Minilessons are actually really easy to plan, and fun to teach. What? You don’t believe me? Let me show you, right now, how to do it.
Here is a sub lesson adapted from a handout in Ande Cook's Art Starters book called "A Fun Game." Basically, the artist is being asked to draw their interpretations of several different things. It's fun! It's a Fun Game! I wrote out all the directions and everything a sub would need to know to teach this lesson. I used this for grades 2nd grade and up. The Ande Cook handouts were part of a SchoolArts subscription, or you can get her book: Art Starters
Create a sub plan so that you are good to go in the event of needing a substitute teacher as an art teacher or music teacher can make your life easier. There are many tips on putting together a sub plan and here are a few to get your started.
In this lesson plan, students will practice satire by creating puns with the name of Edgar Allan Poe. They will take a Meme form and write their Poe puns on the form to put on display in the classroom for our satire unit. Students in middle school and high school will love this engaging lesson pla
Here you find all details of lesson plan template and we are providing a sample lesson plan so download and use weekly lesson plan templates.
Peer Gynt
These dynamically created Pre-Algebra Worksheets allow you to produce algebraic expressions worksheets.
Download this free blank lesson plan template in Word or PDF. Designed by Top Hat's instructional design team for use in your university classroom.
Rising in popularity over the past 10 years is the idea of the “combination class”. There are teachers and studio owners who love the idea, and others who struggle with teaching all that needs to be taught in such a short amount of time. How can teachers learn to adapt and provide a solid dance […]
Curricular Charts
Teaching today’s teens necessitates that we integrate technology into our practice. We get that. This is not new. But how? Sure, it does mean going digital, and many schools are making the move to 1:1 classrooms; that’s a great step in the right direction. Yet we cannot simply place laptops in front of students with digital versions of paper-based worksheets and feel as though we have that 21st-century-skills-box ticked. No; it cannot be an add-on. We as educators need to find ways to interweave our instruction with digital experiences, to infuse our lessons with social media interactions, and to permeate our practice with new media elements. That’s how we make learning relevant and instructive with the technology we have at our fingertips. MUSIC VIDEOS LESSON PLANS (click to view) So many teachers are doing this incredibly: teachers right here on this blog. For example, I have aimed to really do this with my music videos lesson plans which have students analyzing currently videos to help teach a range of ELA skills; Sara, from Secondary Sara has a year of multimedia poetry lessons which you really need to check out; Presto Plans has a great resource for using videos as writing prompts; and Nouvelle ELA uses webquests to help bring Shakespearean language to life. Here is another way to integrate technology and new media in your ELA classroom: PODCASTS. Ok, so there are a world of incredible podcasts out there, yet how exactly might they be used in the classroom? Here are just a few ideas for when/why I use them. 1. To teach LISTENING SKILLS: So much of communication is listening, and this really is a vital skill for students to learn. Podcasts are a great way to teach this skills as students really have to think about what they are listening to, and try to comprehend, engage with and respond to the contents. 2. To teach NOTE TAKING SKILLS: It is vital that we help our students learn to take notes and make sense of the information with which they are engaging. Therefore, having them listen to podcasts and try out different note taking strategies, is a really important part of the ELA skillset. 3. To help MAKE CONNECTIONS ACROSS GENRES: I love using podcast to pair with my novel studies: for example, when studying The Great Gatsby we might listen to a podcast about desire or the American dream. This will help students synthesise information across text and types of texts to provide more meaningful engagement and learning. 4. To facilitate PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: Why not have students create their own podcasts? Not only does this help teach new media skills (editing, recording, designing etc.) but it can also be great for collaborative work, as well as helping student to think about communication of information and skills of delivery. SKETCH NOTING 1) Hand out large pieces of paper and lots of colorful markers. 2) Play an engaging podcast and instruct students to draw, write keywords, link ideas, make connections etc. FLIPPED CLASSROOM 1) Instruct students to listen to a podcast for homework and to come to class with questions for discussion. 2) In the next class, facilitate a discuss / complete a comprehension exercise / have students write an essay as a response. SOCRATIC SEMINARS 1) Instruct students to listen to a podcast and take notes (You could use this FREE worksheet for this purpose) 2) Hold a socratic discussion in response to the podcast: this hits both listening and speaking goals! OUTSIDE TIME 1) Instruct students to find the podcast on their phones (if allowed). 2) Go outside on a beautiful day to have them listen and breath in some fresh air! WRITE POETRY 1) Have students listen to a podcast and just write down words and phrases, lots and lots of them that they pick up on. This could be a list, or sketch note. 2) Then have students write found poetry from these words noted: a great way to turn non-fiction into poetry, and scaffold the process of writing poetry. If you are new to podcasts, you may be wondering how to even select one to use in the classroom. So here are just a few of my current favorites; yet I encourage you to get listening to find others that will work for your students. TED Radio Hour TEDtalks are awesome. We all know that. But did you know that they also make fabulous podcasts? What I love about them is that often take a concept or idea, and then pull from a variety of talks on the stage, and weave them together with interviews and ideas. For example, their episode “The Hero’s Journey” would be an excellent addition to a mythology unit. This American Life If you haven’t listened to This American Life yet, grab a coffee, put it on, go for a walk and listen with joy (while thinking about all the classroom possibilities!). Woven together through the iconic voice of Ira Glass, each episode follows a theme, and then in 4 acts this idea is examined from varying angles. My absolutely favorite episode is 3 Miles: a story of two schools divided by huge class disparities. This episode has sparked many a lively and meaningful debate in my classroom. Radiolab If you are looking for a way to collaborate across subjects, ask the science or computing department what the currently teaching, and then head over to Radiolab and look for something on that topic: indeed, they weave stories and science into sound and music-rich documentaries which would be great to integrate into the classroom. A great starting place is the episode, Super Cool. Invisibilia Looking at the invisible forces around us in the world, the two female presenters (yay!) of this podcast present some really thought-provoking stories and concepts. For example, I recently played the episode on Fear during my Lord of the Flies unit as we discussed the fear the boys experience on the island: we did this while sketchnoting and my students made connections between the contents of the podcast, and the theme of the novel. The Allusionist This one is great specifically for the ELA classroom: the host, Helen Zeltzman, explores words and phrases of the English language - the weird and the wonderful. Each episode is only 20 minutes long, and will be sure to spark an interest in the way we communicate with each other every day. Serial There are many great teaching resources out there for this one! I would be surprised if you hadn’t even heard of Serial as it certainly created quite the buzz and even made listeners out of those who had never even heard of podcasts. It is investigative journalism which tracks a true story over many episodes. One of the great parts of this is that you can listening to the whole season over many classes and really get into it as you would with a novel study. Do you use podcasts in your classroom? We'd love to hear which ones and how you use them!
Here are a couple of great printable Contraction worksheets to add to your lesson plan. Your students will have fun finding the correct contraction to match-up. On the first one you simply draw a line to the correct contraction, and the other your kids can exercise their motor skills and cut out the contraction and paste next to the correct words. Matching Contractions Worksheet - Cut and Paste Version
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Summary of Lesson Plan: This lesson plan provides students with the opportunity to learn, revise and practice the use of nouns, verbs and adjectives in their writing. This lesson was originally created for a year 3 class, however is easily adaptable for children in Years 2 to 4, and beyond if appropriate. Australian Curriculum Links: […]
The Circle Game asks students to come up with as many different things as they can from one circle. I thought this activity was really fun! However, my elementary students were not that interested. Most of my kids' papers were dull circles with a scribble on them. I think older kids might "get it" better. I have included the handout from Ande Cook's Art Starters as well as my lesson plan with all the directions for a sub. The Ande Cook handouts were part of a SchoolArts subscription, or you can get her book: Art Starters
The Renaissance was a period of rapid change in Europe between 1300 and 1600 that influenced art, culture, politics and medicine.
The 5E Model of Science Instruction was exactly what I needed to streamline the process of planning and implementing a student-led inquiry-based learning
In this lesson plan, students will practice satire by creating puns with the name of Edgar Allan Poe. They will take a Meme form and write their Poe puns on the form to put on display in the classroom for our satire unit. Students in middle school and high school will love this engaging lesson pla
Art History & Seasonal Crafts Phonics & Word Work Sentence Building Kits Fairy Tales Sets Poetry Sets Printing Workbooks Sight Words Sets Writing Prompts Thanks for the wonderful feedback! This best seller is a collection of 12 lessons about art history, ranging from […]
SEND ME A NUMBER AND HELP ME DEVELOP MY CHARACTER Memories 01: A memory from your character's childhood 02: A memory from your character's teenage years 03: A memory from your character's career 04: A...
Read about how ChatGPT can help streamline your teacher life!
This is a blog post about kitchen knife skills for culinary arts and high school and middle school cooking class. Great for Culinary Arts and FACS students and teachers.
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Kids seem to love learning about their bodies, and there are so many great hands on activities you can use and do at home to help kids explore and discover things about their bodies. A Spectatled O…
HI — I no longer update this page ~ but “MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES in COMICS ED” is available at my NEW COMICS WORKSHOP site HERE >>… ~ Marek … AND ALSO: Psst! Tea…
Expect Unexpected Engagement When You Try Hexagonal Thinking in ELA Start with the Free Kit WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? SEARCH FOR THE STRATEGY OF YOUR DREAMS, OR DIVE INTO ONE OF THESEPOPULAR CREATIVE RABBIT HOLES. FRESH FROM THE BLOG Find
People who recognize their own strengths tend to be happier and have greater self-esteem. However, when a person uses their strengths every day, they can...
Learning about the Renaissance? This Renaissance worksheet lends extra help remembering important people, places, and things of this important time in history.
Since I started this blog, I've been trying to figure out something that I could do that hasn't been done a thousand times before. All the...
