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The educators you see on ReadWriteThink are working to improve literacy learning for every student. Check out their stories for inspiration.
ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.
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Author
Susan Spangler
| Name | Susan Spangler |
| Location | Fredonia, New York |
| Role | Teacher Educator |
| Membership |  |
"My participation in ReadWriteThink has allowed me to show my students what it means to be an active professional and a reflective practitioner in teaching English/Language Arts. It helps me 'walk the walk' by modeling sound lesson planning for teaching secondary English."
Susan Spangler taught secondary English throughout Illinois for sixteen years before completing her Ph.D. in English Studies at Illinois State University in 2006. Susan's teaching focus is in English Education, and as a teacher educator her mission is to engage her preservice and student teachers in activities that help them understand best practice in teaching English/Language Arts. Her research interests include regression under stress in student teachers, technology and literacy, and the impact of Millenials in English classrooms. In addition to writing lesson plans for ReadWriteThink, Susan has contributed material to the Summer Activities section of the site.
Susan is a member of NCTE and the New York State Council of English. She has also served as the Technology Liaison for the Illinois State Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project.
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Contributions on ReadWriteThink.org |
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Analyzing and Comparing Medieval and Modern Ballads
Students explore the ballads genre by reading medieval ballads to deduce their characteristics, acting out the ballads, comparing medieval and modern ballads using Venn diagrams, and composing their own ballads.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
By analyzing Dear Abby’s “rant” about bad grammar usage, students become aware that attitudes about race, social class, moral and ethical character, and “proper” language use are intertwined.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Bio-graph: Graphing Life Events
Students interview other students, choose significant life events, rate them, graph them, and write about one or more, in this activity that integrates mathematical graphing with writing.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Breaking the Rules with Sentence Fragments
Though teachers usually caution students against using sentence fragments, Edgar Schuster’s work demonstrates that professional writers often use fragments effectively. This lesson helps students understand that there are reasons that they can and should use sentence fragments to become effective writers.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Minilesson
Finding Common Ground: Using Logical, Audience-Specific Arguments
Using a hypothetical situation, students generate arguments from opposing points of view, discover areas of commonality using Venn diagrams, and construct logical, audience-specific arguments to persuade their opponents.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Gaining Background for the Graphic Novel Persepolis: A WebQuest on Iran
To prepare students for reading the graphic novel Persepolis, this lesson uses a WebQuest to focus students' research on finding reliable information about Iran before and during the Islamic Revolution.
Grades 5 – 6 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Introducing Basic Media Literacy Education Skills with Greeting Cards
In this lesson, students examine and create holiday/event cards, analyze holiday elements, and create their own. The activities help students focus on the reasons for composing messages as they do.
Grades 2 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
In this lesson, students practice a way to communicate without words by using a glyph. They create a name card using information about themselves. Students also interpret glyphs made by others.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Minilesson
You’re the Top! Pop Culture Then and Now
Students analyze the lyrics to Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top!” and then update them to include current “tops” in pop culture.
Grades 9 – 12 | Activity & Project
Bio-Graph: Graphing Life Events 
Work with teens to learn about family members’ significant personal experiences by interviewing them and sharing their stories with the rest of the family.
Grades 9 – 12 | Activity & Project
Teens can take part in the process of building family histories by recording the stories, or memoirs, of family members.
Grades 9 – 12 | Activity & Project
In this project, teens create autobiographies, adding music selections to their life stories.
Grades 9 – 12 | Activity & Project
The Year I Was Born: An Autobiography Project
Invite teens to tap relatives, family friends, and community members so they can create biographies of their own births or other significant life events!
