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.
Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.
Beyond the test: ten innovative ways to assess secondary students. Multiple-choice tests are not the only type of assessment we should have in our classes. There are other means of assessment and other projects and assignments to assess skills beyond the scope of standardized testing.
What are the four most-important anchor charts for secondary ELA? Check them out here. You might be surprised at the topics!
Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.
The Freebie Library contains links to all of the free resources at Moore English. Check it out and download some great free tools!
Hands-on and engaging activities help students learn and remember important concepts and key ideas. One way to get students actively engaged in learning is to use sticky notes in the classroom. Here’s a list of seven ways to use sticky notes in the classroom and what to do with the sticky notes at the end of the lesson. 1. Book flags for close reading and novel study I cut up sticky notes in thirds and distribute them to my students to use as book flags for when we read novels as a class. As we read the novel, I encourage students to write notes on the sticky notes and to jot down any important ideas. Since the novels we read in class are checked out from the school library, this is a way that I can model and teach text annotation and active reading to my students without destroying school property. For longer sections of text or after you finish a chapter, you can provide students with larger sticky notes. Instruct students to write a brief summary of the text on the note and then place the note in the book so that it flags the end of the chapter. This will help students remember what they read. 2. Collaborative Brainstorming and Gallery Walks Sticky notes are great for collaborative brainstorming activities and gallery walk exercises. Students participate in these activities by writing information on the sticky note and then posting the notes on chart paper or the whiteboard. This can be done as a jigsaw activity where students in different groups complete various aspects of an activity and then share their findings with the rest of the class. 3. Peer Editing For however many papers you would like your students to peer edit, provide them with that many sticky notes. For each paper that students peer edit, I have them write what the author of the paper did well on the front of the sticky note and how he or she can improve the paper on the back of the sticky note. Once they are done with that essay, they place the sticky note on the back of the paper and move on to their next peer editing task. This activity provides students with positive feedback and constructive criticism on how to improve their papers. 4. Literary Analysis Using sticky notes for literary analysis is a fun way to closely read fiction and gain a deeper understanding of the text. Whenever I use sticky notes for literary analysis, I only focus on one or two literary elements at a time. I have my students draw a picture of the literary element or device on the top of the note, write a supporting quote underneath the drawing, and explain the significance of the device underneath the note. I use this same method with this Sticky Note Literary Analysis Unit and Literary Analysis Mini Flip Book. Also, you can check out my post about 15 literary analysis questions you can ask your students. If you would like to try using sticky notes for literary analysis with your students, download this FREE ORGANIZER! 5. Exit Ticket One fun and easy way to use sticky notes in the classroom is to use them as an exit slip or a ticket out the door. I hand each student a sticky note and have them write their names and the answer to a question on the note. As they leave class for the day, the students place the notes on the door. 6. Class Survey I recently used sticky notes with my seniors to get their opinion about which rhetorical appeal was most effective in the speech we were analyzing. I gave each student a sticky note and had them answer the question before posting the note on the board in its designated area. Once we were done with the task, I had my students look at the results and discuss them as a class. 7. Multiple Close Readings When I told my seniors that they were going to read an article four different times, they looked at me as if I was a space alien. They were reluctant to believe that they would gain any additional information or insight from subsequent reads. After my students read the article once for understanding, I then had them read it three more times, each time analyzing the article for something specific: good arguments the author made, weak points in the author’s arguments, and the author’s use of emotionally-charged words. I had my students document their findings on a different sticky note each time they read the text. Once the exercise was complete, they were surprised to see just how much they gained and how differently they read the article each time by looking at it through a different lens. Also, here are some close reading strategies to use in the classroom that really work! What Do I Do with These Notes? Once my students are done with the sticky notes, I always have a difficult time tossing the then in the trash. Instead of throwing the notes away, I take pictures of the completed project and post the pictures onto a Padlet. A Padlet is similar to an online bulletin board that can be posted on Google Classroom. Posting the sticky note work on Padlet and Google Classroom is especially helpful if students are absent or if you wish to return to the content later on in the year. Looking for more ways to incorporate sticky notes in the classroom? Check out these ideas and resources! Sticky Note Review Game by Addie Williams Novel Scavenger Hunt by The SuperHERO Teacher Chart Paper, Post-Its, and Formative Assessments by Room 213 Close Reading and Student Accountability by Room 213
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
By The Daring English Teacher Assigning dialectical journals to your students is a sure-fire way to get them to interact with the text on a deeper level. Additionally, dialectical journals are a great addition to any novel study. When students know they will need to record and analyze meaningful quotes, they read the text more closely. Traditionally, dialectical journals are double-entry journal responses where a student writes a quote from the book on the left-hand side and then reacts and analyzes the quote on the right-hand side. However, in today’s era of online study guides, it is all too easy for students to look up a quote and its corresponding analysis instead of authentically engaging with the text. One of my favorite ways to have students complete dialectical journal entries while also dissuading them from looking on the Internet for answers is to require students to connect their dialectical journal entries to a predetermined concept. Usually, when I do this in my classroom, I think about my final project and goal for teaching the novel. From there, I select several big-picture concepts that thematically relate to the plot. In doing so, my students keep a detailed journal filled with meaningful quotes as they read that they will be able to use as evidence for the final essay once we finish the book. When I use this strategy for my dialectical journal assignments, I require three distinct components for their entries: a correctly cited quote, an insightful explanation that includes literary analysis, and a connection to the concept. For the quote, I typically allow the kids to select any quote they like. However, I instruct them that the quote must be complete and that it must be one that they think is important. I require that my students place quotation marks around the quote and that they cite it in MLA Format. Citing the quote is especially helpful because then students know where to find the quote again. For the explanation, I encourage students to include a thorough explanation as well as analysis. To get students thinking, I first prompt them with some questions: What is happening in the quote and why is it important? How does this quote move the plot along or advance the conflict? Does this quote relate to another part of the test? What symbolic or figurative meaning does this quote include and what does it mean? By prompting students with these questions, I find that I am more likely to receive higher quality analysis from my students. For the final part of the dialectical journal entry, I require my students to connect the quote they chose to one of the class concepts we are studying. Before we even begin reading the novel, we discuss these concepts as a class. If time permits, I introduce these concepts to my students with one-day poster projects. I added this third component to my dialectical journal entries to combat plagiarism from online sites. It is so easy for students to look up quotes and their corresponding analysis for a dialectical journal entry; however, this connection to a class concept component helps focus students on finding their own quotes. Here is a list of concepts to use with some literature in your classroom. Romeo and Juliet: Love (and the power of love), Hate, Family, Violence (and the causes of violence), Foolishness, Impulsivity, Tragedy, and Mortality. Of Mice and Men: The American Dream, Friendship, Prejudice, Companionship, Discrimination, Dreams, Isolation, Justice, and Women in Society Animal Farm: Parallels to the Soviet Union, Socialist ideas, Classes, Leadership, Corruption, Lies and deceit, Violence, Pride, Religion. Lord of the Flies: Civilization, Savagery, Leadership, Order, Intelligence, Fear, Innocence, Loss of Innocence, War. Night: Inhumanity, Losing faith in God, Tradition, Religion, Mortality, Lies and deceit, Night, Human rights, Torture, Silence, Indifference. To help students write more analytical dialectical journals, I've created this FREE Dialectical Journal Template. This template includes both color and black-and-white versions of two different templates: one template follows a linear pattern, and the other follows a traditional double-sided journal entry pattern. More great dialectical journal and literary analysis ideas: Teaching the Process for Literary Analysis by Room 213 Creative Reading Task Cards by Nouvell ELA Quote Analysis and Poster Project by Secondary Sara
Acting Improvisation Role Play - Drama or Theater Scenarios and Scene Starters: Elevate your drama class with this creative resource designed to inspire improvisation and role-play scenes! Included are 50 improvisation topic cards. Students simply choose a card and use it to initiate a scene with a partner or small group. This drama resource offers a variety of prompts that offer just enough information for inspiration, leaving room for student creativity. Download the preview for a glimpse into the scenarios included and kickstart a dynamic and engaging experience in your drama class today. Included in this Acting Improvisation Role Play Resource: ➡️ 50 Drama Scene Starter Cards: These drama role-play scene cards can easily be printed and shared with students in your drama class to inspire creative and outside-the-box dramatic scenes. The topics provide just the right amount of inspiration while also leaving room for student creativity. Simply print on cardstock or laminate the cards, and you have a tool to use in your theater class over and over again! Sample Prompts Included in this Acting Improvisation Role Play Resource: Below are a few sample prompts to give you a better idea of the types of role-play prompts included: You open your front door to a persistent vacuum salesman. A child attempts to sneak into the kitchen to eat the last cookie. Two bank robbers have fled the scene and are on the run. A hairdresser accidentally dyes someone's hair green. A child is very nervous about visiting the dentist for the first time. What Are Teachers Saying About This Acting Improvisation Role Play Resource: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ We used these in my drama club. The students loved acting these role play card out. It was a quick fun activity for us to do. It created lots of smiles and laughs. We throughly enjoyed this resource. I highly recommend it for any drama class as an ice breaker. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My students loved using these prompts in both our improv and playwriting units. They give just enough information and inspiration to get students started without locking them in to just one path to tell the story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My students love these role play scenarios. They said that this is their favourite Drama activity and they have certainly developed their skills. Fantastic resource! Looking for more drama resources? Click below! >>> Drama Terms Interactive Escape Challenge >>> History of Theater Lesson >>> Mime and Pantomime Lesson © Presto Plans ➡️ Want 10 free ELA resources sent to your inbox? Click here! ⭐️ Follow Presto Plans on TpT to see what's new and on sale.
This list of computer games targets essential reading, speaking, writing, and listening skills through the interactive context of computer games. Students can enhance their skills through gaming, which is a high-interest way to motivate students-- especially struggling students.
"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
After teaching for ten years and then switching schools, I was very quickly reminded of how much work goes into writing curriculum from scratch. For a long time, I was in a happy place of continual revision of curriculum that I liked, but was tweaking here and there for relevance, rigor, and for fun
Engaging students in blackout poetry is a great way to teach poetry and encourage creativity. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to teach blackout poetry.
Are you noticing some gaps in your curriculum? Are you looking for some new, creative ideas for how to fill these holes in your ELA curriculum? This post gives you 10 creative ideas for how to fill holes in your secondary ELA curriculum.
By Presto Plans With the pressure for secondary teachers to meet curriculum expectations in such a limited time, building a classroom community can sometimes be put on the back burner. What many teachers don’t realize is that by intentionally taking time to build a positive community in your classroom, you can ease the challenges of classroom management, improve student attitude toward learning, and create an environment where students feel welcomed and supported. Below are my 5 favorite ways to build classroom community in middle and high school. Establish a positive classroom community by having students complete short activities that encourage kindness, collaboration, teamwork, expression, and the sharing of ideas and opinions. These challenges don’t need to take up a lot of time. Have them last 5-10 minutes. They can be used daily as a bell-ringer, weekly as a fun Friday activity, or even randomly when you finish class a few minutes early! How it works: The teacher sets up a "Classroom Challenge" bulletin board display that includes 20 hidden activity prompts. Once a challenge is revealed, the teacher finds the corresponding activity, passes it out to the class, and they are ready to go! Here are a few of the prompts I include in my challenge to give you an idea of the types of activities can help build community: • Write a thank you card for someone you appreciate. • Talk for one minute to a partner about the topic you receive from your teacher. • Write a top 10 list on the topic of your choice. • Imagine you are stuck on a deserted island. Pick one book, one movie, and one other item to bring. • Play a game of 20 questions with a partner. You know that nostalgic feeling you get when you are reminiscing with your friends about times past? Bring that into your room with “Classroom Throwbacks.” Students use small cards to write down funny, interesting, and memorable moments that happen within the classroom and put it in the “Classroom Thowbacks” jar/box. You can have students fill out the cards randomly, or you can pass them out from time to time, put students in small groups, and have them fill the cards out with a couple memories. Once the throwback jar starts to accumulate some cards, you can begin sharing them in class. You might consider sharing one a week for a “Throwback Thursday” activity. Grab this free resource by clicking here. I once had a principal who left notes of appreciation (and a small treat) in teachers’ mailboxes for little things she had noticed them doing (staying late at school working, helping out at an after-school event, giving extra help at lunch etc.). It was such a small gesture, but it had a dramatic impact on the morale of the staff. Build this same kind of morale in your classroom by finding ways to celebrate your students for the things you see them doing that deserve some praise and appreciation. There are lots of ways you can do this. You can post student work in your classroom, call or email parents to brag up those students who don’t often get a pat on the back, or even have a student of the month/week display for those who deserve special recognition! I also like to keep funny cards tucked away in my desk for those occasions where a student surprises or impresses me. Ask for volunteers for “student paparazzi”. Their job is to take pictures of students in the classroom and send them to you via email to print and post. Of course, students should only take pictures when you deem it appropriate. They could take some before and after the bell rings or during a class activity (when appropriate and with permission) or at the end of the period if class finishes up a couple minutes early. When you post the pictures in your classroom, consider framing them! I pick up low-cost frames at the dollar store and put them in different locations in my classroom (on the wall, on my desk, on the desk at the front of my room, on a bookshelf). No need to go use expensive photo paper. Simply print the pictures on regular letter paper to fit the frame's size (pictures below from the classrooms of @CamilaCdipietro and @Tarafarah7) Framed photos create a home-like, family atmosphere where students feel welcomed and accepted. If you have a classroom website or social media account, you could also post the pictures there as long as you have parent media release permission forms. Providing students with an opportunity to reflect on the positive moments of the week and look forward to the next week is another way to help foster classroom community. One way you can do this is by starting a weekly tradition called “Friday 5-4-3-2-1”. Students fill out the sheet by jotting down 5 things that made them smile, 4 words to describe the week, 3 things they have planned for the weekend, 2 things they learned, and 1 goal they have. Give students a few minutes to fill it out and have them share with a partner, a small group, or have a whole class discussion. If you’d like to try this out with your students, you can download it for free here. You can also choose to make up your own 5 prompts, as a blank version is included! Just write the prompts on the board and students can fill it out. Looking for more ways to promote class community? Find more ideas below! Student-Teacher Conferences from The SuperHERO Teacher Classroom Community Bell-Ringers from The Daring English Teacher The Kindness Project from Room 213 Do you have any other ideas for fostering a positive classroom community? Click the comments button at the top of the post and share your ideas! SaveSave SaveSave
The king of British literature can be celebrated any time of the year, but we tend to teach our Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales unit around the winter months. We bring in the sarcasm, irony, and parody, and satire with some Saturday Night Live clips along with some in-class performances . Are you looking for new and exciting ways to celebrate one of the best literary masterpieces of all time? Introducing The Canterbury Tales' activities into your classroom will make for a fun and memorable unit. Even though it was written during he medieval time period, Chaucer's work is timeless and humorous in nature. Students will love how their teacher will guide them along the pilgrimage to Thomas Becket's shrine into their ELA classroom.
1. Grab their attention with a game. Students have a lot of preconceived notions about Shakespeare, so I try to “shake” things up by starting off my unit with an attention grabber. Previously, I always started my unit with the first few minutes of “The Shakespeare Code” from Doctor Who, which shows the Doctor and Martha arriving to Elizabethan London. The Doctor “translates” the customs and habits for Martha, like pulling her out of the way of a dumped chamber pot! This is one way to get students excited right out of the gate. Now, I have students play through a digital breakout I madecalled “The Missing Script”. Students play as Alex, an aspiring actor, and Alex helps Shakespeare’s servant find a misplaced script. The game takes students through the Globe (they look high and low – maybe the servant left it in the Galleries?), over the London Bridge, and through the Royal Exchange. They solve puzzles as they learn about Shakespeare’s London, and, if they are successful, they find the missing script! 2. Introduce Shakespeare's Language (gently) I love Shakespeare’s language as much as the next gal and I’m capable of really nerding out about it. That doesn’t necessarily mean our students are ready to do the same. Instead of giving them a list of the two thousand words Shakespeare added to the English language, why not focus on just a few? Likewise, you can introduce a few politeness concepts like “thou” vs. “you” that carry a lot of meaning in his plays. One of the ways I do this is to have my students complete a Webquest focused on Shakespeare’s language. They watch a brief video (3 minutes!) about Shakespeare’s contributions to English and a portion of a TED talk by Akala that explains Iambic Pentameter in a memorable way. You can also distribute these bookmarks to your students to help them remember the basics – who doesn’t love a good bookmark? 3. Bring your classroom onto the stage. I love incorporating drama into my classroom, so it’s not a stretch to give students the stage in our Shakespeare units. If you’re a little hesitant about how to work this in, I’m here to tell you that you DO have time, and students WILL step up and embrace the responsibility. I’ve been working with shortened scripts lately (I call them Shakespeare in 30 since the final show only takes 30 minutes!), and it’s amazing! Students can use these scripts for Reader’s Theatre after a class period or two to practice. They could even work a little longer and add blocking and costumes for a Staged Reading. Lastly, they can memorize their lines completely in a 2-3 week unit and perform their plays for each other. This is a great way to expose students to more Shakespeare beyond just one play – you could easily have your students in groups that each perform a different text. 4. Give your students permission to play with the language It’s easy to think that Shakespeare’s texts should be held on a pedestal, but the reality is that he changed around his scenes all the time. Particularly in comedies, he was constantly at work to get the biggest laugh to cater to the biggest scandals of the day (think SNL here, folks). We can give students this same creative license. One of my favorite projects from my very first year of teaching was to have students rewrite the end of Much Ado About Nothing as a tragedy. This idea came from another English teacher, and I was a little skeptical, but the kids dove in. They had such a great time giving characters dramatic monologues and forlorn glances and soap opera deaths. Another project I’ve seen in my time working with our local teen group, the Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Company (SETSCO), is a retelling of Romeo & Juliet in five pop songs. From the brawl scene (“Uptown Funk”) to the lovers’ deaths (“If I Die Young), the whole thing takes about 15 minutes and is just a hoot. Whatever way you come up with, challenge students to make the stories their own. 5. Invite new interpretations and adaptations Lastly, challenge students to look for new insights into old texts. This is why we still have Shakespearean scholars, right? Because there’s still more to learn. Instead of giving students one correct story, allow them to find many stories in the text. How would it change things if Claudio were perceived as a bumbling stepfather who’s really trying, but Hamlet just won’t let him in? How about if we look at Lady Macbeth through a modern lens of mental health and diagnose her with anxiety and depression? What if we examined all of Othello through Desdemona’s eyes? Students can also create their own adaptations. One of the things that SETSCO did was to perform a mostly-mime Much Ado About Nothing. In this version, each character only said 1-2 words at a time, and meaning was conveyed through inflection and movement. This unique spin on the story amplified the depiction of Don John and Don Pedro’s manipulation of the other characters and gave the audience new insight into an old story. Final Words There’s no reason for students to ever consider Shakespeare old and tired. Instead, help them view these texts as a playground for imaginative analysis and creative reworking. These are a few of the things I do in my classroom and community, and I can’t wait to see what you do in yours! Tag me on Instagram at @nouvelle_ela and let me know how it’s going. :) You can also check out these Shakespeare resources from other Coffee Shop teachers: Shakespeare Language and Vocabulary by Presto Plans Romeo & Juliet Student Workbook by Stacey Lloyd Interactive Notebook Quick Reference: Shakespeare by The Classroom Sparrow Shakespeare Bell Ringers by The Daring English Teacher Shakespeare Learning Stations by Room 213
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
Teaching Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God doesn't have to be daunting. With these simple ideas, your students will be totally engaged!
With the New Year right around the corner, I am counting down 2018 with some of my favorite things from the year. Today’s 2018 countdown is all about my
Society has some less-than-desirable thing to say about our students. In the news and on social media, they are sometimes referred to as the tide-pod
Do you want (or need) to cut down on paper? Is there a paperless initiative at your school, a harsh photocopying limit, or new 1:1 technology in your classroom? (Or, are you simply tired of hauling 60+ journals to and from school?) Whether you’re already a digital native or are terrified of letting go of hard copies, here are 12 baby steps to start taking if you want to tiptoe (or cannonball) into a paperless classroom. Joining me today is Christina, who blogs at The Daring English Teacher. 1. Do a Quick Inventory of Resources (and Permissions) Sara: Find out not only what your goals are, but what software and programs are already provided to you by your school. Then, find out what limitations you have and how to go about getting the programs you WANT (including how to fund them). For example, I wanted the Teacher edition of Quizlet, and I was able to get reimbursed for that $35/year registration fee. But when our team wanted to use Edmodo as our course management system (more on that later), it involved getting more permissions from the school than actual costs. 2. Utilize Valuable EdTech Sites Christina: There are so many EdTech sites available to teachers and students. From sites that help students improve their writing to vocabulary quiz sites, you are sure to find one that fits your classroom. Check out this blog post I wrote about my five favorite EdTech sites. 3. Make Your Digital “Home Base” Sara: Some students (especially disorganized ones) can feel overwhelmed when there is a long list of websites, apps, tools, and logins to keep track of. Consider creating one “home base” (such as Google Classroom or a class website) to make clear lists that tell students where to go and when. (Their parents and tutors will appreciate you, too!) Christina: When using Google Classroom, be sure to take advantage of the labels feature to help keep all of your assignments and information organized and easily accessible. 4. Ditch Your Flash Cards Sara: Quizlet is one of the easiest starting points to lose some paper. Even with the free accounts, you can create vocabulary sets that are interactive for students. (However, I’m a huge fan of the paid Teacher account and the data that it gives you about every student and/or class!) Feel free to check out some of the vocab sets I’ve made here. Christina: While you are on Quizlet, try the Quizlet Live game option with your students. They will love the competitive and game show nature of the activity, and you’ll love the collaboration required to complete each task! 5. Google Forms Christina: Start using Google Forms in the classroom. You can read about ten different ways on how to incorporate Google Forms in your classroom here! One time-saving feature I love about Google Forms is how it collects data and even grades quizzes. I use Google Forms at the end of the school year as my year-end survey. 6. Make Quizzes that Grade Themselves Sara: One massive time-saver is Edmodo’s option to make self-grading quizzes that I can assign to an entire class. In addition to each child’s score, I get basic pie charts that show me how the class trended on each question, so I know which questions are going to need more review. (Christina uses Google Forms as a way to administer self-grading quizzes.) 7. Assign Collaborative Work in Docs Christina: I remember back in high school when group work was so difficult to complete because you had to coordinate everyone’s schedules, find a parent to drive you to a designated location, and work as quickly as you could in the one-hour-long block you could meet with everyone. Those days are over now! It is so easy to assign collaborative work using Google Docs and Google Slides. Some of my favorite collaborative projects are digital novel introductions. I have my students work in small groups researching various aspects about a novel’s context before we read it in class. This project helps to engage and excite students! 8. Digital Note Taking Christina: If students have access to Chromebooks in your classroom, encourage them to create notes digitally in Google Docs. Use the Google Draw feature within the Google Suite so that students can create diagrams and drawings to enhance learning. Sara: Regardless of the software you use, seize this opportunity to have a nonfiction discussion about whether it’s better to type or handwrite your notes. During this conversation, encourage students to try a variety of tools (Word, Google Docs, Evernote, or other) to find the note-taking tool that works best for them. 9. Gamify the Classroom Christina: Whether you prefer Kahoot, Quizziz, or Quizlet Live, utilizing live, online gameplay for classroom review is a great way to encourage classroom participation and make learning fun! Sara: If you want to try a more complex game, you can make your own game board (digital or hard copy) that sends students off to do digital tasks in a set order. 10. Let Students Create Your Tech Sara: One of my most meaningful grammar activities is the instructional video assignment, in which students teach each other concepts (using Google Slides and a screen recorder). Sharing the ownership of our content makes students excited to not only use tech for creation but also watch (and learn from) the videos. Christina: Another great site to utilize in the classroom is Adobe Spark. With Adobe Spark, students can easily make great videos for projects. 11. Choose Tools with Timestamps Sara: The best paperless tools for me are the ones that allow me to prove that a student actually did the task (and when). For example, I love the revision history in Google Docs that lets me see if (and when) a student contributed to a doc. This information is important if I need to verify who contributed what on a group assignment, if the student used class time effectively, or if the student procrastinated. 12. Show Off Your Digital Work! Christina: One minor drawback to going paperless in the classroom is that it becomes difficult to post student work. Since I can’t post digital work in my classroom, I create a digital corkboard for my class instead. Once students turn in their completed assignments, I use Padlet to create a digital corkboard where I post student work. I then post the digital board onto each class’ Google Classroom Stream! Sara: Depending on what you want to display (and where), you can try making screenshots that appear on screensavers or as images in a digital picture frame. Also, host “view only” folders where students can read or listen to each other’s work, which is what I do when we are sharing recordings from our Digital Poetry Slam. Do you have more suggestions? Tell us in the comments!
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!
This resource is a part of ELA Task Cards 6th Grade Bottomless Bundle This resource includes 36 task cards for Plot Elements 36 Task Cards Answer Sheets Answer Key 6th Grade Digital Options (Google Slides and Forms) Standards Addressed: RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. RL.6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot. 🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5. Let’s connect! The Literacy Loft Blog The Literacy Loft on Instagram The Literacy Loft on Pinterest The Literacy Loft on Facebook Email: [email protected]
There are a lot of suggestions floating around out there about what to do on the first day of school. But what should you do on the second day in Language Arts? I already did a post on using a short story to establish how you approach the task of reading. In this post I’m ... Read more
Pixar short films are a great way to target essential literary elements and techniques from characterization to theme to conflict to symbolism. These Pixar short films inspire class discussion and analysis, and students can then in turn write essays based upon these films. They are an excellent to
I have been working on creating a unit or lesson on irony and I thought I would share it with you guys! I first learned about irony from the movie Reality Bites: It is still one of my favorite movies, but the quote from this movie is: Lelaina: I mean, can you define irony? Troy: Its when the actual meaning is the complete opposite from the literal meaning. Lelaina: My God, where were you when I needed you today? I plan to start my introduction to irony by giving that exact definition! I recently created an "Irony" board on Pinterest and plan to use it by asking my furry little friends to explain why the examples given are ironic. Check it out below or click on it to go to the board on Pinterest. I then plan to show the following music video and ask students to explain what makes it ironic: Once I feel like they grasp the concept I plan to have them read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Reading The Story-Ideas Box each paragraph and underline key words/ideas in each Highlight words that you do not know or recognize At the end of each paragraph write a short summary (imagine you only have 50 cents and each letter costs you a penny) Circle and Identify: Setting Characters Problems Solutions Look for, circle, and label examples of: Irony Foreshadowing Tone (Look for proof of friendly as well as sinister) Figurative Language Symbolism After reading the story give a summary of the entire story What makes this short story a perfect example of irony? I have not figured out yet the best way to quiz the kids on this concept. Maybe give them some examples and ask them to state if they are ironic or not? Anyone out there have any ideas they would like to share? :)
Looking for an alternative to the essay? Try an infographic!
Having effective exam review strategies that are differentiated and meaningful is important. Help students be successful by using these approaches.
Some people think that playing educational games in the classroom is only for elementary school. Some people think that with all the man...
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!
Use these differentiation ideas for the ELA classroom to help you plan your lessons and meet the needs of your students.
Pixar short films are a great way to target essential literary elements and techniques from characterization to theme to conflict to symbolism. These Pixar short films inspire class discussion and analysis, and students can then in turn write essays based upon these films. They are an excellent to
Teaching rhetorical analysis is one of my absolute favorite units to complete with my students. I love teaching my students about rhetorical strategies and devices, analyzing what makes an effective and persuasive argument, and reading critical speeches with my students. Here is a quick list of some of my favorite speeches for rhetorical analysis.
I decided that before I can start posting about what I'm doing this year, I needed to share some of my favorite strategies from last year ...
Introduce William Shakespeare to your students with this fun, informative, and interactive mini flip book. This mini flip book includes seven different tabs to help your students get to know the life, times, and works of the Bard: Biography, Timeline (interactive), The Globe, Language, Quotes (interactive), Works, and Iambic Pentameter On the timeline page, students read through the book and complete additional research (optional) to create a timeline of William Shakespeare's life. On the quotes page, students write own the modern-day, literal translations of quotes William Shakespeare coined. Students can use this mini flip reference book before they read the plays to gain insightful background information and while they read to help translate Elizabethan language. - Classroom Directions Included! - Compatible with Interactive Notebooks! - Fun and Engaging! - Hands-On! ★This mini flip book is included in a money-saving bundle★ Mini Flip Book Growing Bundle Connect with me! The Daring English Teacher Facebook The Daring English Teacher Twitter The Daring English Teacher Pinterest The Daring English Teacher Blog This file comes as a secure PDF that cannot be edited or altered.
Get 10 quick assessment ideas for literature that work great when teaching stories, novels, or dramas in middle school. TeachingELAwithJoy.com
If you ask me, it’s always a good time to celebrate The Bard, but on April 23rd, we recognize both his birth and the incredible contribution he made to the English language. Now I know that not everyone thinks we should still be studying his work in 21st century classrooms, but I’m not one of […]
Wanting to revamp your independent reading program? Try using a classroom book club, which is a great way to enrich, engage, and differentiate in secondary.
Older literature can be hard to teach sometimes in the modern age. Language can become misinterpreted, students might not be interested, or the stories just
