New Year's Day Writing Activity - "Dynamite Resolutions for the New Year"

Teachers, this post offers you a few more days of relaxing, shopping, reading for pleasure, watching college bowl games, or indulging in whatever revives you best before you must unlock your classrooms after your much-deserved break.  This lesson, New Year's Day Writing Activity: Dynamite Resolutions for the New Year, will engage your middle and /or high school students as the first bell chimes while giving you an activity that meets comprehension, writing, thinking and speaking objectives.

As the New Year tick tocks its way into January, students’ brains need some prodding to shake off the cobwebs of long winter naps. This language arts activity sparks their comprehension, critical thinking and writing muscles as they consider the texts that they read and analyzed during the fall and early winter months. After they complete the handout and share their responses in a whole-class discussion that promises to be lively, their brains will be revved up for the next fiction or narrative nonfiction unit.

For this lesson, New Year's Day Writing Activity: Dynamite Resolutions for the New Year, students will choose five people from any of the reading they have completed so far this school year, and will create a New Year’s Resolution for each one. Each decision must be one that fits the character’s disposition, morals, values and temperament.

After the students create this pledge, they must explain

•  why the character made this decision,
•  why this is a logical choice for him/her, and they
•  must also include the title and author for each story that they use.

To score this activity, allot 1 point each for the character, the title and the author; 3 points for each Resolution, and 4 points for the Reason -10 points per each character response, and 50 points for the whole worksheet.

Example:

Character: Goldilocks; Goldilocks and The Three Bears; Robert Southly

Resolution: I vow never to break into anyone’s house again.

Reason: My parents grounded me for breaking and entering, eating the Bear family’s food, destroying their furniture and messing up their beds. For three weeks I had to eat cold porridge, sit in a wooden chair and sleep on a wooden pallet with no mattress. That was no fun.

This lesson promises to add more bricks to students’ academic homes while they prove the premise that Learning is Fun.  Resolve to download this $1.25 bargain from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/New-Years-Day-Writing-Activity-Dynamite-Resolutions-for-the-New-Year-179906.

Happy Teaching,

 New Year's graphic from https://openclipart.org/detail/211059/happy-new-year-2015-by-viscious-speed-211059

Spice Up Thanksgiving with This Cornucopia of English Language Arts Activities

 With Halloween on the horizon, that means that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This trio of lessons, Comprehension, Writing and Thinking- A Thanksgiving Cornucopia of Activities, will keep middle and high school students engaged and practicing their comprehension, writing and higher level thinking skills as they await their much anticipated vacation.

Activity 1: A Thanksgiving Celebration has students planning a dinner party using the characters, plot, setting, etc. from the story that they are currently studying.  To complete this project, they will create an invitation, choose the guest list and explain their choices, design the seating arrangement, prepare a menu, select any entertainment, think of topics of conversation and write one dialogue between two of the characters. Some research of the time period  in the story will be necessary.

Activity 2: What’s Hot?  What’s Not?  A Thanksgiving Comparison has students creating two lists- one showing what a character is thankful for and another that reveals what is unrewarding in his/her life.  Students will also have to identify two of the negative aspects that the character wishes to turn into positives and explain their reasoning for their selections.

Activity 3:  Who Wins the Wishbone? A Thanksgiving Competition requires students to write a short piece developing who they feel should reach his/her goal- the Protagonist or Antagonist, incorporating details from the story to defend their choice..

Activity 1 will require a few days of class time and homework to complete, but each of the other two can be finished in 40-50 minutes, depending on the students skills and abilities. For Activities 2 and 3, students also use details from the text that they are currently studying to show their understanding.

Download this 15-page trio of activities from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Writing-and-Thinking-A-Thanksgiving-Cornucopia-of-Activities-1524752 ($3.50).

This lesson will also add some spice to your November planning calendar: 

During the days before Thanksgiving vacation, teachers can use a fun activity to keep their students thinking and writing. Thanksgiving Comprehension Activity: Guess Who's Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner? will encourage students to think about the characters that they have encountered in their literature during the fall. Each young person will choose a character to invite to Thanksgiving dinner, and then will write about the event as if it is the day after Thanksgiving. Students have to think analytically as they describe the setting, identify who was present, write a conversation using proper dialogue format and evaluate the situation that transpired. Teachers can use this activity to assess the students' understanding of the character each chose as they examine their charges' higher level thinking and writing skills. Have the students write their rough draft on a separate sheet of paper, revise it for spelling, punctuation (especially for dialogue format), grammar and content and then write their final copy on the handout. Give them one class period for the rough draft and one for the final copy (or they can complete the final copy for homework). Download this from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Comprehension-Activity-Guess-Whos-Coming-to-Thanksgiving-Dinner-167985 ($1.50), and

With these four activities, your students will not only join you at the Learning Table, but will be asking for, "More brain food, please."

Happy Teaching,

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KCCRZS

Check out this Go-To Resource for Teaching Candidates, Rookies and Veterans

Teaching jobs can be few and far between, depending on your certificate endorsements and where you wish to hang your real or digital gradebook. 

Whether you are a candidate for a teaching position, a rookie or a veteran teacher, some advice from a colleague who has spent years in the classroom trenches, leading students to the academic  trough with engaging and strong activities and lessons can always be inspiring.

Marjan Glavac, who created and publishes the fantastic The Busy Educator Newsletter -http://news.thebusyeducator.com/-every Friday, has  a terrific resource for anyone looking for a teaching job - no matter if this if you are searching for your first classroom position ar looking for new experiences. 

He offers:

•  three free full-length teacher training videos, 
• a free resource sheet explaining two strategies in detail to answer the classroom management interview question  and
•  a download for a special report- 110 Teacher Interview Questions. This report practically covers every question a candidate is going to be asked in a teacher interview.

These resources are available without any signup pages from

http://thebusyeducator.com/all-teacher-job-videos/.

While checking out Mr. Glavac's helpful teacher training information, read a few of the engaging articles, lesson plans, videos, Ed. Chats and so much more that he posts in http://news.thebusyeducator.com/.  

After that, why not share some of your lessons, ideas and thoughts about education for The Busy Educator? To do this, Email Mr. Glavac at marjan@glavac.com.

Whether you are searching for tips to land your first contract or to find a new place to teach, are browsing for new lessons, want to share your own activities or just want to read about what's up in the education field, gift yourself with the weekly The Busy Educator Newsletter. 

Happy Teaching,

Dystopian Novels Generate a Teacher Utopia 16+ Teaching Ideas

Good can come from dystopian cultures, well, from the study of dystopian novels, anyway. This 10-page product for Middle and High School ELA teachers, offers 16+ lessons for the study of dystopian books. Although the directions and descriptions for each lesson reference Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, I use these details to add clarification- and to offer more lessons for my Brave New World Unit Plan,  (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brave-New-World-Unit-Plan-5021), which was my initial goal. When I saw the universality of the lessons that I was creating, I decided to offer suggestions about how teachers could adapt these activities to fit any dystopian novel, or any novel, for that matter.

After detailing 3 Novel Preview Lesson Ideas, this packet includes 12 lessons for the topic, Novel Study Lesson Ideas: Exploring the Elements of Literature. I created from 1-5 activities for each element: Character, Plot/Conflict, Theme (and Theme Topics), Setting, Symbols, and Point of View. For the lesson on Setting, this packet contains a brand new handout with two activities -  Issues, Issues, These are the Issues. 

Under the Extended Study- And Then There was More heading, I suggest 16 utopian/dystopian novels -some classics taught in many schools- for independent reading, small group or whole class study. Here is a working list. So many terrific novels for this genre that work with adolescents exist, that I had to make some difficult choices.

*These books appear on Barnes and Noble’s “The Top 100 Bestsellers of 2014”

Animal Farm (George Orwell)

*Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

*Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)

Men Like Gods (H.G. Wells)

The Time Machine (H.G. Wells)

Lord pf the Flies (William Golding)

A Perfect Day (Ira Levin)

*The Hunger Games trilogy (Suzanne Collins)

*Divergent series (Veronica Roth)

*Four (Veronica Roth)

*Maze Runner series (James Dashner)

The Circle (Dave Eggers)

The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)

*The Giver (Lois Lowry)

Uglies (Scott Westerfield)

After that I give links to two products that tie into the study of dystopian literature and propaganda from my store: "Writing and Thinking Activity-Unconventional Inventions": http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Thinking-Activity-Unconventional-Inventions-18339 ($2.00) and "Thinking/Writing Activities 'Utopian and Dystopian Society Novel Projects'": http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ThinkingWriting-Activities-Utopian-and-Dystopian-Society-Novel-Projects-1124376 ($2.50).

As a plug for all of my Teacher-Seller colleagues, I follow these suggestions by mentioning that ELA teachers will find lessons, activities and unit plans for 12 out of the 16 novels that I name here on TpT. I hope that this mention will send you all some sales, my friends!

I close the packet with a Parent Permission Slip since many of these novels reveal controversial issues and may be restricted in some school districts for various reasons. 

Many teens and preteens love reading dystopian literature. These lessons will engage them and will hook those students who need a lift onto my favorite train, the I Love Reading Express.

Download Teacher Resource - Dystopian Novels Generate a Teacher Utopia from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teacher-Resource-Dystopian-Novels-Generate-a-Teacher-Utopia-1502333 ($3.50).
 

Happy Teaching,
Connie

"Comprehension and Writing lessons - "Trick or Treat"

No matter their ages, students are always looking forward to Halloween when the calendar flips to October. 

The four activities in this Middle School and High School packet, Comprehension and Writing Activity - Trick or Treat? enable teachers to keep their charges on task with lessons that address four of the elements of literature.

Here are the activities and their directions:

Trick or Treat? Plot Soup
Directions – Various situations (the Rising and Falling Action) arise during a story that affect the Plot. They are either Helps or Hurdles for the Protagonist and the Antagonist. For this activity
• choose two situations each that the protagonist and antagonist faced
• summarize each event
• discuss whether the situation’s result was a Help or a Hurdle to the Protagonist or Antagonist.
•defend your reasoning by using story details in your explanations.

Trick or Treat? The Flavor of Personalities
Directions –Characters’ personalities are as varied as the candy that fill store shelves. They may be sweet, sour, nutty, smooth, sticky, hard or soft, for example, or a mixture of many of these qualities. For this exercise, choose four characters and decide which candy most matches each one’s personality. Defend your choices with details and examples from the story. Conclude this activity by choosing the Character Candy you prefer, and explain your choice.

Trick or Treat? Setting it Up
Directions – Choose either the Protagonist or the Antagonist, and discuss how the Setting influences this person and his or her decisions. In addressing this topic, consider any of the following ideas to ignite your thinking: How does the Setting influence the character’s main goal? Is the Setting a help or a hindrance to this person’s objectives? What is the character’s effect on the Setting? What is the Setting’s effect of the character? Use this form for your thesis statement and your Pre-Writing notes. Include citations that support your thesis. Include this sheet with your rough draft(s) and Final Essay copy on the Due Date.

and,

Trick or Treat? And the Symbol is….
Directions – Symbols represent a specific person, place, thing or idea. Sometimes this meaning is clear. In other cases, the symbol needs more analysis to determine its meaning. 
For this activity
1. Examine the following Halloween Symbols, and determine what each one represents.
2. Next, list three qualities that illustrate the symbol’s connotation. 
3. Finally, decide if the story has a corresponding Symbol. If so, explain your conclusion, using details from the story for support. If the story does not reveal a parallel Symbol, then write, “No Matching Symbol” after you address the first two components required for this exercise.

As always, these activities utilize Bloom's Taxonomy verbs to promote students' thinking and writing skills, and are aligned with Common Core Anchor Standards that teachers may use as guidelines to fit their state-specific standards. This information is included on the detailed "Teacher Notes" page.

Engage your students by channeling their Halloween anticipation with these four activities.

Download this 4 lessons in one  packet from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-and-Writing-Activity-Trick-or-Treat-1484248 ($2.00)

Happy Teaching,

Flesh out Characters with Three Analytic Activities

Fall Into Character Analysis

I have always been intrigued by the people that I have met between book covers. Exploring how these fictional beings act and react to the people and the conflicts that they encounter have always fortified my understanding of humans, their passions and their ambitions.

This interest is why so many of my products focus on the character aspect of the elements of literature.  Fall Into Character Analysis adds even more depth to this emphasis.

Three handouts – “Island Odyssey," Fleshing Out Character" and  “It’s a Halloween Party" offer middle and high school students opportunities to reveal their comprehension of the characters they are studying.  Through writing and speaking, they will explore a trio of the basic motivations that propel authors to create dynamic, round individuals.

1. Who and what determines how characters deal with their thoughts, feelings and emotions?
2. What factors determine how characters interact with the people they meet and the situations they encounter?
3. Why do they act and react to these internal and external conflicts in the manner that they do?

Students will show their understanding of character development by choosing specific details to complete each teacher-selected activity. They will select their answers based on the information that they have gathered in their reading.

Teachers should introduce these activities during and after the latter part of the rising action - or when enough information about the characters is present for analysis.

As students complete these assignments, they will exhibit their range of thinking skills from knowledge through evaluation. They will also show their understanding of character development as well as their analytic and critical-thinking oral and writing skills.

Individual and/or small group options will work successfully, although “It’s a

Halloween Party” is better suited to individual responses.  As with all of my activities, the students should share their responses during whole class discussions.

Download this Language Arts Activity

from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-and-Writing-Activities-Falling-Into-Character-1466674 ($2.00) Detailed Teacher Notes are included.

Don't plan during your personal hours- Download. 
Give yourself the gift of time with these ready for class lessons.

Happy Teaching,

Language Arts Lesson - "Writing: Write Right! Analytic Writing Made Easy"

Writing has always been a major focus of my middle and high school lessons - second only to teaching my students how develop their higher level thinking skills.  Because of this, I created a number of handouts that summarize my teaching points for this product, Writing: Write Right! Analytic Writing Made Easy. 

Students are required to bring this packet to class as they will refer to them with pretty much any type of writing- from Daily Openers (Warm-ups) to full-length essays to research papers.   For students just starting to follow the proper essay format, this product will help them to understand the parts of an essay so they can create focused and supported pieces.

Many former students have contacted me from college to tell me that the knowledge they gained from this packet has come in handy in their freshman English classes. They often ask me to send them another copy of the packet.

This Write Right! Analytic Writing Made Easy offers teachers handouts that discuss the basic aspects of writing analytically:

1. Analytic Writing Made Easy- A 2-page outline, this summarizes the parts of an essay and offers definitions and examples for the crucial and most difficult part of writing an essay- Thesis Statements. It also warns of what to avoid when developing an essay. 
2. Essay Development Handout- This reveals types of Hooks, Elaboration, Transition devices and Conclusions
3. Prewriting - Essay Outline- This is the precursor to my Free product,  Language Arts Comprehension Check: Ten Sentence Format http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-Comprehension-CheckTen-Sentence-Format-16081. This Essay Outline is longer because the Body section shows how to expand details and add paragraphs to develop a full-length essay.
4.  Essay Format- This handout explains the criteria for typing the paper. It also includes a section on how to correct an essay. With the latter, students show even more ownership of their writing as they earn extra credit. They may choose five weaknesses to revise-grammatical or contextual- but must follow the given format. They earn 1 point for each 3-part correction.
5. Symbols for Grading Analytical Compositions- I created these to use along with the standard guidelines as they address the majority of student writing errors in my classes.
6. Self-Assessment Sheet- I find that when students must assess their papers, they actually read the comments and check the areas that the teacher marked instead of just looking at the grade and relegating the paper to the depths of their writing folders.
7. Analytical Writing Grade Sheet- This rubric highlights 10 factors (up to 10 points for each category) that combine to form the essay's grade- 4 for Content and 6 for Form.

 

Download this 10-page essential writing guide from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Write-Right-Analytic-Writing-Made-Easy-15932 ($4.00)

Happy Teaching,

For: Grades 6-12

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie

Six Additional Activities for Arthur Miller's The Crucible

No matter how much we love our activities for a literature study, sometimes we crave

more lessons to engage our high school students. This 14-page packet, "Comprehension & Writing - Additional Activities for The Crucible," offers six more activities you can add to your repertoire.

Pre-Reading
"Anatomy of a Witch Hunt" - Directions – Each of you is responsible for detailing one of the teacher-assigned topics on this list. Only facts will be accepted. Write your findings in the spaces by your topic. Write one of your facts in the space provided for your topic on the large sheet of paper taped to the wall. When it is your turn to share, if the fact that you chose has been used, select another one. Initialize your fact. Finally, take notes about the other topics in the provided spaces on this sheet. Use the back of this paper, if needed.


During the Reading
"Know Their Roles" - Directions
Part 1 - As you read and discuss this play, for each of the following characters, explain his/her MAIN ROLE in the plot. After that, copy a quote made by each person (include the page number) that shows his/her beliefs and feelings about the situations that occur. 
Part 2 - Write each name in the Protagonist, Antagonist or Neutral box. Be ready to defend your choices.

 

"Easy Target-Darts" -Directions – Consider the people who were accused and convicted of practicing witchcraft. Write each one’s name on the flames of one of the darts. Next, cut out the darts and glue each one to the bull’s-eye target. Place the hardest to convict in the outer circle and move toward the center, with the easiest in the red bulls-eye. Be sure that the point of the dart is in the correct circle. Write your reasons for your choices on the Easy Target-Defenses sheet. You do not have to use all of the darts.
"The Truth or A Lie? That is the Question" - Directions– Before you consider which characters in The Crucible are lying and which are telling the truth, address the following thoughts about lying in the spaces provided.

 

"Lies! Lies! Lies!" - Directions – Which characters are lying? Why? Choose which of the characters listed here are Lying, Telling the Truth or if you are Not Sure. Write each character’s name in one of the columns, and then briefly state how you arrived at this conclusion. Remember that the characters in the play do not see/hear everything like the reader does. Use the back of the paper if necessary.

Post-Reading
"Emotional Fuel – That Was Then" - Directions
Part 1 - The following factors all affect the thinking, speaking and, actions of the people in

The Crucible. Each one propels the plot by fueling the intolerance and hysteria of these times. Choose three of them, as well as a character that is motivated by the issue, and detail how their choice drives the plot.
PART 2 - "Emotional Fuel –This is Now" - Directions: discuss two of the above factors that influence people's thinking, speaking and actions in contemporary times. Give examples from current events that defend your choices.
Part 3 - Could a witch hunt occur in the United States now or are enough safeguards in place to keep this from happening? Support your answer with facts from current events as well as your own interpretations of these situations. Write your explanation on the back of this sheet of paper.

Plus, in the detailed Teacher Notes, I offer a number of lesson suggestions -and the link- for using Arthur Miller's piece that was originally printed in The new Yorker- , “Why I Wrote The Crucible- An Artist’s Answer to Politics".

Engage your high school students and give yourself the gift of time with these six lessons for Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". 

Download this packet from
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Crucible-Additional-Comprehension-Writing-Activities-1450756 ($5.00)

You can download my original 53-page unit plan for The Crucible from  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Crucible-Unit-Plan-1617

Happy Teaching, ($19.95).

What If? 3 Writing Prompts

ELA teachers can never have too many writing prompts. This Middle and High School lesson plan offers 3 new activities for students in grades 6-12 to strengthen their writing, understanding of higher level thinking concepts and speaking skills.

The prompts include:
1. Island Survivor Guide
What if you had to stay on an uninhabited island in the Mamanuca Islands chain for 30 days? This island does have a drinkable water source in its mountainous jungle terrain, but food sources are questionable. State why you will be there, list 10 items that you will take and explain why you have chosen them. 

2. Headline: “Teenager Wins Multi- Million Dollar Lottery”
What if you won $3,000,000 in a lottery? Although you are under 18 years of age, for this writing exercise, you winnings are legally yours. Write the article from a newspaper reporter’s point of view following the given format. 
Note: Keep the Lead Paragraph under 30 words. Body Paragraphs should be 30-45 words. Write in the Inverted Pyramid format by presenting the most important information first and the least important last. This is normal journalistic style, so if anything needs to be cut for space requirements, it will always be from the end of the article. Your article must fit in the provided spaces, only, and

3. The Perfect Home
What if you could choose to live anywhere in this world? Where would it be? Where you live right now? Would it be in the High Sierra Mountains? On a Thailand beach? In Highclere Castle? In a high-rise condo in New York City? Who would live with you - your family- a friend- -two Newfoundland dogs-no one? Why is this place- location and type of house- your ideal? Paint a word picture by describing your idyllic home- the place itself, the location and the people/pets who would share this home with you and your reason(s) for this choice. Use the back of this handout if necessary


As an added bonus, in the detailed Teacher Notes, I present another lesson option: "TRY THIS: use any of these activities during the study of any fiction or non-fiction piece to check students’ reading comprehension. In these lessons, students will write from the point of view of a teacher- assigned or student-selected character."

Three activities=Infinite Possibilities. 

Download these lesson plans for grades 6-12 from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-What-If-3-Writing-Prompts-1427588 

Happy Teaching,