these strategies, especially considering some kids will really need them and others will find their mere mention a waste of time? Today on the pod, we'll talk about six reading strategies that can help students understand what they're reading, plus how to introduce them, ways to spiral back, and options for keeping them in mind for individual kids. Note, we won't be talking about what you, as a teacher, can do to make comprehension easier (like building background knowledge in advance, or providing key vocabulary up front). Nope, today is about the strategies kids can implement on their own, and how to make it easier for them to tap those strategies. 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! Sources: Kerkhoff, Shea. (2026). Adolescent Literacy: Integrating the Sciences of Reading and Writing in Grades 4-12. Bloomsbury Academic. Kittle, Penny. (2013). Book Love. Heineman. Online Supplementary Videos Associated with Kittle, Penny & Kelly Gallagher. (2018). 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Empower and Engage Adolescents. Heineman. Leong, Kristin. (Host). (2025, October 28). The Extraordinary Impact of Drawing to Learn. [Audio Podcast Episode]. In Edutopia's School of Practice Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-extraordinary-impact-of-drawing-to-learn/id1840474338?i=1000733852674
- Sep 23, 202634 min
442: How One Teacher Leveraged Hexagonal Thinking for Messy Magic
It's easy to think of hexagonal thinking as a one-and-done. But it's not. It's a strategy you can tailor to a thousand different situations. Andi Jackson, veteran teacher, creative thinker, and hexagonal thinking launcher-extraordinaire, is here today to spotlight the possibilities. She's taken hexagonal thinking, originally developed by Anthony Hodgson in the business world, and remixed it in three different creative ways to help guide her students through complex thinking toward original writing. She's about to share her stories and tips with us, and I'm positive you'll come away from today's episode with fresh ideas for your own use of this fun discussion strategy. 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!
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About 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!
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