March is an odd time in the classroom. On one hand, the drudgery of February is past. On the other hand, standardized testing is on the horizon. Somehow Spring Break is soooo close and soooo far all at once.
Here are three ways I try to make teaching in March a little easier.
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Lean in to March Madness
It’s rare that I envy PE teachers, but March Madness seems like it would be a fun time to teach PE. That being said, I look for ways to incorporate this event in my classroom.
First, brackets are the simplest way to bring March Madness to your classroom. Teachers can incorporate brackets in vocabulary instruction, reading time, and just about anywhere else you’d like. Brackets are a versatile and simple strategy to get students engaged.
March Madness feels like I weird topic for reading in the ELA classroom. However, basketball is such an important cultural touchstone that it’s frequently part of classic literature.
- First, “Home Court” by Jose Olivarez is a captivating poem. It’s about community, friendship, and grief. Basketball is just how you get students engaged in the poem because it’s about so much more. Read it here.
- Likewise, “Slam, Dunk, & Hook” by Yusef Komunyakaa is only kind of about basketball. Sure, that’s the “bait” to get students engaged, but this is a poem with many layers and complexities. Read it here.
- Finally, “Privileged” by basketball player Kyle Korver is an essay that discusses racism in sports and beyond. It’s the most straightforward of these three basketball texts, but it’s also the most recent and consistently resonates with students. Read it here.
Because these three texts fit together so well, I have bundled them all together in this Basketball Literature Bundle.
Gamify Test Prep
Test prep is part of the reality of teaching in March. On one hand, you never want test prep to take over your classroom. On the other hand, you’d be foolish to ignore testing all together. To make test prep more tolerable and engaging, I’ve tried a few different strategies.
First, a test prep escape room is a fun strategy to get students engaged. I’ve learned a lot about designing my own escape rooms, so check out some of my insights.
Second, I started doing a test prep Olympics. An escape room can be part of the Olympics, but this model is so flexible that teachers can easily customize it to fit whatever they need.
Finally, I love task cards for test prep. Task cards are versatile, so they can become bell work or exit tickets. Depending on how you deploy task cards, they can also be part of stations or small group work. While I keep a stash of task cards, this time of the year, I prefer these task cards because they are engaging and suit test prep.
Prepare for Spring
Also, make the most of teaching in March by gearing up for spring. Invite spring into your classroom with these strategies!
First, switch up your bell work for visual spring writing prompts. I love visual writing prompts for engaging students and laying the groundwork for synthesizing across media.
Second, celebrate Women’s History Month with some engaging strategies:
- Update your classroom library by spotlighting women authors
- Check out a memoir from a women author
- Introduce feminist criticism
Second, choose some seasonal texts:
- “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats is an oddly evocative poem. It’s simple but profound. The setting plays a stronger role in the poem than the speaker, and the last line always leaves me smiling. Read it here.
- “Easter Wings” by George Herbert looks intimidating, but it’s really just a concrete poem. While March might be a little early for thinking about Easter, concrete poems are a perennial classroom favorite. Read it here.
- “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a breathtaking poem. Hopkins is my favorite poet, and his heightened language is dazzling in this one. (If you were curious, “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child” is my favorite of his poems, but it’s better suited for autumn.) Read it here.
