TpT CYBER SALE

The Carpenters were right on target when they sang, "...Rainy days and Mondays always get me down" in 1971 (Rainy Days and Mondays The Carpenters).

When that gloomy Monday -or Tuesday- is the one following Thanksgiving break and a is also a mere month before Winter vacation, teachers desperately need to turn their frowns upside down.

They can do that by fast-walking their fingers over their keyboards to the annual

TPT CYBER SALE

on

Monday - November 30th

& Tuesday - December 1st.

All 147 of my PAID products are 20% off.

Of course, all 31 of my FREE products are...well... still FREE.

Mopey Monday  and Tiresome Tuesday will not get you down when you go to my store, https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie, during TpT's Cyber Sale

where you will CLICK, SAVE, and SMILE.

Enjoy a Teach It Now Day Every Day.

PRE-THANKSGIVING VACATION TpT SALE

 To All of my English Language Arts colleagues-

I wish you a relaxing vacation with family and  friends. 

So you don't have to cram in planning before your break, and 

So you don't have to endure a grumpy week after your much deserved vacation,

I am having a 15% off EVERYTHING SALE in my TpT store
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie

Along with all of my literature, writing, vocabulary, grammar and journalism lesson plans, activities, unit plans, PowerPoints and Teacher Resources, be sure to check out these two November Newbies:

WRITING-SHOWING NOT TELLING-THE EMOTION POTION

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/WRITING-SHOWING-NOT-TELLING-THE-EMOTION-POTION-2215478 (on sale for $2.55)

and-

Literary Analysis-MAKING THE MOST OF TIME

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literary-Analysis-MAKING-the-MOST-of-TIME-681650
(ON SALE FOR $2.13)

Browse the sale so you can make the most of your vacation time. 

Go to https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie

Have a wonderful break, and when you return to the classroom next week,

Enjoy a Teach It Now Day, Every Day.

Make a Home for the Unit Plan-'Neverhome'

Image from Amazon  http://amzn.to/1NF0O71

From the first page of Neverhome by Laird Hunt, I was mesmerized. Was my absorption due to

~the first line, “I was strong and he was not, so it was me went to war to defend the republic”? 

~ the knowledge that women masqueraded as men to fight in the Civil War?

~ Laird Hunt’s ability to spin mere words into vivid and emotional word pictures, such as, “…but there had been a bite of sorrows in that empty place made me glad to think we had found another spot and weren’t going to return,” (21)? As an avid reader, I give three solid, “Yes” votes to these questions.

As a teacher, I appreciate the societal/cultural links, as well as the reasons why this 243-page novel provides a rich cross-curriculum unit of study that secondary school English and Social Studies teachers may share.

Societal/ Cultural Links

~ Constance Thompson, AKA Ash Thompson, is a woman who succeeds in a man’s world, though she has to disguise herself as a man to do so.  The two recent graduates of Ranger School, First Lieutenant Shaye Haver, and Captain Kristen Griest also excelled in a – previously -men’s only domain.

~ Some reasons for the Civil War, from both Northern and Southern Points of View are presented.

~ The interpretation of historical persons, places and things as well as their symbolic meanings is timely.

Cross Curriculum Ideas

~English teachers can share elements of literature activities such as Character, Plot/Conflict and Theme with social studies teachers.

~ Social Studies teachers may share activities that deepen students understanding of the people and places of the Civil War, especially those that are shown- with literary license- in this novel.

~ English and Social Studies teachers could “guest teach” in each other’s classes.

What does this 103-page Unit Plan: Neverhome  offer teachers?

Here is a shortened version of the Table of Contents:

Objectives and Teacher Notes

A Unit Activity Plan (specifies the Common Core Anchor Standards and 

Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs for each activity)

Pre-Reading – What Do I Know?  How Do I Know It?                                                      

Research Project

Debate Project

Historical Footnotes

Vocabulary Activity

Section Analysis Activity (3-pages; one set is designated for every reading division section

that I created- three each for the author’s book divisions that he names, One, Two and Three.)

Group Activity –Ash’s Journey 1862-1864    

Character Activities (6)

Plot/Conflict Activities (5)

Setting Activity - Setting Up Ash(1)

Symbols Activities (2)

Theme Activities (2)

Tone Activity (1)                                                                                            

Figurative Language Activity

                 

Points to Ponder/Discussion Topics (10)

Essay Topics (8)

Project Topics (9)

Assessments/Division Quiz

Assessments Unit Test

Answer Keys: Historical Footnotes, Vocabulary, Neverhome Unit Test

This product, Unit Plan - Neverhome,  provides a plethora of teacher notes, activities and assessments that enable students to ~deepen their reading comprehension and their understanding of the Civil War and its impact on contemporary society.

~grasp the fact that what happens in the past always impacts the future

~ strengthen their writing depth and their higher level thinking skills, and, to

~ create lifelong readers and learners.

Download it from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Unit-Plan-NeverhomeLaird-Hunt-2053138

Enjoy a Teach it Now Day, Every Day

Follower Advantage

For an automatic Heads-Up! email about Updated and New  products, and also for Sales and other promotions, please click on the Follow Me star under my Store Name, https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie

                                                                               

               

Language Arts Activity - Oh My WORDs!

Vocabulary study will become meaningful to Middle and High School students when they make the words an integral part of their writing and speaking. We teachers must offer them a variety of ways to think about the word’s definition, as well as its connotative meaning so that they can make logical inferences about its usage.

The key to word ownership is to offer students a variety of opportunities to use the words repeatedly in order to remove any aura of isolation that remains when they just memorize the meanings for a test. This multiple exposure will help the students become more comfortable and confident with how to use the words.

Like my Vocabulary: 31 Ideas for Teaching Vocabulary

(http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-31-Ideas-for-Teaching-Vocabulary-634378),  this FREEBIE, Oh My WORDs!,  also has 30 exercises for students to show that they understand how the vocabulary words should be used in context. 

In their writing, students will have to actively think about four elements in order to use them correctly: the word’s definition, its contextual and or connotative meaning, its part of speech, and which, if any, inflectional endings (i.e. –er, -ed, -ing-, s) are necessary when they include them in this piece. 

Through this reinforcement, each student will add some of the words to his or her oral and written language repertoire.  Reading comprehension will also improve, not just due to the inclusion of teacher-generated words into their personal vocabularies, but also because they are learning to think about how writers choose words to express their thoughts.

I have grouped the exercises as: Warm-ups Writing, Short Writing, and Shared Writing. For the most part, the topics are general enough to be used in conjunction with any word list. Students should complete the Warm-up Writing in 15-20 minutes and the other two categories in twenty-five to thirty minutes. My intention is not to turn these into major writing assignments, but to offer enough depth for the students to develop their thoughts and to include as many words as they could without turning the writing into a contextual word list.

Teaching Idea:

To insure that the students are studying how the words are used and are not just memorizing the meanings, assign a Short Writing the night before the quiz.  The day of the assessment, collect the writings, put them in a stack on your desk, and, while the students are completing the quiz, check off that they are complete.  You can review these pieces quite quickly if you choose to only circle any words that are used incorrectly or are unclear. 

When the students have turned in the quiz, they should choose a peer’s Short Writing and write their reactions to the content of the piece.  Have them underline any vocabulary words that they use in their 100-150 word responses for extra credit. When the time is up, stroll through the room, check that the assignment is completed and note any extra credit that you may add to their quiz grade.

Download this FREEBIE from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Activities-Oh-My-WORDs-1278986

Happy Teaching,

Oh, for the Love of Words!

Last night, (9/9/2013) I found myself thinking about the “Vocabulary Words: Twelve Months of Lists” (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Twelve-Months-of-Lists-867523) product that I had posted in my TpT store that afternoon, and I realized that I needed to explain why I chose only 20 words for each month’s list. Some teachers might desire 20 words per week, after all.

When I was in the classroom, I would sometimes give students a Word of the Day in lieu of a weekly vocabulary list. That is how I created the original twelve word lists. Here are 12 more! As before, each list is composed of 20 words with definitions and their parts of speech. After a while, I, too, wanted to offer students Bi-weekly lists; that’s how all 24 lists came into existence. On a roll, the next year I added  my 32 lists (15 words each list) to the original 24. These 32 lists compose my

“Vocabulary SAT Word Lists and Quizzes.”  (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-SAT-Word-Lists-and-Quizzes-480-words-2640) and you have 56 weeks of words. That is 960 words!

The thirty writing ideas included in yesterday’s TpT posting (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Twelve-Months-of-Lists-867523) work with these list, too, of course. As I mentioned, these ideas have been utilized in other blogs of mine, too, such as:http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/03/amplified-vocabulary-lessons-when-words.html
More ideas for helping students make these words an active part of their speaking and writing repertoires can be found on:http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/04/word-up-with-power-of-words.html, and my latest post featuring vocabulary ideas: http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/09/wordle-me-this.html.
If you are interested I have created word clouds for each of the “Vocabulary SAT Word Lists and Quizzes (480 words)” (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Word-Clouds-for-SAT-Lists-1-32-156453)

Now you can challenge your  students to add to their vocabulary knowledge weekly, bi-weekly or

monthly. 

Yes, my activities have usually been FREE and these 24 word lists aren't. That's because choosing 480 words, narrowing their definitions to fit onto a table that takes up half a page yet still make sense is time-consuming for me, as I am still in the technology learning stages. As always, my goal is to make your planning and teaching lives less stressful with my classroom tested, tweaked activities.  Rest assured that the vast majority of my posts here will include FREE ACTIVITIES..

Enjoy!

Happy Teaching,

Words, Words, Words: Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

It's Summertime, summertime-sum-sum- summertime and many of you are already digging your toes in the sand- literally and metaphorically. Others are still anticipating the time to take a complete breath without  a, "Teacher! Teacher! What do I do now?" interruption. Some of you will have a short break before you are back in the classroom for summer studies.

This short yet worthwhile post offers word lists for June, July and August for those of you who will be leading your students to the academic spigot for long gulps of learning during the sultry months of June, July and August. Every monthly vocabulary list is comprised of 20 words, each with its main definition and part of speech. Download these lists from: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Words-Words-Words-719463

For Common Core and Bloom's Taxonomy aligned activities that will expand students writing and speaking vocabularies, download these FREE postings already in my TpT store and discussed in separate blog posts. These two product offer you multiple ways that to empower your students to make vocabulary study as integral to their lives as eating, texting and talking. "Words, Words, Words" will allow students to say what they mean, and mean what they say.

Product and Blog URLS for awesome activities: the first URL gives the place in my TpT store where you can download this product and the second refers to one of my previous posts on this site.

1. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Word-Up-With-the-Power-of-Words ( blog post: http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/04/word-up-with-power-of-words.html)
2. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-31-Ideas-for-Teaching-Vocabulary (blog post: http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/03/amplified-vocabulary-lessons-when-words.html)

All three of these products are FREE, so add them to your repertoires. In August, I will post word lists for September through May and MORE vocabulary study activities to hook students into becoming lifelong word enthusiasts.

NOTE: Until mid-August, I will be posting lesson ideas only on Tuesdays. My Teacher Talk posts will continue to be published on Saturdays or Sundays.

To all my colleagues, have a fantastic summer.
Happy Teaching,

Word Up With the Power of Words

Rudyard Kipling said, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”  That’s a fact! I know it because I have been a word fanatic ever since my Aunt Catherine, an elementary school teacher, taught me to read when I was four years old. My aunt turned me on to words. As teachers, we need to do the same for our students.

How do I love words? Let me mention a few ways:

1.  I love how onomatopoeia gently bumps the insides of my mouth like my cat head thumps my leg.
2.  I love the smell of sizzling bacon.
3.  I love the sound of gurgling brooks and crashing waves.
4.  I loved my mother’s cool hand whispering over my burning forehead when I had the flu.
5.  I love Markus Zusak’s word picture from The Book Thief, “Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain.”

Because of his word magic, Markus Zusak often traps my mind and imprisons me on his Train of Thought. Some times, I am so entranced by his way with words that I forget what I should be doing. In fact, an hour ago, I was mindcuffed by his words once again.

•  "I would rather chase the sun than wait for it," (I Am The Messenger).
• "I think she ate a salad and some soup. And loneliness. She ate that, too," (I Am The Messenger).
• "She assaults me with her version of the truth," (I Am The Messenger).

I have to quit lapping up his quotes like chocolate marshmallow bunnies. Instead, I need to share with you, my classroom colleagues, a few more ideas you can employ to turn your students into word fanatics. About a month ago, I posted a blog, Amplified Vocabulary Lessons: When Words Speak-Students Listen (http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/03/amplified-vocabulary-lessons-when-words.html) offering 31 vocabulary lessons to engage visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners.

Yesterday, when I was pondering what to do for today’s writing, grammar and vocabulary theme blog, my mind landed on, “ Create more activities that will persuade students to swell their word banks.” From past experience, I know better than to ignore Edith, the Idea imp who loves to tickle my thoughts.

Today, I am including another activity with this blog, Word Up With the Power of Words. This quartet of activities- two for individual study and two for teams- will allow students to show their prowess with words in a variety of contexts while exhibiting their range of thinking skills from simple to complex. These activities allow them to reveal their understanding of the nuances of various vocabulary words as well as their creative and analytic writing skills. Best of all, by completing these activities, students will boost their word banks and will have the power of words to rely on in the world outside of academia.

Download this Common Core and Bloom's Taxonomy aligned product that includes four activities and complete teacher notes from my store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-Vocabulary-Activity-Word-Up-With-the-Power-of-Words-676190

 

 

Happy Teaching,