Nicholas A. Emmanuele (he/him/his)

I’m not sure if it’s just the current “personality” of my groups or something more/generational. I felt my system “worked” the past few years, & I’ve been in the same job. I sound old, but it feels like a mix of apathy and a student desire/ need for transactional schooling.

I love reflections in general. I’ve toyed with individual assignments and then overall learning reflections (versus justifications). My high school 9th & 10th graders have just been very non-receptive to producing work outside of typical assessments paradigms the last 2 years despite my revisions.

I have found success with ungrading in the past. My last two classes of students have not responded well to it, so I’m reevaluating based on my context. Of course we’re still evaluating all the time, but I have an aversion to averaging, and students aren’t responding well to delayed grades updates.

Confession: I am losing steam on #ungrading. I’m sold on student reflection, but grade pitches & negotiating grades based on evidence isn’t working as it did years ago. My Ss seem to respond to immediate letter/number grades with more clarity even though I disagree with that #assessment philosophy.

1-Minute Read. Literacy. A Simple and Effective Way to Teach Annotation. By Molly Ostergaard

If “fake reading” is creeping into your classroom, you’re not alone. 🫠

Skimming and speed-reading may be rampant—but slowing down and actively engaging with text is where learning thrives.

Here’s a strategy from literacy specialist Molly Ostergaard that encourages close reading.

🧵1/6 #literacy

Handout titled "Crafting Sentences: How could you use these for both fiction and nonfiction writing?" contains a series of possible sentence structures. (i.e., "Hypophora: How many times have you picked up your phone today? Too many to count.")

#ELA Ts – share this resource with Ss and see their writing transform! 🦋

Half-pieces of paper fill a magnetic wall. Dates are across the wall with cards under each date in columns. The cards are white, blue, and orange.

Today, our Holocaust and Jewish literature elective (grades 9-12) but a timeline of individuals, laws/decrees, and historical events from 1933-1945 using the @ushmm.bsky.social Timeline cards before we begin reading NIGHT. Students built it collaboratively with videos in between for context.

I’m thinking of giving my classes a paragraph from a novel and asking them to (individually) turn it into a poem via line breaks and formatting (not changing any words). #poems #poetry

Has anyone done this? Thoughts or suggestions as to the process?

I’m finishing up facilitating an online graduate course on Inclusive Classroom Practices (an introduction to critical studies in education). The in-service teachers in the course have grown in their synthesis skills, and their action plans to address an inequity are amazing in scope and variety.

I am always so thankful for the community of friends at NCTE and CEL and so grateful to be learning with so many literacy leaders at CEL @sarahmzerwin.bsky.social @ncte.org @naemmanuele.bsky.social @mychal3ts.bsky.social #abundance #dreamboldly

We are so thankful that you are joining us again to support literacy leaders and the work we do. #CEL25

CEL Annual Convention CEL Annual Convention Conference on English Leadership (CEL) Annual Convention

We are proud to be a sponsor for #CEL25. Stop by our table to say hello and chat about all things #APAStyle!
#APA7
bit.ly/CELConference

It was a different #NCTE25 for me this year, full of meetings (a good thing!). As Chair of our Conference on English Leadership ( #CEL #CEL25 ), I also serve on @ncte.org’s executive committee.

I am honored to hone my leadership abilities and understanding of organizations while welcoming teachers.

I’m sorry I couldn’t make your session, Trevor, but I’m glad we got to say a quick hello in the halls! #NCTE25

"You're my hope. You’ve saved my life more than you'll ever know, on days you didn't know, and you're the reason I'm alive today. And I could never thank you enough for helping me stay one more day."

This is the message that @mychal3ts.bsky.social delivered to teachers at #NCTE25 today.

The covers of the 2026 Notable Children's Poetry Books are shown. The books are The History of We; Rap it Up!; A Universe of Rainbows; Black Diamond Kings; The Pine Cone's Secret; A Forest Song; Harriet Tubman: Force of Nature; Dear Acord (Love, Oak) Letter Poems to Friends; Cows and Sheep and Chicks that Cheep; and Awesome Earth.

Congratulations to the authors and illustrators of the 2026 Notable Children's Poetry Books, just announced at #NCTE25!

What a wonderful opportunity and pairing! #NCTE25

We had so much fun celebrating and learning from the great minds behind some of your favorite #NCTE titles at the first-ever NCTE Author Soiree!

#NCTE25

Did a roundtable workshop at the @ncte.org conference where I presented this lesson on making a mini comic as a simple and disarming way to get students into storytelling and writing, along with a few suggested prompts. Link in bio! Download a print-quality PDF for use in your classrooms.

#ncte25

For anyone interested in the scene shortening thing. It’s fun!

This looks wonderful! I love abridging when I direct Shakespeare and Greek plays (with permission from the translator/publisher), but I haven’t had students do it. It’d be fascinating to compare 2 or more groups’ abridgment of the same scene.

Can't wait to be among friends at NCTE and NCTE_CEL next week!! @naemmanuele.bsky.social @hcodymiller.bsky.social @ncte.org
Register for CEL and/or stop by our NCTE Conference on English Leadership sessions where you can learn more about how we are driving literacy leadership forward!

The Personalized Learning by Interest Effect on Interest, Cognitive Load, Retention, and Transfer: A Meta-Analysis - Educational Psychology Review None of the existing reviews or meta-analyses have focused on personalized learning that accommodates learners’ interests. To address this issue, we conducted this meta-analysis to examine the effects...

When I share with educators there is no evidence for learning styles, inevitably they ask for other/better ways to differentiate or personalize their instruction. This meta-analysis shows personalization by learner interest positively affects retention and transfer. #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky

The highlight of class today was our 10-minute nap time. Too many students’ had a “Frown” of “tired” today, so we paused, “napped” with the lights off, then got back to writing argumentative essays.

How “The Great Gatsby” Took Over High School The classroom staple turns a hundred.

Going to inscribe @manshel.bsky.social into the American HS canon by assigning this essay to my 11th graders next week

www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Nick and Tien sit in interview chairs at a photo op corner at the Hunger Games On Stage at Canary Wharf.

A view of the stage before Act 1. Blue and red lights in a theatre-in-the-round.

Tonight, @tienpham.bsky.social and I saw The Hunger Games On Stage in London. It was phenomenal—the opening night/days critiques must have all been addressed because we had a glorious night in the theatre! #HungerGames

Why Did These Authors Have Their School Visit Canceled? They Were Talking About Their Book About Book Bans. Country Club Elementary School in California's Bay Area canceled an author visit moments before it began. Why? It covered book bans.

If you and your children are not ready for a particular book, that is okay. It is not okay to limit the access to books, stories, and experiences for other families. Every book is not for everyone, but every book is for someone.

bookriot.com/the-day-the-books-disappeared-school-visit-cancelation/

Some of it is time (we’re on an intensified semester block schedule). I try to give choice, but students don’t always select meaningful topics. The unit feels disconnected from the rest of our work/units as well. We’re basing topics off narrative nonfiction pieces right now with some DBQ elements.

I am never pleased with how I give my students through persuasive or argumentative writing. Today, I’m retooling this learning process once again.

"But what I really want to do is to develop in students a determination to comprehend, to recognize when that isn’t happening, to have an awareness of possible sources of that failure, and the tools that would allow them to pierce the veil of the puzzling text."
🗺 ##EduSky