Here is the story of Annabelle, the haunted doll, one of the most unusual possessed objects cases ever recorded.

The title of Hanya Yanagihara’s second work of fiction stands in almost comical contrast to its length: at 720 pages, it’s one of the biggest novels to be published this year. To this literal girth there has been added, since the book appeared in March, the metaphorical weight of several prestigious award nominations. Both the size of A Little Life and the impact it has had on readers and critics alike—a best seller, the book has received adulatory reviews in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and other serious venues—reflect, in turn, the largeness of the novel’s themes.

Wouldn’t this be a challenging wargames terrain! Bovenstein Castle, situated in the famous Diorama at De Efteling theme park in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands. Back in my early 20s (too many y…

Once again, let me tell you how much I LOVE summertime. I have been busy busy busy creating brand new products, including a new Fiction and Non-Fiction Anchor Chart, that I’m super excited about! So, last April, I created a set of Assessment task cards for Non-Fiction Text Features. I... Read more

I've been reading the book, Mindsets in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci, and just finished chapter 3. It was a real eye-opener. Through all of my years of teaching, I thought I was differentiating by planning and implementing reteaching and enrichment lessons and activities as my class worked through a unit. But in this chapter, I learned how important it is to start the differentiation before the unit even begins! This process begins with the preassessment. So much valuable information can be gathered before you begin teaching a unit. The purpose of the preassessment is to find how much students understand the content before you plan and teach the unit. Do they have a complete understanding of the content? Then they will need enrichment and/or accelerated activities. Do they have a partial understanding of the content? Then you need to make note of the gaps in their learning so you can plan accordingly. Checklists are a great way to keep track of the objectives and student mastery. From this checklist, you will also see students that need to be grouped for instruction. Keep in mind that this grouping will change as students master the objectives. Another insight I gained from this chapter is the different types of assessments used in a classroom. I put together this graphic to sum up the three types of assessment you should be using in your classroom. Click on the image to download the pdf version. You can also download this free packet with three quick and easy formative assessments you can use

Celestial symbolism in writing refers to the use of celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, and stars as symbols to convey deeper meanings in a literary work. Celestial symbolism has been used in literature for centuries. It can add depth and meaning to your work by conveying abstract ideas and emotions through concrete images. Symbolism helps to create a mood or atmosphere, and to reinforce themes and motifs throughout a text. The same symbol can represent a variety of things in literature depending on the context and the author's intent, which is why some examples may have more than one association.

Cultivate lifelong reading skills.

Puzzle-solving genius kids form a pint-size crime-fighting Mod Squad in this month's Backseat Book Club pick. Trenton Lee Stewart, author of The Mysterious Benedict Society, takes questions from young readers about the book's twists, turns and creative conundrums.

We’ll never get over it.

5 Tricks How to Hide Your Villain Right Before Their Eyes. Consider the many ways a writer can hide their villain before their readers' eyes. Hide your villain

Commonplace books are like scrapbooks for the books you read. This is not something new; it has been around for a very long time; became significant in Early Modern Europe. It can be used by anyone as a way to remember useful concepts or...

JF Ptak Science Books Post 1807 Part of the series The History of Blank, Empty and Missing Things Lewis Carroll created a lovely, simple cipher in the midst of his Alice and Snark and Logic and Sylvie publications. It really...

04/12/15 Here I am going to be going into detail in the final understanding of my research into semiotics, I learnt about three parts of semiotics that are just as important as the other parts. The…

The setting of a story performs the vital task of transporting the reader into the story. Download this worksheet (PDF) Story Settings The questions in this 2-page story setting worksheet can help you hone in on the details of your character’s environment. Does the scene take place indoors or out? Is the space light or…

If you're looking for a reading challenge, here it is: fifty books to read before you die.

TweetPin5EmailShare Creating a fictional culture is something that almost all fiction and fantasy writers will have to do at some point. Whether you need a culture for a society of... Read more »

Download This Worksheet (PDF) How to Kill a Character All writers become murderous sooner or later, but it’s important to kill your character in the right way, at the right time and for the right reason. I hope this worksheet will help you premeditate the perfect coup de grâce.

Discover the 8 periods in english literature and download and print the FREE literary timeline to use in the classroom or at home.

What Leo Tolstoy can teach us about curation.

Tips How to Write Villains that Play Mind Games with Their Victims. Do you love to write manipulative villains? Try these writing tips to write your villains.

In The Charisma Myth summary, we'll outline the 3 ingredients behind charisma, with specific strategies and tips to master and apply them.

If you want to be an effective English teacher you need to know how to use punctuation marks correctly. Check out this handy guide from our grammar corner.

The setting of a story performs the vital task of transporting the reader into the story. Download this worksheet (PDF) Story Settings The questions in this 2-page story setting worksheet can help you hone in on the details of your character’s environment. Does the scene take place indoors or out? Is the space light or…

The bright future of books and libraries in cartoons by Tom Gauld, Grant Snider, John Atkinson, Jeff Koterba, Jim Benton, and Piotr Kowalczyk.

Simply put, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is not a single disorder, but a group of developmental disabilities with a shared core of symptoms that can cause considerable social, communication and behavioral challenges.

5 Tricks How to Hide Your Villain Right Before Their Eyes. Consider the many ways a writer can hide their villain before their readers' eyes. Hide your villain

As much as I love royals, witches, rebels and assassins, there are other jobs out there for your fantasy heroes!

Grab the tissues.

The Scots-Irish DNA Project now has 761 participating families. Below is a roster of the participating families. As you can see the families are a combination of Lowland and Highland Scottish surnames with a few native Irish surnames. All these families self identify as being Scots-Irish. Most of these families participated in the 18th Century Ulster Migration to English Colonies and early Republic, or in the 19th Century Ulster migration into Canada. The majority of the Lowland Scottish families are from Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, and Gallowayshire, and most of these families migrated to Ireland during the Ulster Plantation (1609-1720). The Highland Scottish surnames from Argyll, Lennox, and the Southern Hebrides; many of these families migrated to Ulster circa 1550-1600). The dominate haplogroups are Insular Celts (85%) and there is about 12% of the haplogroups of Norse/Norman ancestry. The native Irish surnames come from certain families that converted to the reformed faith and became part of the Protestant Irish community in the 1600s. Click on image to enlarge:

Writing Worksheet – Endings (PDF) In honour of NaNoWriMo, this month’s worksheets will have one purpose: to increase your word count by hook or by book. The final writing worksheet in this marvellous month of November is inspired by the last virtual NaNoWriMo write-in. Imagining the best endings for each of your characters is a…

I’ve been spending a ton of time this summer working with groups around the country, helping facilitate conversations around reading and writing in the social studies. It’s always a goo…

Did you know a full understanding of the Key Event, its role in story structure, and its timing will help you write stronger First Plot Points?

Here you'll find your practical worksheets for you to download

Grab the tissues.

Creative Writing Worksheet – Quick Character Creator (PDF) The fact is, you can fill in every 100-item questionnaire about character creation in exhaustive detail and still end up with a character who is unsuitable for the story you’re trying to tell, who isn’t interesting, and who doesn’t feel real. Here’s what Aaron Sorkin (creator of…

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Courtney Gorter has created for Spark Notes an entertaining visual that collects major movements in the history of literature and sums them up in a single sentence. See also: [ef-archive number=2 t…