Reading activities: Robinsin Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Burlington 3rd ESO) - ESL worksheets

The first few weeks of school are all about setting the foundation. We're establishing routines and procedures, encouraging a growth mindset culture, building classroom community, etc. I also like to spend some time laying the foundation for what students will need to be successful writers throughout the year, especially since writing is a focus that threads through all subject areas. In second grade especially, sentence structure is a great place to start. We review the 4 parts that every sentence has to have in order to be a complete sentence:

This past school year was a great one. With every school year that passes, I like to take a moment and reflect on activities that were successful in the

A lesson plan! A lesson plan! My kingdom for a lesson plan!

Beowulf is a challenging text: it's long, dense, and old. With these strategies, you can make this text relevant for all students!

By Presto Plans When you ask students to describe a character’s traits, determine the theme of a story, examine cause and effect, or even to try to guess the meaning of a vocabulary word, you are asking them to infer. Inference is an essential skill in English language arts, but sometimes we overlook the importance of intentionally providing the tools, strategies, and practice that students require to improve this skill. 1. BUILD A FRAMEWORK FOR EXAMINING INFERENCES According to Marzano, there are certain thinking and reasoning processes that have come to be recognized as “foundational to higher-order thinking” and inference is one of them. Not only that, but it is skill that is integral to comprehension in the ELA classroom. Students might not realize it, but they are actually making inferences all the time, which essentially means that they are making assumptions, educated guesses, and/or predictions based on the information they have or know from personal experience or their own background knowledge. Grab these free classroom posters to remind students of the meaning of inference as well as thinking/discussion stems they can use when they are inferring information. In order for students to understand how to infer, they first need to be instructed on what inference is and be given opportunities to practice this skill. The hope is that with this practice, students will hone this skill and begin using it automatically. To build this skill, there are four questions that Marzano suggests teachers pose to students to generate meaningful conversation and instruction around teaching inference: - What is my inference? - What information did I use to make this inference? - How good was my thinking? - Do I need to change my thinking? Weave these questions into your instruction, questions, assignments, and language to help students build capacity in inferential thinking. 2. TEACH STUDENTS TO SHOW VS. TELL Teaching students how to write using the Show vs. Tell method is an excellent way to introduce inferential thinking as it allows them to experience how authors use description and imagery that allow the reader to deduce information. Students will be able to see through the writing process that when an author is showing something, they are relaying thoughts, feelings, emotions, senses, and descriptions in the text in a deeper and more meaningful way. One of my favorite ways to get students to understand the difference between showing and telling is to have students write a paragraph about a time that they felt a very strong emotion (anger, excitement, sadness, joy, disgust, surprise), but tell them that they are not permitted to use that specific word (or synonyms for that word in the paragraph). Instead, they must show the reader this emotion through character, setting, and conflict descriptions. For example, Students will find this exercise challenging, but it will help them understand the meaning of inference and hopefully will have an impact on how they read between the lines of other texts they encounter. 3. INTEGRATE REAL-WORLD INFERENCES Students may not know that they are making inferences about others on a daily basis and, in turn, others are making inferences about them as well. Bringing real-world examples into your classroom activities will help students see that inference is not limited to text analysis. Below are a couple of my favorite ways to do this: - SOCIAL MEDIA A lot can be inferred from a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram profile. Have students examine random social media profiles to make inferences about the people based on what that person posts, shares, and comments. I like to share these pre-made profiles and have students examine what they read, what they know, and what they can infer. You can also discuss the idea of “vaguebooking” with students. Vaguebook updates are intentionally vague Facebook status updates that prompt friends to ask what's going on. For example someone might post “Ouchhhhh!!! I can’t believe how incredibly clumsy I am… UGH. Off to the ER…” They intentionally are fishing for someone to comment to ask what is going on or, at the very least, are getting their friends to infer what might be happening. This makes for a perfect inference activity as students need to use the information they know about their friend to infer what the post may be about. I share these vague status updates I created as a fun classroom activity to practice making inferences. - MUSIC Another great way to speak your students’ language is to incorporate music lyrics that require inferences into your teaching. There are many songs that tell a story, but what exactly happens is not explicitly stated. These songs are perfect to practice inference as they encourage students to look closely at the lyrics to infer what is going on. Some songs that I like to use are: Two Black Cadillacs by Carrie Underwood Someone Like You by Adele Teardrops on my Guitar by Taylor Swift Some of these songs do have mature content and topics and work best for high school. It’s also important that you look at the lyrics carefully to ensure they are appropriate for your grade level or school community. 4 INCORPORATE VIDEO A unique and fun way to improve inference skills is to have students watch short films that have no words and infer what is happening based on what they’ve watched. One of my favorite video clips to use are the Hungarian Shadow Dancers who were featured on Britain’s Got Talent. Here are two performances you can use: The dances have absolutely no words, but audience members are brought to tears because of what they infer from the performances. Have students create a three column table where they record what they see (consider location, events, people), what they know from their background knowledge and then what they infer from the performance. If you have a younger audience, Pixar makes amazing short, silent, animated films that would also work perfect for this. I recommend starting with the film, Partly Cloudy. 5. INFER INFORMATION FROM IMAGES - WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS PICTURE? Since 2012, The New York Times has been helping students fine tune their close reading and visual thinking skills through their popular “What’s Going On in This Picture?” feature, with incredible success. Together, with arts education organization Visual Thinking Strategies, they have attracted the interest of—not only thousands of students from all over the world—but the participation of entire classrooms. Here is a curated list of their 40 most popular/favourites to give you an idea if you are unfamiliar. Each week an interesting New York Times photo is selected with all captions and context removed, and students are challenged to look closely and infer what they think is going on in the photo. Students are asked to support their inferences with “evidence”, elaborating on what made them draw the conclusions they did, and to look even closer to see what else they might be able to find. They are also encouraged to consider the observations of others and respond thoughtfully. A few days after the photo is posted each week, more information is revealed about it. Students are then able to reflect on whether knowing more about the photo changes the way they see it, and if so, how. The goal is to get students “engaged in a writing or discussion activity”, and to ultimately foster their “writing, thinking, speaking and listening” skills. - MISSING CAMERA MYSTERY ACTIVITY It’s something you may have seen on social media - a lost camera or even just a memory card has been found, and someone posts the photos online in hopes of returning the presumably priceless memories to their rightful owner. One can make a lot of educated guesses about a stranger based on their photos alone, and in some cases those inferences might even lead to the camera’s return to its rightful owner. For example, you might see a logo on someone’s t-shirt and be able to determine their place of work, you might see a street sign in the background and be able to guess where they live. You might see a photo of a group celebrating a birthday at a popular restaurant or someone enjoying a yoga class at a popular studio. These are all clues that allow one to play detective, and hopefully a successful one. You can easily bring this experience into the classroom by having students play detective by giving them lost pictures from a missing camera and having them make inferences about the owner based on those images. They might be pictures of a wedding day, or grandparents meeting their precious grandchild for the first time; a once in a lifetime family vacation or a milestone birthday celebration. Whatever the case may be, you don’t have to know the people to gather some information on the camera’s owner. 6. USE SHORT STORIES THAT REQUIRE INFERENCE - THE CHASER BY JOHN COLLIER One of my favorite stories to teach inference is The Chaser by John Collier. The story is about a young man named Alan who is desperate to make a woman named Diana fall in love with him. So desperate, in fact, that he is willing to use a love potion! The story requires students make a great deal of inferences to piece together what exactly happens at the end of the plot. - ORDEAL BY CHEQUE BY WITHER CRUE Another great story to use is Visual story Ordeal by Cheque by Wuther Crue. This isn’t your traditional short story as the story is told entirely with images of cheques. Students must interpret the plot line, characters, and conflict based solely on the information shared on the cheques (the date, who it was made out to, who issued the cheque, and the amount it was for etc.). Put students into groups and have them piece together the story and present their inferences to the rest of the class. 7. HAVE STUDENTS SOLVE A MYSTERY Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Your students will love having the opportunity to get their collective Sherlock Holmes on by working together to solve a real-world mystery. One of my favorite real-world mysteries occurred in 1978 when a construction crew uncovered a buried ship underground in the middle of downtown. Students watch a hand-drawn video that tells the backstory, and speculate on the purpose the ship once served, who owned it, and why it remained buried for so many years without being discovered. Another way to have students solve a mystery is to present them with a crime and have them play detective. You can either do this by setting up a crime scene in the classroom and have them infer what happened. You can also share information, evidence, witness testimonies, and have students weave a story together and solve a crime. Try this out for free using my Who Kidnapped the Principal? resource. 8. SEARCH THROUGH THE TRASH Let’s be honest, most people don’t sit around pondering what could be deduced about them based on the contents of their trash. But your trash can actually reveal a lot about your interests, preferences, activities, and household routines. Another fun activity you can use to help students practice inference is to have them examine the contents of someone else’s trash to make inferences about that person based on their own background knowledge. Bring in some bags of "clean trash" and have students create a character sketch of the person it could belong to. Inference is a necessary 21st century skill that many students struggle with, but it can be developed over time, with practice. Inference skills improve the ability to bridge gaps in information and improve reading comprehension. By implementing creative ways to get students comfortable with inferring, they will realize that it isn’t as complicated as they may think. Need other ideas for teaching students to infer? Check out some of the other Coffee Shop blogger ideas below! Black Cat Inferences Challenge by Nouvelle ELA Teaching the Process of Literary Analysis Activities and Strategies by Room 213

Now that the 2017-2018 school year has come to a close, I am spending some time reflecting on my practice as an educator. While there were some lows of the

Help the learning process with these simple strategies for making studennt thinking visible. Perfect for middle and high school English classes.

Starting a new semester— whether at the beginning of the school year or calendar year— is a time of tough transition as we begin to restart our minds and work habits. Here are SEVEN engaging activities for the first week back to school in middle school and high school English Language Arts.

Beowulf is a challenging text: it's long, dense, and old. With these strategies, you can make this text relevant for all students!

Pretend you're an alien from outer space ...

Teaching theme is not an easy task! Not only do students need to have a strong comprehension of the story's elements (like plot, setting, and characters), but they also have to be able to make inferences to find the author's message, since most themes are not overtly stated by the author. So, what are some of my favorite activities for helping kids understand theme? I'll list a number of them here. 1. Make an Anchor Chart Anchor charts are a great way to make learning visual and to have a record that kids can refer to when they need a bit of extra support. Theme may be defined in a number of ways. To me, the theme is the author's message or what he/she wants the reader to take away/learn from the story. It is a BIG idea, with a real-world or universal concern and can be applied to anyone. Besides talking about what a theme is, you'll also want to go over what it isn't. For example, some kids confuse the main idea of the story with its theme. To help students understand the difference, it's helpful to use stories that everyone in the class knows, like previous read alouds or classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. You can take each story and discuss the main idea (what the story was mostly about - specific to the story) vs. the theme (the lesson the author wants the reader to know - not specific to the story), to contrast the two ideas. The second area of confusion for some kids is that the theme is not specific to the characters in the story. In the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for example. The theme would not be that...A little mouse named Chrysanthemum learned to accept the uniqueness of her name. The theme would be larger than the book and would be something like...It's important to accept oneself. Also, you'll want to explain to your students that often times, a book has multiple themes and there are several answers which work equally well to describe a book's theme. Since theme is very subjective, I tell students that I will accept any answer, as long as they have the text evidence to prove it. For example, in the book, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, one might argue that the theme is about friendship, another might say family, or even courage, or kindness. Any one of these themes would be right, and counted as such, since they each fit the story and could be supported by text evidence. 2. Use Pixar Shorts to Practice Theme Besides the sheer enjoyment which comes from watching these mini-films, your students can learn a lot about reading concepts from these. They're great for ELL students or for struggling readers, and for all readers really since the text complexity piece is removed. You can find these clips on YouTube, but you'll want to make sure to preview them first, so you're more familiar with the plot and are able to focus on theme questions. Here are some of my favorite Pixar Shorts for teaching theme: Piper Partly Cloudy Lava Boundin' 3. Use Mentor Texts Mentor texts are one of my go-to teaching tools as picture books are able to portray examples of just about any reading concept you need to teach. One thing I like to do when using mentor texts for theme, is to vary the types of questions I ask. Rather than always saying What is the theme?, I might ask... What is the deeper meaning of this story? After reading this book, what do you think matters to this author? Which idea from the story do you think might stay with you? What did the author want people to learn from this story?... Once kids answer, you might say, Ah...so that's the theme! Some of my current mentor text favorites for theme include the following: Ish by Peter H. Reynolds I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe Journey by Aaron Becker (a wordless book) Beautiful Oops by Barry Saltzberg The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed If you're looking for more titles, I have a FREE Mentor Text List for Literature which includes a page on theme which you can download from my TpT store. 4. Use Posters with Themes to Chart Book Themes I like to choose 8 - 10 common themes and place posters of them in the classroom. These are included in my Theme unit but you could easily make them yourself if you'd like. After we finish a class novel, a read aloud, or a mentor text as part of a mini-lesson, I like to have the kids discuss the theme of the book. Once we decide on the theme, I place a miniaturized copy of the book's cover (about 3 x 3 inches or so) under the correct theme poster. You can also make the posters more interactive by allowing kids to write titles of books they have recently read on sticky notes, under the posters as well. 5. Use Songs to Practice Finding the Theme I love to add music to the classroom whenever possible. Not only does it add instant motivation for some kids, but it is also just good for them in so many ways. There are lots of songs you can use to teach theme, from current pop songs to oldies, rap songs, and country songs. While all of these work well, I especially enjoy using Disney songs. Disney songs are easily recognized for some kids, have catchy, fun tunes, and have lyrics that need no censoring (yay!). You can easily find the lyrics online to project on a smartboard or document projector, and the song clips may be found on YouTube, Here are some of my favorite Disney songs which work well for theme: Hakuna Matata from Lion King Just Keep Swimming from Finding Dory Reflection from Mulan Let it Go from Frozen Something There from Beauty and the Beast A Whole New World from Aladdin 6. Introduce Short Texts Using Task Cards Using task cards for theme gives your students a great deal of practice in a short period of time, which makes them a perfect way to begin to practice finding the theme using text. I love the fact that students can read multiple task card stories and practice finding the theme 20 - 30 times, in the time it might take to read a story and find the theme once. You can do task cards as a center activity, to play Scoot, or as a whole class scavenger hunt. One thing I like to do for the scavenger hunt is to make sure everyone has a partner and to pair stronger readers with struggling readers. 7. Add Some Writing After students have worked on theme for a week or two, I like to have students create their own short stories which show a strong theme, without directly stating it. This changes each student's role from a theme finder, to a theme creator and gives students insight into how authors create a situation that allows a theme to unfold. When I introduce this project, we refer back to the task cards we just completed, as an example of story length and rich content. In a matter of 2 - 3 paragraphs, students learn that they can include enough information to let our readers know our message. After students are finished creating these short stories, it's fun to share them in some way, to give more theme practice. Sometimes I have students meet in small groups to share out, with group members guessing the theme. Other years, I leave a stack on my desk and grab several if we have a few minutes. Either the students or I read the short story out loud, and the class discusses the theme. 8. Move to Passages, Short Stories, and Novels. Once we have scaffolded a great foundation for the understanding of theme, there comes a point where kids have to move on to text which is more challenging. I like to use page-long passages which I have created, before using short stories, and ultimately novels. If you're looking for some ready made materials to help you teach theme, here's a packet I love to use which works well for 4th and 5th Graders. Click here to read more about the Theme unit. Want some more teaching ideas and activities to teach theme? Click here to read Teaching Themes in Literature. If you like this post, make sure to share it with a teacher friend! Thanks so much for stopping by! For more ideas and strategies focused on upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter! Bonus, you'll also gain access to my FREE Resource Library which contains exclusive upper elementary freebies that you won't find anywhere else! I'd love to connect with you! The Teacher Next Door's Website Pinterest Facebook Instagram TpT Store

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

By The Daring English Teacher When teaching a novel, I love to mix things up and throw in a fun, creative, or collaborative activity that engages students as they analyze and interpret the novel’s theme, characters, symbols, or conflict. This allows me to enhance my students’ understanding of the novel, and it gives them a break from the day-to-day routine of reading and reviewing that often accompanies novel studies. Providing students with fun and engaging, yet still rigorous, activities enhances their understanding and fosters a love of reading. Here are three fun activities that you can easily incorporate into any novel study. This is one of my favorite, go-to collaborative activities. Collaborative posters are a great way to review key concepts, analyze symbols and motifs, and brainstorm for essays, and they require little planning. Before class starts, write one character, symbol, setting, motif, or element from the novel in pencil in the corner of each paper. When class begins, have students form groups of 2-4 students, and provide each group with one of the pieces of paper. Then, instruct your students to record the item, information, and quotes from the book on the poster. For this assignment, you can focus on the author’s use of symbols within the novel. You will select a variety of symbols in the novel and assign the symbols to different groups. It is okay if multiple groups are assigned the same symbol. Instruct each group to title their poster with the symbol, write as many details about the symbol as they can think about (this includes what it stands for), and record up to two different quotes illustrating how the author uses the symbol in the novel. I recently did this activity with my Romeo and Juliet unit, and it was a hit. The students were prepared for their essays, and they developed a deeper understanding for the play. Once students are done with the posters, display them throughout the classroom and have the students complete a gallery walk recording the information. This activity is great because it requires students to analyze their assigned topic, while at the same time reinforcing the importance of collaborative work. Even better, this activity gets students up and moving! As an alternative to making posters, this assignment also works very well with post-it notes. Simply provide your student groups with multiple post-it notes, and have the groups write information on the post-its. Then, have students post the notes on the board for the gallery walk. This option is especially beneficial when you want to have a gallery walk, but do not have the time for making posters in the classroom. You can also read about collaborative brainstorming ideas in this blog post. A fun and creative character analysis project you can complete in your classroom is a mock job fair in your classroom. To prepare for this activity, students either select or are assigned a character from the novel. They assume the role of this character and create a resume for this character listing strengths, accomplishments, and skills. To prepare for this activity, I usually teach students about resume writing, provide them with a list of power verbs, and give them a resume template. After students create their resumes, I host a mock job fair in my classroom for one day. During the mock job fair students are assigned to one of two groups, and the groups rotate between interviewer and interviewee. The students assigned to the interview role are given a set of interview questions to ask their candidate. As the candidate responds, the interviewer records the responses. After the interview is over, the students switch roles. This is one of my favorite activities for my Of Mice and Men unit because the students get to explore the characters on a deeper level. Once the activity is over, students write a brief argument piece about whether they would hire that character for the job. After I read an essential chapter with my students, I like to take a day or two to reflect on the reading, analyze what happened, and make sure that my students understand the importance of what they just read, and a creative comic strip assignment is ideal for this. One of the best times to assign this activity is right after a major conflict or at the peak of the story so that students can really analyze the novel's conflict. I like doing this activity with my students when we read Fahrenheit 451 because it helps them understand the conflict more. When assigning a comic strip assignment, make sure students focus on more than just drawing pictures by requiring them to include quotes from the novel as their dialogue. In addition to quotes, students should also write narration, cite their quotes in MLA format, and dedicate an entire box to the novel’s conflict. You can download this FREE, EXCLUSIVE resource to use in your classroom with your next novel study! For more fun, yet rigorous, activities that you can use with any novel study, check out my Novel Unit. This resource is 99 pages and is filled so many activities that you can use them throughout the year for multiple novel studies. From introductory activities to use before reading, to differentiated writing prompts with built-in scaffolding to use as you read, to post-reading cumulative assignments, and everything in between, this novel unit is my go-to resource when I'm in a pinch and need an activity. Click HERE to check out this resource. Here are some additional resources to help you teach the novel! The SuperHERO Teacher - Workbook for Any Novel Unit Study Grades 7-12 Addie Williams - Novel Study Package - Use with ANY NOVEL Presto Plans - Assignments for Any Novel or Short Story Secondary Sara - Chapter Study Guides: Student-Made Activity for ANY Novel

It's time to go back to school! With the back-to-school season upon us, it is time to start planning back-to-school activities for the first week of school.

Here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.

A2 vocabulary realted to nature and geographical features. Key providedMore:https://en.islcollective.com/mypage/my-creations?search_key=nature&type=printables&option=published&id=620769&grammar=&vocabulary=&materials=&levels=&studentTypes=&skills=&languageExams=&dialect=&functions=&page=1&sorting_type=most_newest&filter_type=filter_all&view_type=list&view_length=12 - ESL worksheets

5 creative first day of school activities for high school English so you can ditch the syllabus and start getting to know your students!

Do you struggle with finding interesting ways to teach ESL listening skills? Maybe you have an activity or two already but you want to be able to mix it up and keep things interesting. By the end of…

Looking for first day ELA ideas? Try these fun get to know you activities in your middle school or high school English class!

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

"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 unique post-reading activities to inspire students and provide a sample of their analytical skills? Find high-interest strategies for secondary.

In today’s society, it is important that students can use their critical thinking skills in their everyday lives. The perfect place for students to learn how and to practice critical reading, writing, arguing, and even listening is the high school English classroom. Here are 10 critical high school English lessons and skills that teachers should be teaching their students!

You could teach your students vocabulary with Greek and Latin Roots Worksheets OR you could use these 7 engaging activities.

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

Past, present, and future.

This list of 20 Short Short Stories for AP Lit accompanies ideas for how to use Flash Fiction in AP Literature and High School English...

Hey there, fellow English teacher! I want to share what my secondary English curriculum for the first six weeks of school looks like.

Plenty of interactive ideas and activities to teach landforms for kids. Find videos, worksheets and even experiments to help.

Are you looking for ELA extension activities? Here are 25 ideas for classroom activities for teaching literature.

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

Teach students to use They Say, I Say summary and response essay writing to join academic conversation. These questions will help students be successful…

My favorite teaching units are my research and rhetorical analysis unit. I love teaching rhetorical analysis and assigning students a rhetorical analysis PAPA square. Read on to learn more about the rhetorical analysis PAPA square activity and to sign up to receive your own free copy! I love providing my students with the knowledge and resources they need to critically read and analyze text, know why it is powerful, and understand how the author crafted it. I feel that truly understanding the language and the text, primarily through rhetorical analysis, is something that makes all of my students critical thinkers.

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

I recently started teaching rhetorical analysis to my sophomores. This unit precedes our research paper, and so one of the goals of my rhetorical analysis

Add these activities for teaching The Odyssey to your Odyssey unit and engage students with this epic poem.

The Best Rainforest Printable Activities, Perfect for a rainforest theme unit study, kids activities & animal habitats, Rainforest Ecology, climate, Rainforest animals, layers of the rainforest printable, rainforest printable book, free printable rainforest worksheets, rainforest worksheets for kindergarten, printable rainforest animals

It's time to go back to school! With the back-to-school season upon us, it is time to start planning back-to-school activities for the first week of school.

Try these 5 fun games for English class! These classroom activities can be utilized for ESL games online or in-class. Find out more here.

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 […]