English Language Arts: "Martin Luther King Day Activity - 'Dare to Dream'"

Teaching across the curriculum has always been a focus of mine. After all, reading comprehension, writing and higher-level thinking skills are not exclusive to English classrooms. Having students examine why a piece is endemic to the time period when it was written is crucial. When they study the social, political and spiritual mores as well as the traditions of a period they can understand the characters, their choices and the events that occurred more readily.

This pairing can be just as effective when starting with an event from a previous period and showing it through the eyes and minds of a literary or narrative non-fiction person.  With this Martin Luther King Day Activity- Dare to Dream, students use Mr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech as the podium for a character of their choice to voice his/her thoughts, beliefs and feelings.

To complete this activity, the students are to:

• Read and or view and listen to Rev. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Two URLs are included-one to read and the other to listen and view.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm(Read)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs(View and Listen)

• Explain what aspects of his speech have come true in the 40+ years since it was delivered
  
• Choose a character from the story that they are currently reading and summarize what he/she would say about the speech.
• Write an "I Have a Dream" speech from the point of view of that character. This speech must show the societal values and beliefs of the time period in which the story takes place.

With this lesson, students will exhibit their range of thinking skills from knowledge through evaluation. These activities allow them to show their understanding of their reading from various texts as well as  to reveal their analytic and critical-thinking skills in their writing and speaking.

The speech writing aspect of this lesson helps students to understand Voice because the thoughts, beliefs and feelings that they express are not theirs, but are owned by the character they have chosen to speak. In order to compose this speech, the students show how clearly they can analyze this literary person.

On the due date, students have the opportunity to share a portion of their writing with their peers.

Download this highly-rated activity that continues to develop students' reading, writing, speaking and listening and language skills from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Martin-Luther-King-Day-Activity-Dare-to-Dream-193708. Complete with detailed Teacher Notes, it's a $1.25 bargain.

Happy Teaching,

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

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 Activity - Characters Just Keep on Dancin'

No matter their age, students love music and dancing. In this FREE handout, Language Arts Activity - Characters Just Keep on Dancin, Middle and High School students will select characters from the literature that they have studied throughout the year for a dance competition.

They are to reveal their comprehension of these characters’ personalities, emotions, and moral fiber in their writing and speaking.

This language arts activity should be introduced when the characters have shown enough depth to analyze. Students will flesh them out by showing their understanding of the element of character as well as their analytic and critical-thinking skills. 

Here are the Students' Directions:

Students- for this activity, you are to
1. Choose three pairs of characters (6 characters, total) to team up for a dance competition (Based on the Dancing With the Stars Television show). 
2. These characters may be from any stories that you have read in class this year. Do not be concerned that the dancers in each pair are from the same setting or historical period. Also, the characters in each pair do NOT have to be from the same story. 
3. Each pair will compete against the other two pairs, so your choices for each duo must have similar dancing skills and abilities.
4. Once you have chosen your pairs, you must explain the reasons for your selections, and defend your explanations with details from the stories that support your thinking. Be sure to analyze each duo’s competitive dancing strengths and weaknesses.
5. Next, choose the type of dance (Ballet, jazz, hiphop, disco, fifties-or any decade, etc.), and the music for each pair’s competition dance. The music must fit the dance genre as well as each dancer’s skills and abilities.
6. Choose three criteria that the dancers must meet-examples: Technical Merit, Difficulty of Routine, and Showmanship. Ten points should be allotted to each of the criteria, and the pair that wins must earn the highest score out of 30 points. NOTE: You will have to go back and score each pair’s dance routine after you select the three criteria.
7. Select the winning team. Here you will have to justify your choice by determining how each pair met the set criteria. Write each analysis in sentence form.
8. When you are finished, the teacher will divide you into teams of three. Here, you will read the analysis and decision of your two team members. Finally, you will show whether you agree or disagree with that peer’s choice by writing an explanation on that student’s paper.
9. Finally, write a brief news item for the Entertainment Section of an online or print newspaper revealing the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of this dance competition.
10. Teachers will collect the papers and grade them according to their pre-set criteria, i.e details, supporting material, analytic depth, grammar, spelling etc.
11. Teachers should have you orally share your choices and justifications.
12. At the end of this part of the activity, the teacher will collect the papers.

This product supports Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy. Use the given standards as guidelines, adapting them to the benchmarks that your state follows.

Students' brains will boogie to the learning beat with this FREE activity. When the music flows and the characters dance, students will be engaged and motivated. Download Language Arts Activity - Characters Just Keep on Dancin' from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Writing-Activity-Characters-Just-Keep-on-Dancin-1288466

Happy Teaching,

Language Arts Activity - Fiction's Physique

Readers enjoy rating the books that they read whether this analysis occurs in their heads, on line, with a friend or in book group discussions.

This English Language Arts activity- Fiction's Physique- enables Middle and High School students to develop their comprehension and reasoning skills as they show- in writing and orally- a story's buff or flabby qualities.

Teachers should offer this lesson after students have finished reading the story. When they have completed this activity, students will reveal the buffness of their thinking skills from knowledge through evaluation.

This activity allows them to show their understanding of all aspects of the Elements of Strong Fiction as well as their comprehension of the various aspects of the story.

Here is the How the lesson should be taught from the Teacher Notes:

·         Introduce the activity by reviewing each Element of Strong Fiction (Vivid Details, Depth of Character, Descriptive Settings, Captivating Plots, Realistic Dialogue, Unpredictability, Originality, Emotions, Believable Endings and Purpose).

1.       Before class, write each of the ten elements on the board, leaving space for student responses.

2.       Give each student a card with one of the ten elements written on it.

3.       Allot them five minutes to find an example of their element and to write it on the board under the corresponding topic.

4.       Discuss the answers

·         Review the activity’s directions by reading them orally and then checking for understanding.

·         Give students time in class to work on this activity.  Suggestion- 30 to 45 minutes, depending on their skills and abilities.

·          Students may either finish this activity in class the next day or as a homework assignment. Teachers choose their desired option, depending on their students’ skills and abilities and their objective(s) for the activity.

·         The day that the activity is due, write the elements of strong fiction on the board again, randomly assign each student two topics, and then ask them to write one of their examples under each of their assigned elements.

·         Alternate Lesson: divide students into pairs or trios. Give them class time to complete this activity, instructing them to divide up the elements as they choose. Follow the previous bullet for sharing.

·          Each student must complete the Fitness Analysis segment.

 

Download this FREE activity from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Critical-Thinking-Skills-Activity-Fictions-Physique-1270261

Happy Teaching,