Lit & More with Gina Kortuem

09/14/2026

The thing is—I prepped on Friday too. When will all this prepping finally lead to me feeling PREPARED?

(Btw I know the answer is never.)

09/13/2026

This week’s featured blog post is based on a professional development session I led a couple years ago. Explore how different rubric styles can help give the feedback your students need and save you time! Share this out with other teachers at your school—I found most ELA teachers explore different rubrics but other specialties don’t! Link is in my bio or in my stories!

09/13/2026

This week’s featured blog post is based on a professional development session I led a couple years ago. Explore how different rubric styles can help give the feedback your students need and save you time! Share this out with other teachers at your school—I found most ELA teachers explore different rubrics but other specialties don’t!

As a teacher, do you find it difficult to create rubrics that accurately communicate expectations to students and save you time? Learn how to create rubrics that inform and save time with these practical tips for English/ELA teachers. Try it now and see results!

09/08/2026

I abandoned my book on Sunday so I needed a new book last night. Naturally, I picked up a Stephen King. I’ll read anything by him—even though I know I won’t like them all. Same for Ruth Ware & Ann Patchett, with honorable mentions to:
📚Colson Whitehead
📚Carrie Fischer
📚Mary Karr
📚Emily Henry
📚Fredrik Backman
📚Elizabeth Acevedo
📚Lucy Foley

Leave me a note in the comments—who is your ride or die author?

09/07/2026

✨New blog post!✨ Last week I shared how I used an essay autopsy to inform my scoring and drastically speed up grading my first writing assignment of the year. My newest blog post shares how to use this assessment to communicate with students individually and speed up assessment. https://lit-and-more.com/the-essay-autopsy-my-new-introductory-writing-assignment/

09/05/2026

Here’s a snapshot of our learning this past week. I’m so excited to read “Flowers For Algernon” and watch 12 Angry Men next week!

09/05/2026

This was unexpected! My post about these trifold writing tasks has 20,000 views in less than 24 hours! I literally just got the idea that morning and scrapped something together, but here is the design I made on Canva. Drag it into a doc and print, fold into thirds, and tape them together. I recommend using cardstock if you want to reuse them!

09/04/2026

Today I gave my honors students a chance to work on a writing assignment in class, but I wanted something more structured than classic “work time.” I also wanted a lesson where I observed how long students spent in each stage of the writing process. I handed out these three-sided placards (easily made by just folding a paper in thirds) and asked students to place their current status facing out. I walked around the class and saw how long most students took in the brainstorming, writing, and editing stages. Those that finished early were able to find other early finishers and go and work in the hallway on peer reviewing. While they worked, I circulated and answered questions. This was a great strategy to help students regardless of how fast they work and keep early finishers engaged. It also helped them stay quiet and focus, since finding a peer reviewer was a completely nonverbal experience. My placards were kind of scrapped together, but I will clean them up and will be doing this again!

09/03/2026

Hey I’m in this one.

09/02/2026

Today in AP Lit we held a book tasting 📚A book tasting is a chance to explore a huge variety of texts in an uninterrupted, quiet time. The lesson was simple once I set up: explore the books, write titles that interest you on a note card, and rotate. That’s it! Now everyone has a book for the quarter and a wishlist for the future!