1) I teach 11th grade AP English. I have an undergrad degree in English Lit.

2) I've noticed that my students' reading and writing issues are quite varied, and I wish I was better at differentiating my lessons. For most of the ELL students, the main issue is sentence structure, or putting their ideas into English and make sense. For the non-ELLs their main issues are making a coherent argument and general grammar.

For reading, I'm still having a hard time figuring out when students don't understand the reading assignment, how soon are they giving up? What can I do to get them to stick with a passage longer to see if with practice they can "get it." We just read "Their Eyes Were Watching God," and once students decided that they couldn't understand the dialect, it was almost impossible to bring them back.

My students' main strength is that most of them will at least try an assignment before determining that it's too hard.

3) I'd like to learn how to get through to my students more often. There are many days when I'm sure how much the class is retaining.