By The Daring English Teacher One of the most fundamental skills students in middle school ELA and high school English classes need to learn is how to evaluate sources and synthesize information. This skill is so vital for students because it is a skill that students will continue to use long after they leave our classrooms. I spend a lot of time focusing on synthesis skills in my classroom. Not only does this help prepare my students for state tests, but it also helps students build the skills needed to become informed decision-makers in society. Here is a look at how I plan a synthesis writing unit in my classroom. What is Synthesis? So, what exactly is synthesis? If you haven't purposefully planned synthesis writing in your classroom, there's a chance you've done something similar without even realizing it. Essentially, synthesis is the act of drawing information from multiple sources. Whenever you assign students a writing assignment that requires the inclusion of numerous sources, that is synthesis. This free student handout about synthesis will help your students understand the synthesis writing process. To take synthesis to the next level, I focus on teaching students how to evaluate multiple sources for credibility and reliability, and how to compare multiple sources reporting on a similar topic. Now that you've got an idea about what synthesis is, it is time to start planning your unit. A successful synthesis unit includes four components: a high-interest topic that will grab students' attention, multiple sources across a variety of mediums, a clear task and objective, and a strategy for modeling critical reading to students. Choosing High-Interest Topics One of the best ways middle school ELA and high school English teachers can garner student engagement is by planning activities, lessons, and thematic units involving high-interest topics. One way to go about this is to survey your students. You can ask them to brainstorm in partners or small groups a list of 3-5 issues that interest them. These issues can be world issues, national issues, or teen issues. Another way to incorporate a synthesis unit or project into one of your preexisting units is to come up with a high-interest topic that is related to a novel you are reading. For example, if you are currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird with your students, perhaps you'll want to assign a synthesis project on social justice or racial inequality. Or, if you are teaching American Literature and currently studying colonial literature, you can assign a synthesis project on first-hand accounts from early settlers. However, you don't need to tie-in your synthesis units to thematically fit with your current units of study. Sometimes, students like to take a break and focus on more modern (in their eyes) and pressing issues. For example, with more students interested in politics, students might enjoy a voting age synthesis unit. Additionally, with the rising cost of post-secondary education, students might also enjoy synthesizing information about the cost of state and community college tuition. In my store, I have a variety of synthesis writing units that will help your students build the essential skills of analysis, synthesis, and critical thinking. Gather Multiple Sources Once you've selected a topic for your synthesis unit, it is time to gather multiple sources. If you haven't taught research skills yet, it might be a good idea to throw in a quick mini-lesson, or you can also provide your students with a list of pre-selected sources. One of the best things you can do for your students as you gather multiple sources is to include a variety of sources. Not only do you want to include sources that include differing perspectives, but you also want to include different types of sources. You'll want to include sources that have opposing viewpoints so that students can practice their critical thinking skills. As they read, you'll want them to evaluate each source for its bias, credibility, and accuracy. You can take this one step further by having them compare sources about a similar event or topic. If the pre-selected sources have different biases, your students will be able to see how the media acts as a gatekeeper. This skill is so crucial for students because it helps them become competent and critical contributors to society. It is also important to include sources from diverse authors so that students are introduced to multiple perspectives and viewpoints. In addition to including sources with different perspectives and arguments, you'll also want to include a variety of sources. You can help your students improve their listening skills by having one audio source. For the audio source, have students listen to it multiple times and take notes as they listen. For audio sources, NPR is a fantastic site to use in the classroom. In addition to including at least one audio source, you should also include sources with visual and infographics. Students need to learn how to read, evaluate, and analyze infographic sources to be more informed media consumers, and it is also a skill that state tests assess. When selecting sources, you'll want to include at least four different sources to analyze. As students become more confident in their research skills, it is valuable to have students include a valid, reliable, and credible source they've researched on their own. This way, students can also improve their research skills as they demonstrate their ability to find trustworthy and reliable sources. Stating a Clear Objective and Task Now that you've got your topic and sources, it is time to establish a clear learning objective and task. With synthesis writing, you can have students produce either informational or argumentative pieces. Furthermore, there is a lot of freedom for student creativity. For example, students can write a single paragraph or a multi-page essay. You can also incorporate more creative projects into your synthesis unit, including student-created podcasts, websites, and campaigns. You can also have students use their synthesized sources in a debate, Socratic Seminar, or fishbowl discussion. SAMPLE OBJECTIVE: Students will synthesize multiple sources to write an argument paragraph that takes a stand and includes multiple perspectives. Model Critical Reading Once you have selected a high-interest topic, gathered multiple sources that include different perspectives, and have clearly identified your assignment, it is time to get started by modeling critical reading to your students. You'll want to dedicate at least one 60-minute class period to this activity. It might even span across two class periods. Select one of the sources and read that source aloud with your students. You'll want to read it slowly and deliberately. And as you read, you'll want to annotate along the way and look for evidence to use in the assignment. When I do this with my students, I usually chunk out the reading and focus on just a couple of paragraphs at a time. I read the paragraphs out loud and then give my students some time to annotate. They then think, pair, share their annotations, and then I use a document camera to show my annotations and to also add in student-generated annotations. This process can easily take an entire class period to get through one article. However, since this is one of the most vital steps of the synthesis process, it is important not to rush it. Students gain so much knowledge and insight about critical reading when they see and hear their teacher complete the process. More Synthesis Related Content: Teaching Reading, Writing, AND Awareness by Room 213 Close Reading and Compare Contrast of Nonfiction, Poetry, Artwork by Tracee Orman
Need a fun idea for teaching conditional statements in high school geometry? This free project is relevant for students and can even fit in their interactive notebooks!
"Why even do this?", students might ask when they are not sure why they need to complete certain tasks. Student motivation and engagement are possibly the most important variables in the learning process. Identifying clear objectives and providing students with a purpose for carrying out various activities will more likely engage them as they will see the benefits of completing the proposed tasks. Because most of my high school ESL learners need a lot of motivation in school, I like to assign di
Looking for a fun vocabulary activity? This extension is perfect for middle and high school to help encourage critical thinking and associations.
If there are two things my students know, it is that I assign paragraphs often and that I grade writing with very high standards -especially in the second
Get your students ready to write their argument essay with these two fun and engaging pre-writing activities. These two free activities will get your students prepared to write their essay!
Some students really struggle with the concept of fractions! Help them develop true understanding with these three slam-dunk strategies, plus videos and even a link to a FREE teaching unit!
Looking for unique post-reading activities to inspire students and provide a sample of their analytical skills? Find high-interest strategies for secondary.
A curve is something that is smooth, continuous and bends. Now, we've explored a ton of curves so far: trigonometric functions, polynomial functions,
5 ideas for better activity transitions in middle and high school classes
I created this character map that I use during stations. I copy the Character Traits on the back and have them highlight the traits that describe the character. Then, they write them on the front of the page in the Character Traits section. They draw an illustration of the character in the middle of the page. I love it because I can use it during stations for the story of the week, whole group, or they can even complete it independently using the main character from their AR book. Click on the image below for a copy of this printable
Managing Make-up Work in the Middle School Classroom If there is one thing that we can count on as educators, it is that not every student will be in your classroom, every day, for the entire year. So, how do you manage the work students miss while they were gone? Have you ever had a student come to you and ask, "Did I miss anything when I was gone?" Or, even worse... "Did I miss anything important when I was gone?" These are my LEAST favorite student questions! However, I love that my middle school students understand my sarcasm...well, most of them do! So, sometimes I joke around with them and tell them that we couldn't possibly go on without them, or we just sat around and cried because we missed them so much! It usually gets a laugh, but then, they really want to know what they missed. What then? Explain every missed assignment to each individual student while the rest of your class waits patiently?! Or, get the rest of your class started on an activity while you explain the work they missed? Then the student who was absent is falling even more behind because they are missing the work their classmates are currently doing! I teach 7th grade and spend a lot of time encouraging and providing opportunities for my students to practice what I call, owning their learning. For me, that means taking responsibility for themselves and their education. It looks like making good choices on where you sit, who you sit with, who you choose to be in groups with, how you conduct yourself in the classroom, how you manage your time, etc. It took me a couple of years to find a system for dealing with absent or makeup work that really fit with my personality and my classroom philosophy. The "What did I miss?" system not only encourages independence but models planning and organization, an area in which most middle school students need support. The "What did I miss?" calendar: The "What did I miss?" calendar is posted at the front of my classroom. I keep the current month and the previous month posted at all times. Each day, I, or a student helper update the calendar with the activity(ies) we completed AND where to find them. The "What did I miss?" crate: The "What did I miss?" crate sits below the calendar and is home to any hard copy assignments we do. The crate is set up with a folder for each day of the month and the folders are set up in date order. The "What did I miss?" paper: The "What did I miss?" paper is a handy way to summarize a list of assignments a student missed. I use this if I know a student will be gone for a lengthy period of time, if a parent contacts me to request work, and as an accommodation for students who may struggle to manage the system alone. The "What did I miss" system is definitely not full proof. Like any other system, it may work well for some and not for others. I would love to hear about the systems that work in your classroom. Leave a comment below! See my Teachers Pay Teachers store for the products mentioned in this post.
When you make meaningful classroom procedures for older students, you are establishing comfort and familiarity for them.
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.
Here are eight creative back to school activities, games, and icebreakers that your middle and high school students will love the first week of school. Creative Back to School Activities for the Secondary Classroomhttps://static.wixstatic.com/media/ee4396_ae14703b68ac414ebb9a84e847fd6310~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1080,h_1080,al_c,q_90/ee4396_ae14703b68ac414ebb9a84e847fd6310~mv2.png
10 Special Ways for School Principals to Celebrate Classified Appreciation Week. Show school classified employees gratitude with these ideas
Lesson 1 Content Objective: Students will build background knowledge about the food chain after watching a video and listening to a book about it. Language Objectives: Ss will respond orally to questions after watching a video clip about food chain. (Listening & Speaking) Ss will complete a graphic organizer to illustrate an example of the food chain. (Visual literacy) Materials Pictures cards: horse, giraffe, elephant, zebra, rabbit, cow/ eagle, lion, bear, leopard, tiger/ dog, turkey, pig Venn diagram Discovery Channel:: What is Food Chain? Non-fiction book, “The Food Chain,” (from readinga-z.com) Graphic Organizer, Animal pictures (plant, grasshopper, frog, fish, bear) scissors, glue, marker and color pencils Warm-up ü Ss will look at the pictures of animals on a pocket chart and classify the name of animals to each category: Plant Eater (herbivore), Meat Eater (carnivore), and both (omnivore). Use Venn Diagram to talk about ‘meat eater’ vs ‘plant eater’ Guided Practice ü Use realia to show Ss that a chain is made of links. ü Introduce term “food chain” by watching a video clip (discovery channel: What is Food Chain?). ü T distributes copies of book The Food Chain. Ss will read through and discuss pictures and ideas on each page. Independent Practice ü Ss will be given a graphic organizer and animal pictures. Ss will color and glue the pictures on a graphic organizer of the food chain sequence. ü Ss will orally explain their food chains to the teacher. Lesson 2 Content Objective: Students will build background knowledge about the food chain after watching a video and listening to a book about it. Language Objectives: Ss will write sentences to recall the sequence of events from a non-fiction book. (Writing) Materials: Blank sentence strips, sentence frame Guided Practice ü Students will be given five blank sentence strips. ü Ss will write sentences to show the relationship between a producer and a consumer. ü Ss will be guided to write five sentences in sequential order. The first sentence will be given and Ss will copy or write: The plant grows. ü The sentence frame will be provided: The_________ eats the __________. Independent Practice ü Ss will write four more sentences to describe the picture of the food chain shown in their graphic organizers. ü Ss will read each sentence to sequence all sentence strips in sequential order. ü If time allows, Ss will play food chain games online. http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/foodchaingame.htm Food Chain Graphic Organizer Food Chain Pics
Fun and engaging grammar games for your secondary ELA classroom! These grammar games will get your students collaborating, moving, and discussing those critical sentence structure and grammar skills! Bring fun to grammar instruction!
I love starting the school year with literary analysis writing. It allows me to teach those critical skills of analyzing texts and citing evidence so we can practice the critical skill of analyzing literature all year long.
This is an inferencing activity that I use with my high school students. Every year, inferencing is the first unit of any English class I teach, because it's critical for students to learn the skill of active reading - and always making connections, and reading between the lines for meaning. This asks students to use their inferencing skills in a super creative way - to read VERY short short stories (some are just 6 words!) and make connections to their prior knowledge to make guesses about what the story is about. It forces them to really analyze the punctuation / past tense present tense / gender clues / clues about setting etc. (every detail counts with so few words!) It sparks some terrific discussions!! Included is: ✤ an inferencing worksheet where they look at the 5 W's ✤ 19 SHORT short stories for you to print ...I find it best to do these in pairs or part of a rotation - I print them big on a piece of paper, full page, so that I can put them up in the class afterwards (students say they love looking at these when they're daydreaming in class, haha! A perfect distraction that makes them THINK) It's so much fun...and really gets them talking and inferencing. It pushes their reading skills to the limit. Similar resources in my shop: ➼ Inferencing BUNDLE - Complete unit ➼ Visual Inferencing - What's going on in this photo? ➼ Visual Inferencing - What's going on in this photo? (Historical images) ➼ Visual Inferencing - Generic worksheet ➼ Inferencing - Explicit VS Implicit worksheet ➼ Visual & written Inferencing - Murder Mystery! (students favourite activity) ◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈ ➯ Click HERE to follow my shop and see updates and new products. ➯ Please don't forget to leave feedback on my products! You will receive TPT credits that can be used on future purchases.
I'm super excited to be a part of an awesome product swap linky and GIVEAWAY!, brought to you by a bunch of very talented Aussie bloggers that I am very lucky to call friends! At the bottom of this post you'll find a link up featuring everyone who participated in the swap... do yourself a favour and make sure to read all the product reviews because I know you will find a few that you must have for your classroom. :) To make it even better, enter the giveaway for your chance to win ALL of the products that we have swapped! I was very, very lucky to have been paired up with the amazingly talented Mel who is the creative mind behind From the Pond as well as Graphics from the Pond... honestly, she is a one stop shop for classroom resources or graphics to create your own. I literally felt stressed choosing a product from her store, there were so many great ones that I didn't know what to choose! I finally decided on her Sentence Maker pack! This product immediately appealed to me for a number of reasons: 1. I teach Prep (Kindergarten), and the confidence my kidlets have with writing can sometimes be very low. This pack lets them experience success every time! 2. By using either the cut & paste, copy or write versions of each worksheet you can scaffold children towards independent writing. No more throwing them in the deep end! 3. Each sentence reinforces sight word recognition... bonus! 4. Same task, 3 ways = easy differentiation! 5. As soon as I saw the pages in this pack I knew they would be perfect for my Writing Corner. A few of my kidlets are desperate to spend time there independently working on some writing, but they just don't have the skills necessary to successfully write a sentence (or more) by themselves. As soon as Mel sent me this pack I printed a bunch of the pages and popped them in my Writing Corner... instant hit = happy teacher! Because this was a new format for my kidlets, I introduced it in Literacy small groups. Each 'team' completed the task based on their own ability levels. Some cut and glued, some traced, some copied! I only had to explain the task once, which was a bonus. :) We worked on the 'I see a mouse' sentence, because that fit perfectly with the sight words we learned this week! I love that there's a bit of cutting practise involved in this task... my kidlets this year need it! Assembling sentences is very serious business! Holding your breath and wearing funny glasses while tracing sentences is not necessary, but does make it more fun. :) And yes, we are working on this poppet's pencil grip. I am so glad that I got a chance to use this product in my classroom, because now I'm not sure how I ever went without it! Keep an eye on Mel's store because a little birdie tells me that there's plans for a few Sentence Maker packs with different themes - but I bet I snap them up before you do!! Because Aussies are such kind and caring folk, we thought it might be nice to share with you a freebie or two that you could use in your classroom. I'm going to share 2, one from me and one from my product swap buddy! If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know that I am a huge fan of sensory play experiences for kidlets. I put together a collection of my favourite recipes for easy and fun sensory play in the classroom. Perfect to give to parent helpers to make at home, or for your own easy reference. Simply print and pop in a display folder! Click here to grab it for free! Match Me! is a freebie that I use in my classroom all the time! Mel provides ideas in the product pages... but most recently I used the cards as an awesome whole class activity. I shuffled the numeral, dot and word cards and handed them out to my kidlets. They then had to silently organise themselves in to groups of 3 according to the number they had. Of course, as I was handing the cards out I made sure that each child had a card they could decode. This task was perfect for a group of cherubs who struggle with a) keeping quiet and b) being problem solvers. :) OK, now time for the giveaway!! For a chance to win Mel's Sentence Maker pack, leave a comment on this post! I'll choose a random winner. Easy peasy. Even easier - for a chance to win ALL of the packs featured inn this linky, enter the Rafflecopter below. :) a Rafflecopter giveaway Not sure about you, but I'm off to check out all of the other bloggers who have linked up to share about some awesome products. I hope you find lots that you can use in your classroom! :) Lauren An InLinkz Link-up
This low prep unit teaches your students about Uta Hagen Tony award-winning actress and her acting method using her nine questions for building characters. This resource is suitable for theater high school students. If you are teaching the various acting methods which actors use, this unit is a must to include! There is very little set up and lasts a week. Check out my Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler or Constantin Stanislawski acting units, too! At the request of a teacher, I created this unit. You can request units, too! Just message me. The Teacher will need access to the Youtube.com This Product includes: Table of Contents Teacher's Letter Procedure for 5 Days Warm up exercises (5) applying the Hagen technique Acting exercises (10) applying the Hagen technique Mini-playwriting assignment Nine Questions Handout Sheet Assignments (3)--individual and group Materials List Exit slips or Writing Prompts (5) A Complete Bio about Uta Hagen Biography Questions Teacher's Key for Grading Biography Questions Teacher's Scripts for each day--the entire process is scripted for the teacher! Sources & Video Clips Links And More! This is a unique and engaging product is created by an award-winning, veteran drama teacher and professional actress for over thirty-eight years. Do you follow me? If not I'd love it if you would! Follow me Earning TPT Credits • Do you want credit for future TPT purchases? Just provide feedback for resources you purchase. Click on the “provide feedback” button next to your purchases, rate the resource, and leave a short comment. (You need to do both to earn credits.) You receive 1 TPT credit for each dollar you spend, and you can spend it just like cash on future Teachers Pay Teachers purchases.
Free Resources to Help you Teach your lesson on Mechanisms of Microevolution. Including Worksheet, Guided Notes, Power Point, Lesson Plans and more!
This post shares details for promoting critical thinking with math riddles. Plus, you can get a FREE printable of Math Riddles Task Cards.
Teaching kids science can be fun with science coloring pages. These printable science coloring pages are great for all types of science.
This post may contain affiliate links. That means that if you click the links and make a purchase I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. I do not recommend any companies that I do not persoanlly use and love. Please read our disclaimer for more info. Often, teaching inclusion math in middle school, it is difficult to keep all students moving at the same pace. We faced this challenge recently when teaching our unit on exponent laws. We begin teaching exponent laws by teaching the different laws, product of powers, quotient of powers, power of a power, negative exponent rules, and the power of zero. On the first day, I provide my students who struggle in math with these cheat sheets of the rules, Power of Exponents. Throughout the unit, if anyone else gets our attention, we’ll give them one also. We then spend a few days giving students plenty of practice and reviewing all of the different problems with them. During this time we provide them with individual attention as needed. The Problem Once we feel as though it is time to move on and begin introducing coefficients, we do. But this year there was a snag. We were noticing that while many of the students were ready to move on, some weren’t. To decipher what was happening we gave them a quick, ungraded assessment. I gave the students a six-question quiz to see how they’d do. In one of our classes, the lowest score was a 3, and most students had a 5 out of 6. But, in our other class, the smaller class which usually does better, there were a significant number of ones and twos! Cue to a moment of panic and the realization that we need more time. The Plan We decided that the best way to combat this issue was to have centers. For our class that was doing well, we had six centers that the students rotated through. For our class that had some struggling, we pulled the group that had three or less right on the assessment into a small group for remediation. I took this group to my classroom where we went back to basics. The Centers I had not made enough exponent products that would be useful to us, so we went to Pinterest. In my adventures, I found this bundle, Properties of Exponents Activities and Games. One center was a foldable from this product where the students had to cut out the shape and figure out which rule and example went with which graphic. We also used the mazes from this product as another center where the students could work together to solve each of the mazes. We left them the answer key so that they could check when they were finished. A third center was the puzzle from this product, which I cut out and laminated. Any excuse to laminate is a good thing in my book! We also had a fourth center where the students would watch a YouTube video about the laws, which also introduced the coefficient and how it affected the operations. The fifth center was additional practice with task cards that I made that did not include coefficients. Properties of Powers Exponents. I also laminated these because I LOVE laminating! And the final center was a teacher run station where we could work with them on specific topics based on the needs of the group. The Results The students were engaged in this lesson. My co-teacher and I had been trying to find a way to incorporate centers into our class for a while, and this was our first attempt. We did learn different things about the specific classes and ways that we will do differently in the future. For example, the class where we chose the groups went better than the class where they chose their groups. Even though we gave explicit instructions, there was still a lot of confusion, and we should have put table tents with the instructions at the centers themselves as back up. All in all, it was a great lesson, and the group of students who were pulled for remediation all left asking if we could do that again soon. Which is unexpected for eighth-graders to want to be pulled out of the classroom! See also: Why You Should Be Using Centers in Your Secondary Classroom Using Reference Sheets to Support Your Inclusion Students Get your free IEP summary page! Subscribe to get our latest content by email. Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. First Name Email Address We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. Get your download! We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit
Newton's Laws and easy in the same sentence? Maybe not, but trust me I have some resources that will do just that! But first, how do you display your classroom agenda? I have an easel right outside my door that lists what each grade level is doing and recently it said. "It's Newton Week!" The
Inside: Find my favorite approaches to introducing new vocabulary in Spanish class, in a comprehensible and FUN way! Get access to free resources to try!
Need a way to engage your students and motivate them to learn. Use try using games to woo them into learning by incorporating technology in the classroom.
Need a fun way to teach tone? Use a high school ELA game in your classroom using a deck of cards, a sharpie, and student brain power!
Why I don't review the syllabus on the first day of class in high school and what I do instead. Fun first day of school activities and icebreakers!
What’s on your mind? Is a terrific way to get to know your students + these make an easy and awesome bulletin board too! Great activity for the first week of school and a nice ice breaker for students to get to know their new classmates. What’s On Your Mind Activity From: TeachWithMe.com Would you ... Read More about What’s On Your Mind?
Social skills blog post about perspective-taking activities with middle high school students, including youtube links and a Halloween freebie!
Free Printable First Day of School Sign {Pencil}. Preschool, kindergarten, and first grade through high school first day of school picture signs.
Rubrics are meant to clarify expectations, but poor design can make the experience anything but clear. These five guidelines will help.
The Literary Maven is a blog about teaching, books, & teaching books. Find tips and resources for English Language Arts instruction.
