You Can Teach That

IGCSE: The Bridge From French School to English University

by Rebecca Gulka

Is Your Child Ready for Success in an English-Speaking University?

Teaching With Class provides iGCSE literacy classes, allowing students to obtain a world-recognized English language qualification while developing the critical reading and analytical writing skills that they need in an …

Why Do We Read So Much When We Learn English?

by Rebecca

Reading is hard. It takes time, stamina, effort. It can feel, sometimes, like a frustrating chore. That’s true for students reading in their first language – it gets even harder if they are learning a second one! I understand the …

Politics, Conservatism, and the AP College Board – Who Are W

by Rebecca

While we’ve been distracted by the outrage over Roald Dahl’s changed books, the AP African Americans Studies course has been being censored under our noses. The Florida Governor attacked the new course, and it’s been stripped down by the College …

Using a Skills Based Curriculum instead of Knowledge Based

by Rebecca

What is the difference between a skills-based and knowledge-based curriculum?

First, let’s start with defining what a curriculum is. A curriculum informs the goal at the end of a course. It’s a list of things that you must achieve by …

Learning Skills Are More Valuable than Knowledge and Content

by Rebecca

‘Learning Skills’ is a term that describes the tasks involved in learning, as well as the habits, strategies, and tools that help people to be better students and achieve more success in any class or subject.

As I sit down …

Adjusting to French College or Middle School

by Rebecca

I remember teaching my first 6ieme class in France. 15 fresh young faces – surely they were too young? – staring up at me, expecting wisdom on this, their first day of Middle School. 

“I’m sorry,” was all I could …

Why I Don’t Use Grades

by Rebecca

Last week, I worked with a 13 year old student, Sarah*, who started the lesson by telling me how badly she was doing in her English class. She wasn’t a writer, she said, “not like the kids who are just …

Collaborative Writing in Real Time

by Rebecca

Writing is HARD. It’s hard for everyone.

Of the four strands of language – listening, speaking, reading, and writing – it is the hardest to master, whether you’re working in your mother tongue or trying to acquire a new language. …

Using Supports for Whole Class Novels

by Rebecca

Real literature connects us, and there is nothing I love more than sharing a good novel with a classroom or zoom room community. There is so much joy and learning that happens when we can dig into a novel set …

Socially Just Education is a Long Game

by Rebecca

This is a re-post of an article I wrote a year ago, in the wake of the George Floyd protests, that my students were asking me about. It is still important. It still shapes my teaching and my courses.

In …

Let Your Students See You Fail

by Rebecca

This morning, during a zoom lesson with a 4ieme (8th grade) student, I forgot what caused Fragile X Syndrome.

The lesson was on chromosome aberrations, and I am out of practice. He’s falling behind in his science lessons, and …

Content And Language Integrated Learning

by Rebecca

Content Integration Including Language Acquisition

CLIL is a pedagogy and teaching style that teaches both language skills and content – science, history, a novel, any topic – at the same time. It originated as a method for teaching second language …

Welcome to the Teaching With Class Blog

by Rebecca

Welcome to the Teaching With Class Blog!

I have been teaching in bilingual, international education for 15 years, and I have some stories to tell you.

Some of them are funny. Really funny.

Some of them will break your heart.

…