Build discussion skills among your students and encourage academic conversations. We use these booklets and posters with questions and sentence starters every day for Socratic seminars, literature circle book clubs, group project planning work, or classroom debate. Product FeaturesAccountable talk p...

A poster created for our English language arts and social studies departments (humanities) to use in their classroom, as well as in the library.

Looking for techniques to teach visual literacy? Read on to learn about the OPTIC strategy for rhetorical analysis of visual texts and images.

At the end of the school year, it’s extremely important to keep your students engaged, working, learning, and BUSY! I have activities for the last few weeks of school for this very reason so that classroom management is under control and my students don’t feel as if that time is just a waste. One of ... Read More about Figurative Language Story Project

5 More Terrific End-of-the-Year Ideas I already gave you 12 terrific ideas for the end of the school year. But then I thought of 5 more! With summer approaching, this can be a "challenging" time to keep students engaged while teachers scramble to keep students just interested in anything. So, here are 5 more ways to keep their attention in the final countdown. And have more fun! 1. What I Learned This Year: I had an a-ha moment when I thought of this lesson. There is a blank head that I normally have students use to portray what is going on in the mind of a character. But, then I thought students' heads by this time of year should be FULL of all the things they learned. And this year, I know they learned a lot both at school AND at home. So, have them think about what they learned, fill the head in with images and words which represent that, and then have them write two paragraphs: one about lessons learned at school and one about lessons learned at home. There is an interactive Google Slides version I made for distance learning. Here is a sample: You can get the blank head and the lesson FREE at my store. 2.Find Literary/Poetic Elements in Song Lyrics: We've all heard songs that we think are especially poetic. Of course, we've heard rhyme schemes, like poems have, a million times. This is the perfect time of year to relax a little and let kids find (appropriate) song lyrics and then analyze them for: rhyme scheme, metaphors, hyperbole, parallelism, similes, syllabication, onomatopoeia, alliteration, foreshadowing, and more literary elements. Ok, I have an example, but like a hypocrite, it is not appropriate to share in class. But, I want to share with you how poetic it is. It's by Kenny Chesney called "Don't Happen Twice." Here's a lyric: "One bottle of wine, two Dixie cups, 3 a.m. I fell in love, for (like four, get it) the first time in my life. Things like that just don't happen twice." I just got the chills writing that! 3. Thank-You Notes: Students have a lot of people to thank for helping them get through the school year, so have them take the time to express their gratitude. You know, they say just the simple act of expressing gratitude makes you feel happier. So true! There's you to thank, parents, friends... 4. Create-a-Critter Writing Activity: This is a lesson I came up with that is normally done in class, and I usually do it at the beginning of the school year to relax students about writing and sneakily get them to associate my class with enjoyment. Or at the end of the year when they need something a little more fun to do for everyone's mental health (and I mean you lol). With the distance learning situation, I made a Google Slides version with directions on how to go about implementing the lesson. They create animals that are hybrid combinations such as these crazy things and write an explanatory description: 5. Shower With Compliments: Lastly, I got this idea from "The Cult of Pedagogy" TPT seller who has inspired me. She says students take turns of about 10-15 minutes each being in the "hot seat" while their classmates write compliments on the board behind them. She says you have to see it to appreciate its full impact. What a great idea. I'm thinking the teacher needs a turn too! You can check out the other 12 ideas I had in my other post. Have fun! But first, I think you might like these to use all year long: WANT ENGAGING READING FOR YOUR STUDENTS? WANT TO HAVE THEM PRACTICE ALL 10 READING INFORMATIONAL TEXT STANDARDS SKILLS? STUDENTS KEEP REPORTING HOW MUCH THEY LOVE THE TEXTS!!! TRY BOTH VOLUMES: And here are 12 MORE Terrific ELA Activity Ideas for the End of the School Year:

In 2016, Tara Martin (@TaraMartinEDU) first had the idea of using Snapchat with her students as a platform for annotating, analysing and connecting with literature. Tara believes in “meeting …

Anchor Charts for defining/discussing Diction and Syntax. Use with mini lesson on annotation/Reader/Writer notebook for students to recognize and respond/comment on Diction and Syntax using the dou…

This graphic gets at the idea of modern teaching through a simple checklist for teachers today. We've added a extensions for each item.

“In 1941 a group of psychiatrists at the Tavistock Clinic saw that the right questions were asked in Parliament in order to secure the means to try new measures. As a result they were asked …

Engage even your most reluctant middle and high school ELA students in meaningful class discussion using Silent Discussions.

Build discussion skills among your students and encourage academic conversations. We use these booklets and posters with questions and sentence starters every day for Socratic seminars, literature circle book clubs, group project planning work, or classroom debate. Product FeaturesAccountable talk p...

I’ve posted about The Other 21st Skills and Attributes. This post provides links and resources about these skills as well as an educator self-assessment. This assessment contains questions …

Characterization can be hard to dissect, unless you turn your class into a group of surgeons. Your students can dissect characters using body biographies!

| The 21st Century

See how one educator helps students develop media literacy—a critical 21st-century skill.

There is something very exciting about seeing a teacher come into the classroom with a cart loaded with Chrome books. One by one students come up and take a Chrome book, they go back to their seats and within three to four minutes of class, everyone is logged on and ready to go. Students are […]

English teachers, are you struggling with grammar instruction? Learn more about how to use mentor sentences, an instructional strategy that works!

In this post, I'll teach you how to host a figurative language tasting activity--a lesson that gets kids writing explosive images every time!

On a scale of 1 to 10, how techie would you say you are as a teacher? Personally, I'm pretty tech-savvy. I use Google for a lot more than questions, I handle Adobe like a

This post is packed with some of the best classroom anchor charts. These anchor charts cover several reading comprehension and writing topics.

Understanding how students think is key to helping them develop their language skills. In this article, we build a case for 'making thinking visible'!

Classical education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

Independent, invested and excited learners – that’s the dream. Unfortunately, it’s often not the reality. Sat at home during a half-term “holiday”, I always have grand…

This blog post will introduce you to six simple, fun, and enriching project-based learning ideas for your English Language Arts classroom.

Terry Heick describesDigital Citizenshipas “The quality of habits, actions and consumption patterns that impact the ecology of digital content and communities”

When I saw Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model for the first time, I thought two things: 1. "Wow, why hasn't anyone shown me this sooner?" 2. "How can I get

"Basically, if you need help with anything grammatical, for example, when to use the subjunctive verb tense, why and when to use a comma, and the big 21st century stumper - is it "email" or "e-mail?" Grammar Girl is there for you. Just go to her site and search for whatever help you need. "

These first grade worksheets provide lots of fun practice with 1st grade spelling words and phonics skills.

In 2nd grade we began our talks about the future by reading Someday by Eileen Spinelli. This book is a great springboard into careers beca...

Critical reading includes 'Inspectional Reading': Reading with a focus on grasping the book as a 'whole thing'--also called 'Systematic skimming.'

Through a four-part framework for public speaking, students find their voice and confidence.

Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.

Wondering how to sequence grammar instruction? You'll want this list that scaffolds grammar lessons so that one skill builds upon the next.

The name itself gives us an idea that it is invented by Archimedes. Now this man – Archimedes, was an Ancient Greek mathematician, engineer, inventor, physicist, & an astronomer(such a smartass). We are living in 21st century & still we are not able to think stuff like this on our own & this man did … more "Amazing Archimedean screw !"

A poster created for our English language arts and social studies departments (humanities) to use in their classroom, as well as in the library.