Doodlr is a spin on Tumblr. Students make connections with words and symbols through doodling. This activity includes a parabola graphic organizer for students to label in relation to real-world scenarios. Available in printable form and digital for Google Slides.Add more iMath activities to the pho...
Looking for a way to get students to have fun learning new words AND remember them longer? Try these brain-based vocabulary activities.
Virtual dissections can be a huge help in teaching science, biology, physiology and anatomy. Here are some of the best resources for your lessons and labs.
25-page study guide for High school physics Covers the New York Regents curriculum Hand-written, original illustrations Digital PDF file Following topics covered: Vectors Forces Dynamics Kinematics Free Fall Projectile Motion Laws of Motion Friction Ramps & Inclines Circular Motion Gravity Momentum Collisions Springs Work, Power, & Energy Electric fields Electrostatics Currents Series circuits Parallel circuits Magnetism Waves Electromagnetic Spectrum Modern physics Atom models
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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.
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
If you think I have the answers here, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'm far from having any answers.
A lesson plan! A lesson plan! My kingdom for a lesson plan!
Looking for some fresh ideas for how to use the "I am" Poem in your secondary ELA classroom? Check out this quick post where I share a whole list of ideas for meaningful ways to add this poetry activity into your classroom today.
Seven essential elements to include in your next PBL to
Doug Savage's Savage Chickens "comics" are a single-frame comic drawn on a sticky note that illustrates the life of chickens whose experiences reveal the "savage" truths of the human existence. Teaching satire in secondary ELA is a high-interest and humorous way to engage studen
Have you been wanting to try stations in your Secondary ELA classroom but aren't sure where to start? Read through this quick post where we share 8 station ideas and how to use them with your ELA students.
Beat the overwhelm of teaching an absolute beginner with this downloadable checklist
10 ideas for planning engaging novel units: creative, engaging lesson ideas for your next whole-class novel unit
Movement in the classroom is beneficial for many reasons. First and foremost, getting up to move in the classroom might help anxious students relieve stress.
25-page study guide/outline for 8th grade/High school algebra Covers most high school Algebra I curriculums, including the New York Regents curriculum Hand-written, original illustrations Digital PDF file Following topics covered: Basics of Algebra Prime and composite numbers Ratios and proportions Inequalities Slope Linear equations Systems of equations Exponents Square root Factoring Functions Polynomials Parabolas Quadratic equations Exponential growth and decay Sequences and series Absolute value Piecewise functions Irrational numbers Probability - permutation, combination Statistics - mean, median, mode, box and whisker plot, stem and leaf plot Note: This product was revised and improved in March 2024. If you purchased before March 19, 2024, I am happy to offer you a free copy of the revised version.
19 free financial literacy games for high school students to add engagement and FUN to teaching personal finance. Financial literacy & budget simulations, too.
Do you want to know the secondary classroom procedure I can't live without??
In the first month of school, teachers are usually focused on classroom setup, establishing procedures, launching routines, and digging into the first unit. Although we DO want students to be organized and to feel safe as individuals, we also need them to open up and collaborate as part of a bigger classroom community. Read on for 9 ideas about how to create bonding, shared experiences, and interactions that foster community-building. (By the way, you can check out a similar blog post of ours about community-building here.) The SuperHERO Teacher Teaching kindness and collaboration amongst students is such an important part of a positive classroom community! I love using interactive bulletin boards to encourage students to motivate each other. Recently, I created this nature-themed bulletin board using Polaroid frames with inspiring quotes, twine, and clothes pins. Basically, if students need a bit of motivation, they can take a quote from the board, but they must replace it with a new quote! At the end of the year, students will be exchanging quotes from each other-- making a strong classroom relationship! Here's the link. Addie Williams I work hard to create a collaborative and welcoming classroom community and one way I do this is through writing about kindness. I share a kindness quote with my students as a writing prompt and have them work on it individually before sharing their ideas with a partner and then with a larger group. I ask them to look for similarities in their responses. Demonstrating to my students that I value kindness and community early on in the year will hopefully create a sense of caring throughout the year. Use these free Kindness Quotes to get started! Secondary Sara One of the hurdles to community-building is when students aren't willing to be vulnerable, they try to be perfect, or they compete instead of connect. As much as strengths and growth mindset are important, we teachers also need to help students identify and tackle their weaknesses in an honest way. I like doing this in a humorous way by "curing" student diseases. I joke about students who have "Procrastinitis", and when students own that problem, it becomes a springboard for other areas of concern as well (like upset binders, high test pressure, and silence infections). Get the poster set AND activities to accompany them here. Danielle Hall One of the ways students build our classroom community is by working together to solve problems or puzzles. I use team trivia to start out our class at the beginning of the year, getting students used to collaborating and thinking critically. They develop a healthy sense of teamwork and competition. Here's a free week to get you started. The Classroom Sparrow A simple way to create a positive classroom community is to display work from students around a classroom. It doesn't necessarily have to be an assignment, even a collaborative discussion full of insight from everyone in a class adds positivity and shows that everyone's opinion/view is valued! If you're lacking in work to display, simply begin a class with a simple prompt, motivational quote, or question! Here is a collaborative poem I had students create to begin a poetry unit. Everyone took 10-15 mins to cut out 30-40 words, then I paired students and peers to create a beautiful and colourful example of poetry, which remained on my bulletin boards for the length of the unit! The Daring English Teacher I teach at a very diverse school, and there are 23 different home languages represented in our student body. Bringing together such a diverse group can sometimes be challenging, so I created Classroom Community Bell Ringers to help us all find a common ground. These bell ringers include quotes about love, acceptance, diversity, and tolerance and a brief writing prompt. My students take the first five minutes in class to read the quote and quickly respond to the prompt. Then we share our responses aloud. This exercise has helped forge new connections amongst students who once thought there was no common ground. Stacey Lloyd At the beginning of the year we always spend time thinking about positive and negative behaviors in the classroom: social, emotional and academic. Students come up with their suggestions by walking around the room and anonymously adding their thoughts to various prompts. I then compile these into a list and have students all sign their names on the document - which stays on the wall all year. Any time I find a student acting out or being unkind or unhelpful, I point to their signature and hold them to account. Room 213 We spend a great deal of time during the first few weeks building our classroom climate. I want kids to feel free to discuss their views and to know that it's okay to disagree with someone, as long as they do so respectfully. We develop a class code of conduct, and I put up posters to remind them to be empathetic, kind and understanding of differences. They are a good visual reminder of the things we discussed and the exercises we do during the first few days of school. You can grab them for free here. Presto Plans Building a positive classroom community is an intentional process. One way to do this is by having students complete short challenges that encourage kindness, collaboration, teamwork, expression, and the sharing of ideas and opinions. Start your year or semester by presenting short classroom challenges that can be used as bell-ringers, a class close-up activity, or a fun way to start or end the week. I suggest you set up a bulletin board that allows you to build suspense and reveal one challenge at a time. Make the challenges fun, collaborative, and stress-free. For example, you might consider getting students to write a thank-you card for someone, write a funny top 10 list, play a game of 20 questions, or interview a classmate. We hope you enjoy these ideas! Tell us what you think, or tell us more ideas in the comments!
15 exit ticket ideas for any subject or grade level!
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, […]
“A2: Like this picture #primaryrocks”
5 activities that you can implement in your classroom to continue meaningful English language development even at the end of the school year.
By the end of the school year, we have our classrooms running like well-oiled machines. The students know what to do, when to do it, and what to expect from
High school teacher Grace Dearborn says students don’t all respond to consequences in the same way, so teachers need a full toolbox of options.
Hands-on learning isn't just for younger students! These hands-on activities for middle and high schoolers will help older students enjoy learning and stay actively engaged in the process.
This battle of wills is perhaps the most epic, universal, and notorious problem that English teachers face, even more than grading struggles: getting students to ACTUALLY read that book, short story, article, or poem. Whether it’s an assigned text or choice reading, students have a variety of obstacles that make reading at home difficult. The struggle ranges from the innocent (forgetting to read) to the sympathetic (struggling to read) to the frustrating (too busy to read) to the malicious (choosing not to read, with no excuse). With an ever-increasing number of websites that make cheating easier, how can a teacher increase reading skills (and preferably a love of reading) if the student just won’t do it? Since students’ reasons for not reading vary, we teachers can’t only keep students accountable through assessment (although that’s important); we have to hack their motivation and ruffle their curiosity. Teaming up with me to tackle this question is fellow ELA teacher Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog. 1. Start reading in class. Sara: I have always found that if we start reading in class (either read-aloud or independently), they're more likely to go home and continue doing it. If we have built momentum, gotten the students hooked on the storyline, and talked through any immediate obstacles, then students are prepared to go it alone. For example, I personally hate the first chapter of To Kill A Mockingbird (even though I love the book overall), and I can't imagine teaching that novel without me doing an interrupted read-aloud to get students PAST that brutal opening faster. Kristy: When we read whole class novels, I do almost all of the reading during class time. Then when I need the students to complete some reading at home, they are more inclined because I do not assign it nightly. 2. Keep parents in the loop. Kristy: I remind parents through online portals and during in person meetings that it is a requirement of my English program for students to read at least 20 minutes nightly. Many parents thank me for this requirement as it gives them a reason to enforce reading at home. Sara: In the past, I have sometimes sent a mass email to parents letting them know what book we are reading, when it has to be done by, and any other relevant information (such as project info or why we are reading this novel). Some parents appreciate being kept in the loop and will help remind their child to read at home. 3. Help students learn pacing skills. Sara: Some students aren't reading because they truly don't know how to fit it into their lives (and other homework). I like to teach them that even a little reading every day is better than none; showing them the cumulative payoff of reading is easier with these pacing bookmarks. Students calculate a page goal per day and make a calendar to try to stick to their page goals. Kristy: I explicitly teach my students how to select novels that are the right fit for them. This starts the first week of school. We set goals together and use sticky notes to mark places in their novels and write dates on each sticky notes. These visual reminders help students see their weekly reading goals. Not all students need a visual reminder; some students also do well with informal reading check ins. I regularly walk around my classroom during independent reading time and ask students questions about their reading materials. I also greet my students at the door almost every day - they have to show me their novel as they enter. This quick visual scan allows me to track their reading. Sara: You might also like to read Kristy's blog post about Why Classroom Libraries are Essential and my post with Tips for Independent Reading Programs. 4. Ask questions that internet summaries can't answer. Sara: Pick the questions on your quizzes or checkpoints very carefully. It's fine to ask about summary, theme, symbolism, or characters, but just know that this information could be in an online summary somewhere. In addition to questions like “Which of these events did NOT happen?”, throw in a few questions that ask for opinions, author’s writing style, predicting what's next, and inference. Kristy: I use daily warm ups to check for comprehension when reading whole class novels. This only counts for a very small portion of a student’s overall grade for that unit. I plan assignments where students must demonstrate deep critical thinking, and not just repeat general comprehension information. During the assignment creation process, I try to create choice boards so students have several options to demonstrate their learning, but must complete one per column. This helps me differentiate, but also assess curriculum. Sara: In addition, Kristy has great genre-specific book reports that students can't possibly fake! 5. Ask for quotes. Sara: It's hard for students to fake that they read the chapter when they have to quickly flip through the text to find a quote or moment you're asking for. Ask students to show (or paraphrase) text evidence to back up their answer. Kristy: It is important to explicitly teach students about finding and use quotations from the novel. I start this process using the gradual release model - lots of teacher directed, then slowly moving towards student directed and independent learning. Picture books, song lyrics and short stories are a great place to start when teaching students to analyze song lyrics. 6. Model enthusiasm for the text, not just obligation and accountability. Kristy: Students come to me frequently and ask for book recommendations from the classroom library. I start by asking them what genres they like and pull engaging books from those areas. Then before I leave the stack of books with a student to look through, I pull my top three novels and explain why I think those would be a great fit. Sara: If you don't like the text or aren't passionate about the unit, students will pick up on it, and they won't want to read it, either. If you hype up the book, act like you can't WAIT for them to read what happens next, drool over beautiful sentences, defend its modern-day relevance, and put some excitement into it, then comparatively more students will give it a try. 7. Make social incentives. Sara: I never advocate for shaming students, BUT if there is a peer or social reason to read, that motivates some students. For example, if there's a group project and people are relying on a student to do his or her part, that helps. Or, if I tell students that they are allowed to publicly quiz each other on a chapter, then suddenly no one wants to be unprepared. Kristy: Students love to read what other students have recommended. Build time into your classes just a few minutes for students to share their likes and dislikes. Eventually it will become an organic process not needing teacher involvement. 8. Use assessments that force reading. Kristy: When I assess reading, students know they cannot Google the answers and that they MUST have completed their reading. Creative assignments in lieu of essays can be a great way to ensure students have completed their reading. It is quite evident to the teacher and to a student’s peers who has read the novel when presenting creating assignments. Sara: Even if the student didn't come to class prepared, can your activity or assessment MAKE them get caught up? Can you get students to act out a chapter, look for evidence of a claim, or illustrate a paragraph? 9. Ask a question they WANT to answer. Sara: I love using reverse psychology or a hook to frame their thinking. For example, for the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, I tell students that I think Suzanne Collins copied this short story when creating The Hunger Games. That makes students want to read it to compare. (No, I don't ACTUALLY think Ms. Collins would plagiarize, but that's not the point!) Kristy: When we read the first chapter of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - students want to give up on the book due to the names of the characters, but as soon as Ponyboy gets jumped outside of the movie theatre they want to know more. As the students become more invested in the novel, they answer reading questions and start to speculate about the plot of the novel. You might also like... Kristy's Independent Reading Journal Assignment & Forms Sara's Book of the Month (independent reading) Program for grades 6-8 or 9-12 Do you have more ideas? Tell us in the comments!
Engage students in meaningful poetry reading and writing activities. Here are SEVEN assignments both secondary teachers and students will enjoy.
Looking for a fun vocabulary activity? This extension is perfect for middle and high school to help encourage critical thinking and associations.
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country ~ Kurt Vonnegut
I was hoping I would get to use this interactive notebook page idea next year. I'm a little sad that I won't! I was secretly hoping to teach pre-cal next year...not sure why... I found this small unit circle from Jean Adams on TpT. It's a free download. I like that it's small enough to fit in the notebook and still has room to label all of the important information. I also drew a little coordinate grid to help students remember where the x and y values are positive and negative. Sometimes it's nice to have a quick reference.
Finding great resources online is the best! In this post (and podcast episode) I’m sharing my favorite sites for free creative lesson plans and teaching ideas online. Listen in below, or read on to learn about my favorite online resources.
15 exit ticket ideas for any subject or grade level!
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
