Three strategies aimed at making reading more interactive have emerged from the work of high school English teachers Brian Sztabnik and Susan Barber. Both educators have spent over a decade building online communities for English language arts teachers through social media and their blog, Much Ado About Teaching. Their latest effort, a book titled 100% Engagement: 33 Lessons to Promote Participation, Beat Boredom, and Deepen Learning in the ELA Classroom, includes three lessons designed to shift classroom dynamics. The approaches focus on movement, collaboration, and deep analysis—tools that aim to combat the common challenge of student disengagement with texts.
The first strategy involves reconstructing a poem. Teachers distribute strips of paper containing individual words, phrases, or lines from a selected poem. Students then reassemble the pieces, annotate their version, and compare it to the original. Susan Barber, one of the book’s co-authors, notes that this method forces students to “do a close reading” rather than passively receiving a text. The physical act of arranging the fragments encourages analytical thinking about structure, punctuation, and meaning. “Their eyes would be glazed over” if handed the poem directly, she says. Instead, the activity sparks discussion and keeps students actively involved.
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A second lesson centers on creating a two-tiered timeline for a novel section. Each student receives a few pages of a novel and an index card or post-it note. They write the most significant event on those pages along with a supporting quote, then place the card on a classroom timeline. After the top row is complete, students pick another’s card and add a new one beneath it, explaining why the event is important in the broader context. Sztabnik explains that this process shifts students from summarizing plots to making inferences about character development or symbolism. The lesson concludes with a gallery walk, allowing students to review peers’ interpretations.
The third strategy asks students to narrow focus by identifying the most important sentence, phrase, and word in a passage. After defending their choices to the class, small groups draw conclusions about the text. Barber says this helps students move from vague generalizations to specific textual evidence. “They talk in big, general ideas,” she says. “I had to find an activity to get them to take the big ideas to the small.” The lesson emphasizes precision and critical thinking, pushing students to justify their selections with quotes and context.
Both teachers stress that these methods are low-tech and adaptable to various classroom sizes. Sztabnik and Barber have also created a Facebook group, 100% Engagement, where educators can share ideas and resources. Their blog, Much Ado About Teaching, offers additional lesson plans and reflections on classroom practices. The book itself, published earlier this year, has already sparked interest among teachers looking for ways to make reading more dynamic.
One classroom example from the book describes a teacher using the poem reconstruction activity with a particularly disengaged group. Students initially resisted, but after the first round, they began debating the poem’s structure and tone. A student later said the task felt “more like a puzzle than homework.” The lesson, Sztabnik adds, doesn’t require expensive materials or complex planning—just scissors, paper, and a willingness to let students take ownership of the text.
The timeline activity has also been used in a high school setting where students struggled to connect plot points in a dense novel. By requiring students to summarize events on a single card, the lesson forced them to prioritize key moments. When paired with the gallery walk, the activity led to spontaneous discussions about themes and character motivations. “It’s collaborative without being collaborative physically,” Sztabnik says. “They’re working mentally, not just sitting in rows.”
The word-focused lesson has proven useful in helping students tackle dense nonfiction texts. One teacher reported that students who previously skipped over paragraphs now actively scanned for key details. The process of narrowing down to a single word often revealed unexpected insights, such as a metaphor that shaped the passage’s meaning. Barber emphasizes that the lesson isn’t about memorization but about training students to “read with purpose.”
While these strategies are tailored for English classes, the principles could apply to other subjects that involve text analysis. The emphasis on movement, collaboration, and precision aligns with broader educational trends that favor active learning over passive instruction. Sztabnik and Barber’s work highlights a growing need for classroom practices that make reading less of a chore and more of an opportunity for discovery.