Advice from the Trenches: October Teacher-to-Teacher Tips & Tricks

October has its own personality.  There are scary stories, strange characters, suspenseful plots, dramatic readings, mysterious photographs, and just a little more willingness to embrace the creepy and the weird.

Even the classroom feels a little different in October. Maybe it’s the added touches of fall and Halloween tucked into the corners of your room (or maybe you go all in and practically drown the place in décor). Maybe the content you cover pivots to add a little more mystery, suspense, or the unexpected. Or perhaps it’s simply that your students become very interested in anything involving ghosts, murder, mystery, or the possibility that something might actually scare them. Whatever the reason, October gives us permission to step outside the ordinary for a little while.

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And as an ELA teacher, there is so much to work with!  Here are just a few examples:

• A creepy photograph can become a writing prompt.
• A strange story can become a lesson in characterization.
• A suspenseful podcast can lead to a discussion about how authors and speakers build tension.
• A spooky poem can open the door to figurative language and tone.
• A Halloween-themed activity can become an opportunity to practice argument, analysis, vocabulary, or descriptive writing.

If you've been following me for a while, you probably know that I'm always looking for that balance between engagement and critical thinking. I don't think we have to choose between the two.  Instead, the season itself can become a jumping-off point for meaningful learning.  Over the years, I’ve shared some of the ways I’ve brought a little October fun into my ELA classroom, and I've shared some of those ideas here on the blog. You can also find ready-to-use versions in my Making ELA Matter store.

But this October, I decided to turn the tables and ask other secondary ELA teachers what the season looks like in their classrooms. These are teachers like you and me who are “in the trenches” and making meaningful learning happen every day.

I asked. They answered.  And their responses reminded me that there are a whole lot of ways to bring a little October personality into the ELA classroom.  Some of their responses made me laugh, some made me want to steal their ideas immediately, and several reminded me just how creative ELA teachers are.

So, let's head into the trenches.

Lean Into the Season

Kim N., Colorado Springs, definitely embraces the October atmosphere. On Halloween, she moves the desks against the wall, turns out the lights, puts fake candles everywhere, and has students sit on the floor while she reads scary short stories.

She calls it a “Halloween Hootenanny.”

Honestly, I love it.

But Kim also makes sure there's plenty of ELA happening. Her students write two-sentence horror stories and analyze the rhetoric of a pumpkin spice latte ad.

Her advice? “Embrace the greats. Poe's ‘The Black Cat’ and Hawthorne's ‘Young Goodman Brown’ are favorites.”

Diane L., California, also takes advantage of the season but mixes up the genres. Her October lineup includes "The Monkey's Paw," The Haunting, The Birds, poetry, and film.

Her advice: “Mix up more than just short stories. There’s wonderful poetry and film to add to the mix.”

She also uses a scene from Halloween to teach viewpoint and camera perspective.  I love this idea because it shows that a lesson can be spooky (and seemingly not ELA-related) on the surface and still involve some serious thinking underneath.

Give Students a Reason to Think

Mary F., Pennsylvania, turns "The Tell-Tale Heart" into a mock trial to put the narrator on trial after students read the story. She also uses spooky haiku as a vocabulary challenge.

Her advice? “Go with the season. Embrace what your kids are interested in and incorporate it into a lesson.”

That idea came up in several different ways.

Jennifer C., Tennessee, uses fall puzzles, grammar activities, and Halloween-themed escape rooms while keeping the ELA skills at the center.

As she put it: “Because our standards are skills-based, we can always use a theme as a backdrop while focusing on a skill.”

And Jessica M., Pennsylvania, uses October for descriptive writing and a haunted-house marketing activity that combines writing, creativity, and persuasion.

Her advice was wonderfully simple: “Incorporate movement into whatever you have planned.”

Sometimes a little movement is all it takes to make a familiar activity feel different.

Make it a Lesson to Remember

For Keri L., South Dakota, October means gothic literature. Her students read Poe and "The Landlady," write their own gothic scenes using required motifs, and even watch an episode of Wednesday to discuss allusions and references to Edgar Allan Poe.

Her advice? “Lean into the spooky and chaos a bit. I've found that embracing these things can still lead to effective learning.”

And then there's Kay L., Indiana, whose students have a tradition I may need to steal: Candy Corn Day.

Her ELA stations incorporate candy corn, and she also uses cliffhanger stories that allow students to write their own endings.

Her advice: “Go thematic!! Integrate with the standards. Do stations! The kids won’t think they are learning, but they truly are!!”

I suspect a lot of us have discovered that students don't mind learning nearly as much when they don't feel like they're being subjected to learning. Oh, the horror!

And Then There Are the Little Moments

Of course, no teacher survey would be complete without a few student moments.

Jennifer W., Idaho, remembered a student discovering that an escape room was actually a grammar review:

“Wait! You tricked us -- the escape room was a grammar review!”

Honestly, that's a compliment.

Kay L. had a different kind of October victory when a student simply asked if she could read more.

“I loved it!!”

And Anita Proffitt, West Virginia, offered perhaps the most relatable answer of all when asked about the strangest thing a student has done during a spooky lesson: “The answer to this has to be asking to go to the restroom at a very suspenseful part of a story.”

Every ELA teacher who has ever read aloud a suspenseful story just nodded.

Final Thoughts

Reading through all of these responses, the biggest thing that stood out to me was this: You don't have to choose between October fun and meaningful ELA instruction.

You can turn a short story into a mock trial. Analyze a movie scene. Write two-sentence horror stories. Use a seasonal theme for a grammar review. Let students move around the room. Give them a little choice. Let them write about something they're genuinely interested in.

This doesn’t mean throwing your curriculum out the window. You just have to find ways to let October make your existing curriculum a little more interesting.

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