This past school year was a great one. With every school year that passes, I like to take a moment and reflect on activities that were successful in the
Are you looking for ways to make learning more meaningful in your Secondary ELA Classroom? Check out these twenty five creative project ideas that I have found to be meaningful and successful while also motivating for learners.
Whenever I teach freshmen or sophomores, I always begin the school year with a short story unit. I use this unit to introduce literary elements to my
Looking for games to play with a classroom? This list of English games in the classroom is exactly what you need to engage 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.
This blog post explores innovative and engaging lesson plans for any novel unit... ranging from task cards to book instagram pages to a novel podcast project. Student choice is key here, and students can find something they would like to complete in order to convey their reading, comprehension, and
Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]
Looking for a way to get students to have fun learning new words AND remember them longer? Try these brain-based vocabulary activities.
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
The Best Anchor Charts for your ELA classroom all together in one place! You will find outlines to utilize in Reading Literature, Reading Informational, Writing and Language. Explained in this blog post is about the purpose of utilizing anchor charts in your daily instruction. Along with tips to organize your charts. Below is a collection […]
The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…
Are you a teacher or a parent of a first-grade student searching for free printable phonics worksheets? Look no further! We have a collection of engaging and educational worksheets that will help your child grasp essential phonics skills. These worksheets cover a range of phonics topics, including letter recognition, sounds, blending, and segmenting. Designed for first graders, our worksheets offer an interactive and enjoyable way for young learners to improve their reading and spelling abilities. Whether you're teaching in the classroom or at home, these free printable phonics worksheets are a valuable resource for developing strong foundational skills in reading and writing.
Here’s an archive of our downloadable activities so far- feel free to download and print off any of these to use yourself or with your club / group / scouts troop / evil supervillain society&…
Children will practice using context clues as they identify the correct homophone in this grammar and spelling worksheet.
Learning a new language might be a massive challenge, but it’s an enjoyable one at that. It’s a wonderful workout for your brain. You end up making a ton of new friends. And you end up expanding your perspective by learning loads about new cultures. Many languages have a lot of subtle similarities, differences, and nuances that beginners aren’t (yet) aware of.
The Unfair Game is a totally unfair twist on Jeopardy that your students will LOVE to hate! Learn how to play and find sample game boards in this post.
An essential, relevent, and engaging writing assignment for middle and high school students. Teach them the art of email etiquette!
By The Daring English Teacher When it comes to teaching writing in the middle school ELA or high school English class, it can oftentimes feel like there is just so much content to teach. And in all honesty, that is entirely true. We simply do not have enough time to teach students every single thing they need to know in order to be the best writers they can be. However, we can focus on essential skills one at a time to build strong writers. When I first teach a type of writing to my students, I provide direct instruction and activity-based assignments so that students have an understanding of the genre of writing and what is expected of them. At the beginning of the new unit, I use this ELA writing instructional resource to directly teach students about either argument, narrative, or informational writing, and then we spend time each day working on developing the information using some of the included writing graphic organizers. In addition to sharing the above resource that I use for teaching writing, this blog post will also include three strategies to help you improve your writing instruction. Teaching Writing Tip 1: Simplify it and Break It Down One of the most vital steps in teaching writing to middle school and high school students is simplifying and breaking down the writing instruction into small, manageable chunks. One of the easiest ways to do this by focusing on less. Rather than having my students write an entire essay or paragraph, I will ask for three sentences: a topic sentence that answers the prompt, an evidence sentence with a properly introduced and cited quote, and one commentary sentence for an explanation. By breaking down the writing process into small, manageable chunks, students are less intimidated and more focused on demonstrating their writing abilities. You can read more about how I break down writing instruction and snag a free download by reading this post about teaching writing in the secondary ELA classroom. Teaching Writing Tip 2: Use Sentence Frames One of the most effective ways to scaffold writing instruction is by providing students with meaningful sentence frames. There are so many benefits to using sentence frames in the classroom, and even high school students benefit from them as well. When teachers include sentence frames during their writing instruction, they are teaching students HOW to academically organize and write their ideas. To read more about using sentence frames in the classroom, you’ll want to visit this blog post about scaffolding writing instruction through the use of sentence frames. This blog post also contains sentence frames that you can use today in your classroom as well as a free sentence frame download! Teaching Writing Tip 3: Incorporate Grammar In addition to simplifying writing assignments and using sentence frames, another key area to help students become stronger writers is by focusing on grammar. When students know how the parts of speech work together and when student understand how language works, they will naturally become stronger writers. The three biggest grammar lessons that I’ve found help students improve their writing abilities are the parts of speech, dependent and independent clauses, and sentence structure. By focusing a little bit of time on these conventions, your students will become stronger writers. You can read more about how I incorporate these grammar lessons in my classroom and download a free parts of speech interactive notebook activity by reading this post about helping students improve their writing skills by focusing on grammar. After incorporating these three strategies into your writing instruction, you might also be interested in three more tips for teaching writing and three strategies to boost student writing. Teaching Writing Resources: Writing a Persuasive Essay Portfolio - by the SuperHERO Teacher MLA Style and Format - by Tracee Orman Writing Activities - by Presto Plans Teaching the Process for Literary Analysis - by Room 213
Whenever I teach freshmen or sophomores, I always begin the school year with a short story unit. I use this unit to introduce literary elements to my
Engage your ELA students this Halloween season with these spooky podcast episodes for the classroom! FREE podcast pages and activities included!
“Everyone is telling me to teach grammar, but no one has told me HOW yet! There’s so much information and so many ideas, and I’m just overwhelmed!” If you’ve ever...
by The Daring English Teacher Desmond Tutu, a South African theologian, cleric, and human rights activist, once said that “there is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” This famous analogy can help teachers in many ways: when they are stressed, when they have a seemingly impossible amount of work to do, and even when they are faced with the daunting task of helping their students become strong writers. Writing is a multi-faceted art, and teaching students how to write, mainly, how to write well, is quite a challenge. One piece at a time One successful strategy I’ve employed in my classroom is focusing on just one small aspect of writing at a time. Yes, it takes time, but it also gives students the time they need to master a writing concept. I don’t teach, nor do I grade, the entire elephant at a time. I only focus on one bite at a time, and it works. When I do this, I teach just one concept, and then I assign a small writing assignment. I start this process at the beginning of the year during our short story unit when I teach students how to correctly embed quotes in their writing. For each short story we read, I assign a short three-sentence prompt. For example, the prompt might be as follows: How does the author include foreshadowing to create a suspenseful mood? Click HERE to sign up for the free download! Provide immediate feedback For their response, students answer the prompt and give relevant information in their topic sentence, include a properly embedded and cited quote for their second sentence, and finish the prompt with one sentence of commentary. I grade the paper as a 10 or a 5. A 10 signifies that a student has mastered the concept I just taught, and a five means they attempted it but fell short. Since the student response is so short, I can quickly assess my students’ writing and provide meaningful feedback during the class period. As my students work on their responses, I circulate throughout the room and grade each response as students finish. If they didn’t quite show me that they understand the concept, I point out to them in a one-on-one setting at their table what they did well, what they need to work on, and how they can fix it. Also, since the 10 or 5 grade is so harsh, I give my students unlimited opportunities to revise their work throughout the week until they get a 10. I’ve done this for a few years now, and the vast majority of my students revise their papers to 10s. Want to receive this free writing organizer? Click HERE to sign up! Practice makes perfect I typically repeat this process 2-3 times with short responses before moving on to a more substantial writing assignment. By the time my students have completed a few different three-sentence writing responses, they are ready to demonstrate mastery in a full-length essay. When I grade the essay, I take a look at other writing concepts, but I really focus my efforts on assessing the concept I just taught. If I recently covered properly embedding and citing quotes, that is the concept in which I want my students to do well. When I finish a unit with my students, I move onto a new writing concept with them. Each new writing concept builds on the previous concept. Another writing concept that I single out and focus on is commentary writing. After reading my students’ commentary from their previous passages, I’ve noticed that so many of them write “this quote shows” or “in this quote” at the beginning of their commentary sentences. To help my students move away from this, I teach my students how to write about quotes. I urge them to refer back to a word or phrase from the quote rather than saying “this shows.” And we repeat the same process, but this time with new writing assignments. With each new writing concept I teach, I add that concept to my list of elements to grade in student writing. I find this strategy is more comfortable to manage for my students; it does not overwhelm them. Also, this helps me with my grading time. Rather than marking up every single error in an essay, I focus my efforts on just one concept at a time. In doing so, I can provide all 170 of my students with meaningful feedback that helps them become stronger writers. This strategy might take a bit longer to get to all of the writing concepts I want to cover with my students, but this slow and steady strategy sticks. My students become stronger, more confident writers one bite at a time. More Writing Resources: Paragraph of the Week by Presto Plans Word Choice by Room 213 Sentence Fluency by Stacey Lloyd Free Writing Anchor Chart by Tracee Orman
Middle school reading strategies can be fun and interactive! Get the inside scoop on how I use station reading activities to engage all learners!
Hi, there! Christina, The Daring English Teacher, here and I am sharing five different types of bell ringers middle school ELA and high school English teachers can incorporate in their secondary ELA classroom. Whether you choose to call them bell ringers, do nows, bell work, or class starters, there is a lot to be said for the work your students do at the immediate start of class. Students thrive on routine, and though they may be a bit reluctant at first, students come to know what is expected of them when there are consistent classroom routines. One of the most beneficial classroom routines I've used with my students year and year again is a do now activity. My students know that at the beginning of the class period, and preferably as close to the bell as possible, they are to have their do nows out, and they should be quietly working on whatever activity I've projected onto the board for them. And while some students might need a little more guidance and assistance into starting their bell work, it usually goes off without a hitch. The daily do now activity provides me with several minutes at the start of class to take and enter attendance, reset my computer from the previous class, and handle any individual student questions that may arise. It's one of my go-to classroom routines that helps me keep my classroom in order. During my earlier teaching years, I unsuccessfully implemented a bell ringer routine in the classroom. However, I found that I didn't hold the students accountable for their work, and thus, they were less apt to complete the work. This scenario quickly turned into more of a classroom management issue, and that's why I created this Free Bell Ringer Recording Sheet. It's quite a simple idea. I wanted to hold students accountable each day, and yet, I didn't want to collect and grade their work every single day. I also didn't want students to slack off and then copy all of the work the day before it was due. For about eight years now, I've successfully used this bell ringer recording sheet in my classroom. Every four weeks, I print out a new form that is double-sided for my students. Before I print the pages, however, I write the date in the date box and add in any essential school dates or holidays. Each day, students are responsible for completing the do now that is on the board. After I get my attendance entered into the computer system, I go around and individually stamp each student's sheet. Yes, this does take some time, but not nearly as much time as you might think. It only takes about 2-4 minutes to circulate throughout the room, depending on how many individual questions students have. I really cherish this time with my students because, even though it is only for a couple of seconds for each student, I can have some face time and individually connect with each student. If something seems off, I can ask a student how they are doing. If a student has an individual question for me, this provides them with the perfect opportunity to ask a question. You can read more about my bell-ringer routine in this blog post. As to the particular types of bell-ringer activities, the possibilities are endless. Sometimes I like to keep the activities specific to the content that I am teaching, and sometimes I like to have the activity be more of a skill-based activity. Here are 5 types of bell ringer activities that you can incorporate into your classroom this school year. 1. Thoughtful response One way to begin the class period is with a thoughtful response. This comes in the form of a literature-inspired bell-ringer activity like my William Shakespeare Bell Ringers or as a thematic activity like my Growth Mindset Bell Ringers. Often, I like to share a quote with my students and ask them to respond to a brief writing prompt. The quote is usually related (either content-wise or author-wise) to what we are currently studying. To keep things rigorous and academic, I like to ask questions that align with the three common core writing strands: argument, informational, and narrative. After students have a moment to read the quote and respond, I like to open up the classroom floor for a quick discussion by having a few students share their responses aloud. If I've asked an argument writing prompt, this time can quickly turn into an impromptu classroom debate -which is always fun! You can try out my FREE Classroom Community Bell Ringer resource. This resource includes a week of free bell-ringer activities to use in your classroom! 2. Sentence Combining One way to get students thinking about syntax is to incorporate daily sentence combining bell ringers into your curriculum. The idea behind this type of bell ringer is to present students with a series of short, related simple sentences. The series should contain at least 4-5 sentences. As students come into the classroom, they read the sentences and combine them into 1-2 compound or complex sentences. To add an extra challenging component, I like to have my students do this twice. They write their responses in two different ways -each time incorporating different sentence structures into their writing. By consistently completing this activity, students learn about syntax, and they learn how they can vary their sentence structure to deliver a message. Once the students finish writing their sentences, I like to call on a couple of student volunteers to read their sentences (and the punctuation) aloud. Not only is this an excellent opportunity for students to hear other sentence structures, but it is a great time to throw in some punctuation practice. For some holiday-inspired fun, I also have Halloween-themed and Valentine's Day-themed sentence combining bell ringers! 3. Silent Reading By far, one of the most calming and relaxing ways to start a class period is by implementing a silent reading bell-ringer activity. One of the best ways to do this is to start it at the beginning of the year. Also, you'll want to have highly-engaging, diverse books in your room (they can be from your library or on loan from the school library). Whenever I start the class period with silent reading, I gently remind my students that they are reading for enjoyment. I tell them to give the book they selected a shot, and that if they don't like it, they can always put it back and try a new one. I emphasize that this should be enjoyable and that it is okay to keep trying new books until they find one that they like. I also make it a point to read during this time as well. I even keep the book I'm currently reading on my whiteboard shelf for all of my students to see. 4. Ed Tech Accounts On days when we use our Chromebooks in the classroom, one time-saving bell-ringer activity that I like to employ is having my students log in and work on an online assignment for the first five or ten minutes of class. Usually, my students have a weekly or monthly vocabulary and grammar assignment online, and this is one way that I make sure that they have class time to work in the assignment. One of the reasons why this works is because the students get logged into their Chromebooks immediately. That way, when we transition to our lesson, the students are already logged into their accounts. Also, many of the online learning platforms provide teachers with tools to monitor student progress. With a couple of clicks of the mouse, teachers can see what students have completed during that time. 5. Test Prep If you teach in a state that administers state testing, incorporating some test-prep during this time during the do now allows you to help prepare your students for the test without boring them with too much test prep at one time. I'll use this time to review commonly-tested vocabulary words, punctuation marks, or to review released state test prep questions. When I review the questions with my students at the beginning of the class period, I only go over 2-3 questions at a time. I have the students answer the questions, and then call on students to first eliminate the wrong answer that stands out the most, and then to share the correct answer. It's not perfect, but it helps with test prep without taking up too much instructional time. I surely hope that these five different types of bell ringers help bring you some variety, engagement, and rigor to the first five minutes of class! Here are some more bell-ringer activities you can try in your classroom: Writing Prompts for Building Skills and Stamina by Room 213 Middle and High School English Bell-Ringers by Presto Plans English Reading and Writing Bell Ringer Exit Slips by Tracee Orman Career Exploration Daily Writing Prompts by The Classroom Sparrow Vocabulary of the Day by Secondary Sara
With distance learning in full swing, here’s a closer look at ten resources that English teachers can digitally assign their students. All of my SMARTePlans
With a new school year upon us, it’s time to re-energize your teaching practices with some new routines and resources. Here are ten teaching resources and
Are you looking for ways to make learning more meaningful in your Secondary ELA Classroom? Check out these twenty five creative project ideas that I have found to be meaningful and successful while also motivating for learners.
Implementing an Article of the Week program is a great way to get students engaged in reading authentic nonfiction texts. Here, I've compiled a growing list of my favorite articles to read with students organized by general topic along with a list of articles I'm using during the 2023-2024 school year (check back often; I update this monthly. I also share links directly on my Instagram and save them to highlights here). As always, it is essential to preread articles to make sure they're a good f
With so much content to cover in the middle school ELA and high school classroom, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. Here is a look at my favorite ELA
So, are you itching for winter break to get here or what?!? I am drowning here, people! Between report cards, conferences (for my students and my own kids!), shopping, baking, parties, wrapping... DROWNING!Don't get me
Jumpstart your literary analysis instruction with these engaging and effective activities and mini lessons for middle and high school ELA!
Are you teaching high school students how to avoid plagiarism? Students often need this simple, easy lesson on how they...
Starting a new semester— whether at the beginning of the school year or calendar year— is a time of tough transition as we begin to restart our minds and work habits. Here are SEVEN engaging activities for the first week back to school in middle school and high school English Language Arts.
By Presto Plans I first realized the power of bell ringers years ago, thanks to a particularly unruly class that would bounce off my walls after lunch. After consistently wasting the first ten minutes of class getting students seated, settled, and ready to learn, I decided to give bell-ringers a try. They were immediately a classroom game-changer. Bell-ringers—sometimes referred to as “warm ups” or “do nows”— are questions, tasks, or other warm up activities that students complete at the beginning of class (or when the bell rings, as the name suggests.) They jump start student learning, calm classroom chaos, reduce uncertainty, and make transitions smoother, all the while allowing the teacher to maximize their time and maintain their sanity. I’m here to share the benefits of using a bell-ringer routine in your classroom, tips and strategies to implement them effectively, and answers to your most commonly asked questions. I'm also sharing free bell-ringers that will last you a couple months! 1) Extra time at the beginning of class Bell-ringers give teachers the gift of time. In those 5-10 minutes, you can take attendance, get papers ready and/or passed out, prepare tech, catch up with students who have been absent, or even prepare for your next period. 2) Improved classroom routine and classroom management As students transition from class to class, they tend to get amped up from hallway antics. Bell-ringers improve the transition back into the academic setting and establish a consistent routine and minimize classroom management issues. There is a lot of uncertainty in a teenager’s world, and though they may not admit it, students crave predictability and routine. After the routine is established, you’ll even find that students will get started on the bell-ringer BEFORE the bell even rings, as they know exactly what is expected of them. 3) A chance to practice ELA skills and assess and review standards By using bell-ringers at the start of class, you are taking advantage of an extra opportunity to practice the ELA skills and meet standards you have been diligently working on throughout the year. Bell-ringers are perfect for putting what you’ve taught to the test in a creative, fun, low-pressure way. Given that they aren’t heavily graded on the bell-ringers (or not at all), the pressure often associated with other tasks is alleviated. 1. Mix up your bell-ringer each day If you are using the same bell-ringers every single day, students will likely grow tired of them. I like to have themed days for each of the bell-ringers that will address a specific skill. Below are some of the types of bell-ringers you might consider using: Improve word choice Locate figurative language Have a short discussion with a partner Watch a short video clip and write a personal response to a prompt Infer the meaning of new words in context Correct grammar errors Have a mini-debate with a partner Use a picture to spark narrative writing I liked to use each of my year-long volumes of bell-ringers to have different activities for each day. You can try four free weeks by clicking on the image below to see if they might work for you. 2. Give students a fun challenge Another way to mix up your bell-ringers is to set a challenge at the start of the week and have students progressively work towards a solution on Friday. My favorite way to do this is with escape room bell-ringer challenges. When you use an escape room bell-ringer, students are given a back story on Monday where they find themselves in a situation (dungeon, alien planet, military bunker, scientist study etc.). They work with their group for the first 5-10 minutes of class to progressively move through different floors, rooms, chambers, and cells each day to solve ELA related puzzles. Their goal? To successfully escape by the end of the week. Want to try a bell-ringer challenge with your students? Grab a free figurative language bell-ringer activity below as a fun way to start one of your classes. 2. Model a Good Response Spend the first days explaining the daily bell-ringer activity for that day and even show them what a strong response looks like for each different bell-ringer activity you do. Taking this time at the beginning will get you better responses from the students as the year goes on. 3. Set specific expectations and procedures From day 1, you’ll want to demonstrate exactly how things are going to play out. Start by literally walking them through the process of entering the classroom and retrieving their bell-ringer booklets or binder. Once they are completed their work, you might think of getting them to hold onto their booklets and putting them back at the end. I would recommend not doing this as typically someone will accidentally take it home or the booklets will get destroyed since they all are eager to leave and are throwing the booklets on the shelf (real life teaching, right?) That’s why I would suggest you establish a system for collecting the bell-ringer booklets after they are done, and go through it with them a few times to practice. You wouldn’t think something as simple as collecting the booklets would be an issue, but having a plan makes things run so much more smoothly. If you use a standard classroom set up (desks in a row or pairs): Have each row turn around to collect the booklets from the row behind them and move them all forward until they are in the front row. Select one student to collect them all from the front row and put them back in the proper spot. If your desks are set up in groups: Have one member from each group be responsible for collecting the booklets, and have all groups pass them over to the group closest to where to store them. Have one person put them all back. On the first day, I practice this 2-3 times and set a timer to see how fast they can do it (I tell them they are in competition with the other classes). This makes it fun, but it also establishes a routine, and set a precedent to strive for throughout the year and it makes collecting the booklets quick and efficient. 1. Should I grade bell-ringers? Won't that make more work for me? Listen, the LAST thing I want to do is add more paper to an English teachers' pile! Bell-ringers are a type of formative assessment that do not need to be graded. They are a quick way for students to practice and develop ELA skills. I did add a quick check rubric on the bottom of some of my student handouts because I personally used this to keep students accountable and motivated to complete the work to the best of their ability. I would tell them that one week out of the month would be graded, but they wouldn't know which week (insert evil laughter 😉). This lessened my grading, but I also liked peeking at them monthly to see who was completing the work well and where I needed to focus my instruction. 2. How long should you spend on bell-ringers? For me, bell-ringers would typically take an about 5-10 minutes to complete. The time will vary depending on what type of bell-ringer you are completing. Some people like a quick 5 minute bell-ringer, others like to dive in a little deeper and spend more time as it pertains to their lesson. If students are improving the word choice in a passage or practicing labelling figurative language, it may only take a quick 5 minutes. However, if they are discussing an ethical prompt or watching a video clip and writing a response, it may take closer to 10. It's important to remember though that sometimes your students will be totally engaged in a bell-ringer, and you may end up spending more time than you thought on it. This is not wasted time! The content still relates to your curriculum and helps students hone their writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills. Sometimes an unplanned part of a lesson is where the best learning happens. 3. How do you manage all the paper? Here is my fool-proof system. A word of caution: don't let them take their bell-ringer binder home! It's an absolute nightmare waiting to happen 😂. Have each student purchase a small 1 inch binder to hold all of the bell-ringer response sheets (or use a three-clasp folder). Have students write their name in big bold letters on the spine (or the front if it is a folder). Having a variety of colors of binders/folders is better so they can find theirs more easily. Put a bookcase somewhere near the door of your room. Assign each class an area of the bookcase. Tell students they will grab the binder when they enter, and it will go back on that shelf when the bell-ringer is done.! This makes it easy to find their binder the next day. 4. Will using bell-ringers help my classroom management? Yes, routines are your friend! I learned fairly quickly in my teaching career that expected procedures are necessary for survival when it comes to classroom management. Bell-ringers set the tone in the first few minutes of class and help students transition back into work mode after a break period. I was literally wasting the first 5-10 minutes of class quieting my students down and preparing to get started. After starting a bell-ringer routine, they immediately started working when they entered! 5. Should I do bell-ringers every day or just on some days? Personally, I think it is better to bell-ringers every day and stick to the routine. When you are always skipping the bell-ringer or only doing them here and there, students lose that consistency, and you won't see the classroom management benefits. You can certainly make it work if you don't want to do it every day, but if you do this, I might suggest writing on the board or projecting a slide to say if there is a bell-ringer that day. This way you don't have to constantly answer the question, "Is there a bell-ringer today?" Still have questions about using bell-ringers successfully in the classroom? Don't hesitate to reach out! I'd love to hear from you. Need more bell-ringer ideas? The bloggers of the coffee shop have you covered! Growth Mindset Bell Ringers from The Daring English Teacher Daily Career Writing Prompts from The Classroom Sparrow Independent Reading Prompts from Room 213 Bell-Ringer Journal Prompts from Tracee Orman Collaborative Bell-Ringers from Nouvelle ELA
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.
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!
This past school year was a great one. With every school year that passes, I like to take a moment and reflect on activities that were successful in the
Are you looking for books to use in your high school classroom that will actually engage your students? High school novels aren’t always the easiest to choose, especially when you have a group of students who are reluctant readers. Try a few of these suggestions for novels to teach in high school English that will keep your students excited about reading.
Learn how to teach your students tone and mood in writing, and get access to exercises to help them practice – read on to find out more!)
This past school year was a great one. With every school year that passes, I like to take a moment and reflect on activities that were successful in the
