Try this free, fun, and interactive middle school ELA games in your classroom to teach grammar and literacy ELA skills!
Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]
Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!
Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.
This post explains how teachers can use an academic version of the highly engaging Spoons game to review concepts. Free games included!
Learn why one-pagers are one of my go-to activities for breaking down complex topics and texts. Understand what they are, why you and your students will love them, and how to implement them in your ELA classroom. I even have the advice to help you tackle the biggest obstacle you’ll encounter with this activity.
Oh, the first day of school! It's such a fun, but chaotic day. Most of my first days are a little bit of a blur. This is why I have to write very detailed lesson plans or I'll forget everything from that day. I always try to have the same activities for that first day
Time to inspire and motivate your students with these 4 fun bulletin board ideas that are perfect for schools, classrooms, or libraries!
Looking for Wordle classroom ideas? Incorporate Wordle into your classroom with this activities, ideas, and templates.
Creative lesson plans are important in secondary ELA because they challenge students to go beyond the obvious and think outside the box. Creative lessons plans are also highly engaging for struggling and gifted students. This list of activities encourages creative thinking and growth mindset all
Some days you just need a break from the monotony! Preparing for exams, transitioning to a new unit, days when half your students are gone for a basketball tour
This blog post will introduce you to six simple, fun, and enriching project-based learning ideas for your English Language Arts classroom.
Wondering how to sequence grammar instruction? You'll want this list that scaffolds grammar lessons so that one skill builds upon the next.
Are you looking for ways to make learning more meaningful in your Secondary ELA Classroom? Check out these twenty five creative project ideas that I have found to be meaningful and successful while also motivating for learners.
Have your lessons have lost their spark? Are you searching for some creative inspiration? This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about out of the box teaching ideas in the ELA classroom. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed interesting fiction and nonfiction pairings. Teachers also shared creative activity and projects that are both fun and rigorous. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The
Are you looking for a stress-free first week of ELA activities for high school classroom? Look no further! Keep reading for ideas, tips, and lesson plans for the first week (and beyond)! #backtoschoolactivities #elateacher #highschoolela
Looking for first day ELA ideas? Try these fun get to know you activities in your middle school or high school English class!
Pokemon Go was all the rage in 2016. Fortnite in 2017. You get where we are going with this! Getting back into the swing of things of a new school year can be tricky, but we can help! An easy way to connect with your students is to make your back-to-school lessons relevant and relatable. How can you do this? We have compiled a list of several ways that you can easily incorporate teen trends into your back-to-school lessons for the first few weeks (or anytime!) of the year. Most teens love music and connect with it on a personal level. You can bridge that connection by incorporating music into your daily routines. For example, play an upbeat song between bell work and discussion time to motivate your students. If you struggle to know what's popular with your students, just ask them! The beginning of the year is the perfect time to find out more about them and their music preferences. You can give them a writing prompt asking what their favorite songs are or be even more specific; ask them: Which song makes you want to get up and dance? Which song could you listen to over and over again and never grow tired of? Once you have compiled a list of their favorite songs, search the lyrics of a few. You can often find the best examples of figurative language in song lyrics. If the lyrics are appropriate, print them off and play the song in class and ask students to find examples of figurative devices. This activity can be done anytime, but it's for great back-to-school to review figurative language and to gauge your students' learning levels. Another way to incorporate music directly into learning is to compare popular music artists with writers or subjects you are reading. During poetry and Shakespeare units, I love challenging students to see if they can guess whether the line or phrase is from a song or a poem. I created an entire series with various poets and musicians that you can download here. I'll start out with a presentation and a student handout so the as whole can engage in the activity. It's so much fun to see their reactions when they swear there's no way the line came from an old poet, but it actually did! The next day, I'll display the bulletin board (below) so students can continue to interact with the lines of poetry and songs. One way to grab the attention of your students is to explore books that may have been released since school has been out and/or sharing some titles of books that will be released in the coming months! Talk about anticipation! :) Here are a few YA books that came out recently: Girl Gone Viral by Arvin Ahmadi The Haunted by Danielle Vega We Walked the Sky by Lisa Fiedler Here are a few YA books that will be coming out soon: Frankly in Love by David Yoon The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh You can also see what your students are interested in by displaying these Genre Reading Cards around a few tables in your classroom (or in the library). Simply, set out the different genre cards, select a few books that fit within each genre, set a timer for 2-3 minutes and let your students explore the various titles. Follow-up with a brief discussion on their favorite books they may have already read (or discovered) through the stations. This is a quick and easy way to see what genres they are interested in or may be interested in exploring this school year. Whether it's the World Cup or the Super Bowl, chances are many of your students are fans of sports or are familiar with at least one sport. Using this FREE survey at the beginning of the year, ask your students which sports or teams are their favorite. (Click HERE to get an editable digital copy of the survey ready for distance learning!) Once you have an idea about their favorites, you can incorporate them into your lessons. For example, if you are writing a sample sentence for a grammar lesson, name-drop a player from one of their favorite teams. My students are usually divided between being either a Chicago Cubs or a St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan, so a sample sentence may be: "Anthony Rizzo and Dexter Fowler sat down together to have pizza after the Cubs defeated the Cardinals last night." Every two years, you can integrate the Olympics into your lessons. Re-word the titles of your activities or assignments by using Olympic-themed names. Instead of calling it a class discussion or a "think-pair-share," call it the "Opening Ceremony" or "Passing the torch of knowledge." A quiz can be called a bobsled competition or a vault competition for gymnastics. Award the top three scores with gold, silver and bronze medals. If you teach multiple sections of the same class, have your classes compete for the overall winner. Awards points for the class with the fewest tardies, the highest scores on quizzes or assignments, and/or the liveliest discussions. Better yet, have your students create the areas for competitions and what they'd like to call them. They can even pick which country they would like to represent (or create their own country). Some students may not like traditional sports, but love video and online gaming. The popularity of videos such as Minecraft and Fortnite paired with the rise of schools adopting eSports as official extracurricular activities indicate that our students still love gaming. Instead of fighting it, try to embrace it by giving students opportunities to utilize both the skills they learn through games with academic skills. For example, I asked my students to recreate a scene from Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. One group built Rome in Minecraft and reenacted one of the scenes live as the class watched. My head was swimming a bit, but it was pretty amazing to see what they created together and how they adapted it to the text. They learned more about the play from that one assignment and had so much fun doing it. This particular assignment may not work with other games, but if you allow your students the possibility of incorporating their favorite game into a project, you may be amazed at the ideas that they come up with. I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things as a student was when we were able to follow-up a book with a movie. As a visual person, I always appreciated when I saw a book come to life after reading it (even though most people prefer the book over the movie). Watching the movie after reading the book can lead to a lot of fun class discussions. Here are a few fun prompts that you can use to follow-up after your are done reading and watching! What did you like better, the book or the movie? Why was the book better than the movie? Why was the movie better than the book? What did the book have that the movie didn't? What did the movie have that the book didn't? A great way to grab the attention of your students would be to plan a unit around an upcoming movie release based on a book. This might be an older book or perhaps, a newer one. Regardless, your students will think it's pretty cool that they are going to be able to watch a movie. I realize it's not possible for all classes to be able to watch a movie in a theatre, but it's a fun and quick field trip if you can make it work! Movie theatres usually give a discount on larger groups and I usually try to work in a price that includes popcorn and a drink for everyone, too. If you think money may be an issue for some students, it does not hurt to ask your administraton for some assistance. They will, almost always, find a way to make sure everyone in your class is able to participate. You can also plan a unit around a particular theme of a movie coming out (or already in stores), if you're looking to take a break from reading for a few weeks. Once students gain a better understanding or appreciation about a particular theme, you can show them a movie where they can explore that theme even more. This way, if taking your students to a movie theatre isn't an option, then show a movie in your classroom instead! Note: You can ask your students which movies they may be interested in watching at the start of the year, then surprise them with the themed unit based around that film! One of the easiest ways to incorporate both social media and pop culture all at once is incorporating current events into your classroom. You can do this on a local, national or international level. You can simply ask your students to start talking about what's happening in your town, in the world, or even more specifically, with their favorite movie actors, singers, bands, etc. What's the gossip with their favorite celebrities? Once your ideas have been shared and topics have been listed, you can use this list as a means for an impromptu writing activity, as an essay topic, etc. The possibilities are endless. If you're interested in checking out more ways on how you can incorporate pop culture into the classroom, click HERE. You might also be interested in: Soundtrack of my Life/Playlist of my Summer
Here are six essential back to school lessons I’ll be using in my classroom this back-to-school season.
Engage your ELA students this Halloween season with these spooky podcast episodes for the classroom! FREE podcast pages and activities included!
Much like students who spend more hours on the hook of an essay than they do the bulk of an essay, I often found myself with a case of English teacher writing block when it came to planning my first day of school activities. Though I have ten years (x two semesters each) of ... Read More about First Day of School Activities for High School and Middle School English
Writing instruction often fits into a small corner of the day. This makes it so challenging to find time to teach grammar, spelling, punctuation, and all the other foundational skills students need to be more effective writers. While working through the writing process is an important piece of writing instruction, many
This Doodle and Do resource is designed to help students understand 8 types of figurative language. First, students will complete highly engaging Doodle Notes about each type of figurative language. They'll doodle and sketch their notes on 5 different engaging doodle note pages. Students will learn about each type, review examples, and create examples of their own. Next, they’ll complete a fun writing activity for each type of figurative language. They’ll create silly similes with spinners, make metaphor matches, assemble personification cubes, participate in an alliteration tongue twister challenge, give sentences a hyperbole makeover, fill in onomatopoeia Wacky Libs, match and doodle idioms, and play oxymoron bingo. This mini-unit is not only effective in helping students understand different types of figurative language, it’s also super engaging and fun! This resource is completely customizable, too! First, the two types of doodle notes included (filled-in and guided notes versions) make it easy to differentiate instruction. Then, the six learning activities can be easily transformed into learning stations if you’d like. This way, you can create the very best learning experience for your students! This 8-day unit is not only effective in helping students understand figurative language, it’s also incredibly engaging and fun! Skills Developed: Students will… Develop an understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meaning Explain the meaning and note effectiveness of similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, idiom and oxymoron Interpret figures of speech Write creatively using figurative language in response to writing prompts Work collaboratively and imaginatively About the “Doodle” Notes: First, students will learn all about figurative language and similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, alliteration, idiom and oxymoron by completing a set of doodle notes. Doodle notes are color-it-in, fill-it-in, and doodle-encouraging note sheets. They’re not only visually engaging, they’re also effective in helping students increase their focus and ability to recall information. Plus…they’re really fun! In this resource, there are 2 options of Doodle Notes: Option 1: All the notes are filled in. With this option students will color, embellish, and add doodles to the notes as you review the information with the class. Option 2: Some of the notes are filled in and students need to fill in the remainder of the notes (like guided notes). Students will work to fill in the notes as you teach the content. About the “Do” Activities After students complete their Doodle Notes it’s time for them to “Do” some fun activities. The activities are designed around lessons to help students practice recognizing, creating, analyzing, and writing figurative language. There are six activities in all: Simile: Students will be creating fun similes during this activity. First, they’ll create similes with “simile spinners.” Then, they’ll respond to a writing prompt and include a simile in their response. Metaphor: Students will be creating metaphors during this activity. First, they’ll brainstorm ideas based on teacher clues. Then, they’ll match the ideas to create and write creative and unique metaphors. Personification: Students will be writing 6 personification sentences during this activity. First, they’ll brainstorm verbs. Then, they’ll combine the verbs with nouns that they brainstorm to create examples of personification. Onomatopoeia: Students will be practicing onomatopoeia as they complete a Mad-Libs-inspired activity. Alliteration: Students will be writing sentences filled with alliteration. Then, they’ll challenge a partner to read their alliteration sentences without making any mistakes (tongue-twister-style). Hyperbole: Students will be giving simple sentences a makeover with hyperbole. They’ll create an interactive shape and then write six examples. Then, they’ll select two examples of hyperbole to integrate into writing prompts. Idiom: First students will complete an idiom matching activity. Then, they'll get creative as the doodle the literal meaning of 4 different idioms. Oxymoron: Students will create 6 original oxymorons. Then, they'll put their knowledge to the test during a super fun game of Oxymoron Bingo! Implementation Ideas: Easily turn the fun activities into learning stations! Teach as a figurative language unit – covering one type of figurative language a day! Break up and teach at different times throughout the year Combine with a poetry unit This detailed “Doodle and Do” resource includes: A detailed teacher overview of the resource 7 detailed lesson plans: Figurative Language, Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Alliteration, Hyperbole Doodle and Do cover page for students Set of Doodle Notes – all filled in (4 pages) Set of Doodle Notes – guided notes format (4 pages) Simile Spinners (2) Simile Writing Activity (2 pages) Metaphor Match-Up Activity (2 pages) Metaphor Match-Up Teacher Clues Personification noun and verb brainstorm Personification Cube template Onomatopoeia Wacky Libs – word clues Onomatopoeia Wacky Libs – “My Pet” passage Alliteration Challenge Hyperbole Makeover Interactive Shape Hyperbole Makeover Worksheet Hyperbole Writing Other Doodle and Do Resources… Langston Hughes – Poet and Poem Study --- Doodle Article and Interactive Poetry Analysis Flip Book Maya Angelou – Poet and Poem Study --- Doodle Article and Interactive Poetry Analysis Flip Boo 5 Reading Skills Mini-Units 5 Nonfiction Text Structure Mini-Units How to Study for a Test Doodle Notes and 5 Learning Stations Writing Responses with Text-Based Evidence Doodle Notes and 5 Learning Stations Doodle Book Review Any book! Or, you may also like… Figurative Language Unit 12 Writing Units Bundle - Writing instruction for an entire year! 101 Writing Prompts! Have you seen these Creative Writing Videos? Creative Writing Activity Alliteration Writing Activity Personification Writing Activity Following is Fun! Get the inside scoop on all store discounts, free products, and product launches. Just click the green “Follow Me” star under my store name on this page or click the green “Follow Me” star on my store homepage. Let’s Stay in Touch! Blog Pinterest Facebook Instagram *** Click HERE to receive the Brain Waves Instruction Newsletter filled with exclusive FREEBIES and Teaching Tips! Thanks! Brain Waves Instruction Doodle notes is a trademarked term used with permission. Please visit doodlenotes.org for more information.
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Hey Ya'll! Do your kids love to learn by playing games? What if I told you that you could increase your students vocabulary by playing games that take 20 minutes or less? Vocabulary is something that is highly stressed in my district. It seems like each year, more and more pressure is put on us to increase students vocabulary. Today I'm here to share with you 4 easy games that you can implement into your class to increase vocabulary and make learning fun AND engaging! Kids should get excited about learning. Implementing games into our daily routine helps increase their learning when they don't even know it. All of these activities that I'm about to share can be used in a whole or small group setting. First up is Heads Down, Vocab Up! This is a game I like to have my kids play when I have a few minutes to kill before moving onto the next subject or when their little brains just need a break. It's super simple. Does your class like to play "heads down, thumbs up" or some call it "heads up, 7 up"? Mine do! Heads Down, Vocab Up! is just like that only using word cards. You can use any type of vocabulary cards you'd like. We play using sight words, compound words, contractions, academic vocabulary and more. Here is how to play: Pick 3-4 students to be it. Give each student picked a vocabulary card. Turn off the lights and the rest of the class puts their head down (NO PEEKING!) and their thumb up. The students chosen go around the room and pick someone by touching their thumb. When the teacher turns the lights on, those picked stand up and try to guess who picked them. Rather than calling out the students name, they must call out the vocabulary word that student is holding. If they get it right, they get to trade places and be it. If they get it wrong, they sit back down. Then the next round begins. You can also have your students tell the meaning of the word, use it in a sentence or give a synonym. This way it can be easily differentiated for various learners. When using academic vocabulary cards, I like have them say the word and their own meaning of the word. This is a simple review that can be done in 5 minutes or stretched out into a whole group lesson. Up next is a little game I like to call Word Speed! Word Speed is quick game that we play daily throughout the week. I do this with vocabulary and grammar skills mostly. All you need is some chart paper and makers. You could easily laminate chart paper and use dry erase markers to make it reusable. What you'll see below is bulletin paper from our workroom. Here is how you play... 1. Split your class up into 2 teams. (You can do more if you'd like) 2. Tape a piece of chart paper on opposite sides of the room for each team. You want them far enough apart where the other team can't see the others paper. 3. Write the topic you are covering at the top of the chart paper. 4. Time them for 1-2 minutes (sometimes this will be longer such as 3-4 minutes until everyone has a turn, but they think they only have one minute). 5. Each person write a vocabulary word and passes the marker to the next person. They are not allowed to talk while doing this. (The picture above, they had to write a pair of synonyms. They cannot write something that has already been written.) 6. They have 1-2 minutes to write as many words as they can. 7. When the time is up, the person holding the marker brings it to you. 8. I give each team one point for having the correct words. They race every day. On Monday-Wednesday, I do not count off for spelling. On Thursday and Friday, if a word is misspelled, I do not count it. This helps with preventing tie-breakers. 9. At the end of the week, the team with most points is the Word Speed Champ for the week! We play with a new piece of paper everyday so that they are able to use the same words. On Tuesday, I use the back of the page that they wrote on, on Monday. I kept a tally of the points on the board. I found that they loved this game so much, that they would go home and ask their families for words to use. Once the kids got into the routine of playing for various concepts, they would always ask if it was Word Speed time! Now lets talk about a class favorite that I use for multiple concepts. This little game is a BIG DEAL! It's called KABOOM! I blogged about this concept awhile back. You can read about it here. I'll do a quick recap. All you need to create KABOOM is popsicle sticks, a permanent marker, and a cup. Here's how to play: Color one tip of each popsicle stick. This end sticks out of the cup. Write a vocabulary word on each stick. You also need 5-10 KABOOM sticks. (For my academic vocabulary sets, I put 2 sets of vocabulary words that are 8 words each, and then 5 Kaboom! sticks. For sight words, I do a full set and then 10 KABOOM sticks. Place all the sticks in a cup with the colored tip sticking up. Students play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. The first player draws a stick and reads the word. For academic vocabulary they must read the word correctly and tell the meaning or use it in a sentence. This is good for differentiation in your groups. If the student reads the word and uses it in correctly they get to keep their stick. If they read it incorrectly or use it incorrectly, the stick must go back in the cup. If they draw a stick that says KABOOM! They have to put all of their sticks back into the cup. This is a BIG DEAL ya'll! The player with the most sticks at the end of the game wins! I like to play KABOOM with academic vocabulary at the beginning of each small group. I can easily differentiate each question I ask based on each student to fit their needs. We also play whole group using sight words, parts of speech, and for various math concepts. This is a favorite during stations as well. I keep all of my games set up in baskets and the kids can easily grab a cup when they have time. All the other games I have created are stored and labeled in ziploc bags. Last but most certainly not least is my personal favorite, Beach Ball Vocabulary! I originally started playing this game with math facts and learned that I could use it for all different subjects. You can read my math fact post here. All you need is a beach ball and a maker. Write vocabulary words all over the ball in a random order. Here is how to play: Have students form a large circle around the room while you or another student stands in the middle. GENTLY toss the beach ball to a student. Whatever word their thumb (you can pick right or left) lands on, they must tell the definition, use it in a sentence, or give an example of. Then they GENTLY toss the ball back to you and you throw it to another student. The example shown above was played with antonyms. Students had to say the antonym of the word one of their thumbs landed on. For academic vocabulary, I have all of unit 1 words written on a ball, all of unit 2 words written on a ball, etc. This way they are getting review of words we have already learned. All of the games show above can be used with multiple concepts such as academic vocabulary, synonyms/antonyms, prefixes/suffixes, compound words, contractions, parts of speech, sight words and so much more. Use them cross-curricular for math concepts or science and social studies. I hope you can incorporate at least one of these activities into your classroom! My kids love them and I hope yours do too! Have a great day!
Back when I was a student, there is only one vocabulary activity I can ever remember doing in class or for homework. It was looking up the word in the dictionary, writing the definition, and using the word in a sentence. I can recall this assignment itself (probably because of the sheer number of times I had to do it), but ask me how many of those actual words I am able to remember. Couldn’t tell you a single one, to be honest!
Five Fun Activities for Teaching Prepositions. Teaching prepositions through playing games & enjoyable activities for children to learn while having fun.
It's time for some fun geography hands-on learning! I love mapping activities and have put together a fun printable set to build a city map. This fun printable set is 15 pages long and includes 5 different
A NO PREP art/language activity teachers can use any time. All you need is paper!
If you have been following our blog, you might have seen our post about our favorite teacher hack, earlier finisher packets! If you missed it, don’t worry, I will sum it up real quick for you. Essentially, despite teaching different grade, Emmy and I realized we were both having the same Issue. Kid
Add these 6 angle activities to teach acute, right, straight, and obtuse angles to prepare your students to identify different types of angles.
Vocabulary instruction is so critical in today’s classroom! A vast vocabulary will help students to become better readers and writers. Vocabulary is also essential to their performance on standardized tests. Helping kids to develop their vocabulary is time that is well spent in a busy classroom. I have developed a routine to teach new vocabulary
Create a classroom of writers with these fun writing activities for middle school students! There's something for everyone!
Although my blog name is "Teaching Fourth," I have not always taught fourth grade. I started my teaching career in sixth grade. The following year I had an
I am so excited to launch my first "series" of blog posts! It's making me feel all grown-up and blogger-like :)My first series is going to be on increasing student engagement in the classroom. Over
Generally, when we think of book reports, we think of fiction reading response. However, nonfiction book report templates serve equally as important of a purpose for digging deep into nonfiction texts. Book reports are such
As teachers we know that vocabulary is pivotal in students’ success. When I was growing up, our vocabulary activities consisted of looking up definitions in the dictionary and copying them down on notebook paper. Do you think I truly understood those vocabulary words? Not. One. Bit. In order to truly understand vocabulary words and what […]
You're in the middle of your writing block during the day and students are sitting at their desks (maybe on the floor or in bean bags dispersed throughout the room) writing. Smoke is coming out of their pencils. They are writing epic stories about dragons, or spaceships -- or something equally as epic. This is your classroom every day, right? (Not) "I don't know what to write about!" (now that's more like it!) At least that's what *I* used to hear a lot. Well, no more. Give even those most reluctant writers something to talk about with "Roll and Write." You can make anything work if you turn it into a game, right? Here's how it works. You give each student a copy of the page below to place in their writer's folders. When they are stuck on what to write about, they simply roll a die three times. The first roll indicates the setting of their story (so if I roll a 3, my setting is a party on Friday night). The second roll gives them a character, and the third roll gives them a plot. The stories can turn out pretty hilarious. It encourages creativity and originality. No three rolls are the same. This freebie even includes a blank 'Roll and Write' sheet for you to swap out new combos every so often. Even that student that hates writing can get on board with a story about a frazzled teacher at the beach last summer that breaks her ankle. Oh shoot - did I just jinx you? I wish you no harm, a teacher needs her summer! :) Grab your freebie here! I'd love to hear about the stories your students come up with! Pin this post for later:
Today I'm sharing one of my favourite tasks for building community in the classroom. Students are able to share an important aspect of themselves (the story of their name) with the class and with me, their teacher. Through this task we are also working on important skills, like reading comprehension, writing, and reflection. Day 1 To begin, I asked my students to write any name they wish they had on a sticky note. They then placed it in a mason jar. I read my class the story "The Name Jar" by Yansook Choi. We stopped at several points in the story to predict, make connections, infer, and ask questions. At one point, we paused in the story so that students could journal about the name they wrote down on the sticky note earlier: - Did they choose their own name? Or another? - Why? - If you chose another name, where did you hear that name before? Day 2 At the end of Day 1, students were given homework. (Stick around to the bottom of this post for a chance to get your own copy of this sheet.) I make it very clear, that while names all have meanings, your family may not have chosen your name for that reason. They might not know the meaning, and you can choose to look it up with your family if you wish. I also focus a lot on nicknames and your own feelings about your name. While I've never taught a student in foster care, or one who was adopted, I do think it's important to mention that this could be a touchy task in those situations, so be sure to know your students first, and modify as needed. Students use the homework task, and the journal write from the previous day, to write "The Story of their Name". Some possible options to include are: - who you are named after - the meaning of your name - a name you'd rather have - your feelings toward your name - nicknames you may have - the person (or people) who chose your name - how your name was chosen This piece of writing is then self, peer, and teacher edited, and a "good" copy is made. Day 3 I found this excellent step-by-step self-portrait from "Art Projects for Kids". I modified the task so that instead of drawing the left or right side of their face, they would draw the top half. Students find that folding their page into quadrants as she suggests is very helpful. Under the document camera I demonstrate each step, and students copy, adapting to their own facial features. Each student gets a mirror to look in to help them personalize. The final pieces are put on a bulletin board for display. Students also coloured in a bubble letter version of their names to complete the display. (I used the font KG Red Hands Outline for this.) Day 4 Once we've completed the task, the last job is to reflect on our work. I pulled some elements from our Arts Education curriculum (very relevant regardless of where you teach) for students to self-assess on. I've used the proficiency scale language our school has moved to for all reporting. A few students found it helpful to complete their reflection while looking at the finished product on their bulletin board, but most didn't need this. Want a copy of both my homework and reflection pages? Follow the image or button below to grab your copy. Take Me to the Free Download Pin this post.
