I read once that Albert Einstein remarked it is a miracle curiosity survives formal education. This observation has stuck with me: a pesky stone in my shoe. Somehow, amongst all the curricular demands, standardised testing, graduation requirements, examination preparation, and everything else which pulls at me, I desperately want to instill a sense of wonder, curiosity, and excitement in my students. I desire for them to love learning, to ask questions, to be curious about what they see, read, and hear. And one of the best – and simplest – ways I have found to do this, is the use of lesson openers which excite and engage. Inspired by the concept of provocations in the Reggio Emilia Approach1, I open learning experiences in an open-ended way which provokes student exploration, discussion, creativity, and ideas. This way, when we move into the content of the lesson, students are already engaged; their curiosity is hopefully piqued, and they’re more receptive to learning. Below are five simple ways I open classes in order to provoke engagement, discussion, and curiosity. Click here to get a downloadable version to stick in your daily planner, or on your desk as a reminder when lesson planning! INSTRUCTIONS: Place an object (which links to the lesson content) in the center of the room. For added intrigue and curiosity, place it under a cloth to ‘reveal’ when students are settled. Then use the exploration of this object to springboard into the lesson of the day: through a discussion, writing exercise, word association game, etc. For example: for a writing class about using varied sentence types, the object could be a bowl of sweets, and students write about the experience of eating one for the very first time. Or, it’s an informational text lesson, using a newspaper article on how social media impacts beauty standards, the object might be a pile of make-up, and students discuss their personal associations with these products. [Nouvelle ELA has a similar lesson for analyzing symbols: get it here] IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Wait a while before you explain the presence of the mystery object: perhaps even have students spend time thinking about it and making predictions for why it is there (you may want to give them one or two clues). Equally, if appropriate, have the desks arranged in groups and place different objects on different desks. For example: in an introductory lesson for a unit on ‘Identity’ place different pieces of fruit around the room, and have students move to the one that most represents them, and then encourage them to explain their choice. WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: Any time you add a little mystery or present something unexpected in the classroom, it will pique students’ curiosity. When they are intrigued and curious, they’re primed to engage and learn. Indeed, the emotion of curiosity has long been recognized as a vital motivating factor driving learning2. INSTRUCTIONS: Write a provocative statement on the board which links to the lesson content. (e.g. If you’re studying Romeo and Juliet: It is possible to fall in love the first time you meet someone. Or reading Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’? What about: Your dignity is always within your own control.) Then place tape, or indicate an imaginary line, across the room, with one end as “Completely Agree” and the other as “Completely Disagree.” Give students a minute to consider the statement and then have them stand on the line to indicate their opinions. [You might also want to check out the Daring English Teacher's blog post on Introducing Complex Ideas to Students] IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Once students have taken their places, ask a couple of students on opposite ends to speak to each other: to debate and defend their positions. Or, have students turn to the person next to them and discuss, seeing if they really are in the right places, or if they should switch (if they feel stronger than their neighbor on the line). Finally, at the end of the lesson, why not do the activity again and see if any of them have changed their positions? WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: This not only gets students thinking critically about key themes and issues, but it is also an effective way to make their thinking visible, and to push them to take a stand. Moreover, requiring students to give reasons for why they picked where they did, helps them back up their opinions with evidence and reason. INSTRUCTIONS: Think about the content of the lesson, and then try to mimic something of the mood/setting/theme in the classroom environment. While pinterest-worthy classroom transformations are wonderful, that’s not what I am talking about here. You can set the mood in quick and easy ways, which will engage students’ senses when they walk in the door. For example: when studying Lord of the Flies, visually project a jungle screensaver on the board, with ambient sounds. This doesn’t have to be just for literature lessons: if you’re spending the lesson writing, have students enter with ambient coffee shop sounds, or stormy weather (great for writing horror stories!). Check out the website A Soft Murmur for this: go play around with their sound settings. IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: If possible, engage more senses: play with lighting, images, smells, touch, etc. Or – to really engage students’ imaginations – before playing the ambient noises, have them settle down, and close their eyes. Then give them a scenario to imagine as you slowly turn up the volume on the ambient sounds. For example: in a lesson on Emily Dickenson’s “The Railway Train,” start by playing the sound of a train and ask students to imagine this sound as an animal: what would it be and why? WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: Engaging the senses is a powerful learning tool: when we create a multisensory experience in the classroom, not only does it pique students’ curiosity, but it can also make the learning more memorable. Indeed, when engaging multiple senses, we optimise the learning mechanisms in the brain, and tap into the many different ways different students learn best3. INSTRUCTIONS: It is as simple as this: play a current song or music video, show an extract from a current TV series, use a trailer for a recent movie: anything which links the content of the day’s lesson with students’ interests and lives outside of class. For example: before we studied The Great Gatsby (click for resources), I played Lorde’s Royals and asked students what the song meant to them. Before telling students anything about Lord of the Flies, we watched the trailer for The 100 and discussed what such a situation would be like. IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Have students suggest the media you present: at the end of a previous class, explain the broad content of the next class (themes, main topic, etc.) and ask students to suggest appropriate songs, video clips, games, etc., which would make for engaging lesson openers. This way, they too are making connections to their learning, and you are making sure the references are highly relevant! WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: When we incorporate students’ personal interests and entertainments in the classroom environment, their learning becomes more relevant, engaging, and multi-dimensional. The key here though is making sure it is really something which students’ are currently interested in: not just what we might assume they will be interested in! And the best way to ensure this, is to really spend time building relationships with students, finding out their interests, and knowing what’s currently popular. INSTRUCTIONS: Before class, think about the key theme, topic, or skill which you aim to explore or develop. Then, think of 3-5 key words related to this; write these on the board, or around the room. When students enter, draw their attention to these words, and instruct them to work in pairs to construct a question using the words. For example, before a lesson on Fahrenheit 451 (click for resources), you might use “knowledge” “future” “technology” and “books.” A possible question students might generate: In the future, will books become useless, as we use technology to access knowledge? And this doesn’t have to be limited to lessons on literature: in a lesson about essay writing, words such as “style” “structure” “opinion” and “voice” might generate some engaging questions. IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Once students have formed a question, provide the means for discussing or answering the question: this might be through small-group discussions, through accessing online sources, or through analysis of a text. The key here is you need to be flexible and open to going where students’ questions take the lesson. Why not even ask them how the class should proceed in terms of answering their questions? WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: Too often, by the time they reach middle/high school, curious questioning has been replaced by incessant answering: students become adept at answering questions, but often lack opportunities to inquire and question. Developing this ability to ask questions will help with developing critical thinking skills, and engaging discussion proficiency. Moreover, students will be hooked from the start of class, and invested in finding out the answers to their questions. So that's it: if you have ANY questions, please feel free to reach out: come find me on Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. Looking for other high-interest, provoking lessons to excite and engage? Check these out: Active Learning Exercises for Reading & Writing by Room 213 READING Escape Room (Activities, Trivia & Puzzle Games for High School ELA) by The Classroom Sparrow MAKER CHALLENGE - Team Building Activity by Presto Plans RESOURCES: 1Strong-Wilson, T., & Ellis, J. (2007). Children and place: Reggio Emilia's environment as third teacher. Theory into practice, 46(1), 40-47. 2Markey, A., & Loewenstein, G. (2014). Curiosity. In International handbook of emotions in education (pp. 238-255). Routledge. 3Shams, L., & Seitz, A. (2008). Benefits of multisensory learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(11), 411–417.

​Having a new lesson plan every day for culinary arts can be a challenge, especially when you are preparing ingredients and recipes for food labs. Starting class or at least a unit with a complete …

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

It inevitably happens to every music teacher at some point in their teaching career: you have to call out absent. Whether it’s to attend a conference,

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.

What is one thing that is common among Albert Einstein, John Dewy, and Abraham Lincoln? It is their critical and rational thought process. Along with their unique personalities, their unique thinking pattern and view toward the world make these individuals creative and different. Critical thinking is the ability of

Lesson planning is crucial for helping your students reach their learning objectives. Check out these 27+ lesson plan examples & templates.

Elevate your teaching skills with this comprehensive collection of 1150 expertly written ChatGPT prompts for teachers, including a powerful Lesson Plan Generator! This invaluable digital resource covers an extensive range of 37 teaching categories, providing you with a wealth of knowledge and inspiration to support your professional growth and enhance your classroom practices. 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An ELD Lesson Format That Makes Planning Easier Are you looking for lesson plan ideas that incorporate all four language domains for your kindergarten and 1st grade English learners? I have a weekly system that makes ELD lesson planning easier, provides quality lessons and keeps students engaged throughout the year. One of the key resources I use to implement weekly plans with my K-1 students is a Reading A-Z online book subscription. The reason I love using these printable books is that my students can write in them and then take them home at the end of the week. Don't have a subscription? That's OK! This system still works;) Step 1 is determining students' starting points for reading. My beginning readers/beginning English learners usually start at level aa or A. Step 2 is choosing a book that has relevant and meaningful vocabulary, as well as a repetitive sentence structure. This is important because I want students to build their everyday vocabulary and become familiar with basic sentence structure, as well as exposure to sight words in context. Here are some of my favorite titles... Main Components of Weekly ELD Lessons These lesson components don't change. Each day of the week is devoted to certain components which makes lesson planning much more manageable. - build or tap background knowledge - vocabulary - reading - oral language - writing - word work Additional components: - sight words - sentence structure - letter formation There's enough variety throughout the week that my K-1 students stay engaged and even look forward to the familiar structures and activities. What's great about having a system in place is I know exactly what each week looks like and which components are taught on each day; the only thing that changes is the book. What Does a Week of Lessons Look Like? 👉🏼 Pick an appropriate book and make enough copies for all of the students, plus and extra copy for you. I choose the double sided option for copying, that way all I do is fold the pages and staple the spine. It's super simple! 👉🏼 Tap into background knowledge. This is the first thing we do on Mondays when we start a new book, and it can be as simple as asking, "What do you know about ____?" It gets them thinking about the topic and connecting it to their prior knowledge. I do my best to choose books that my students likely already have some background knowledge of. 👉🏼 Introduce vocabulary. Before we open the book, I lay out pictures from the book. Then we practice identifying the pictures and saying the words. *I always print one copy of the book in color, then cut out the pictures or illustrations to use as vocabulary cards. I also write the vocabulary words on index cards or cut up sentence strips for a post reading matching activity. Once we've practiced identifying and saying the vocabulary words, it's time to open the book. 👉🏼 Identify a sight word- I usually identify a repetitive sight word in the book and have students hunt for and highlight the word on each page. 👉🏼 Read with a purpose. I tell the students something like, "Now we're going to read to find out... " and finish that sentence depending on what the book is about. At the beginning of the school year, when I am reading with my beginning readers/English learners, we do echo reading or choral reading. As the weeks progress and my students' literacy and language skills strengthen, they begin reading more independently and I gradually release that support. 👉🏼 Talk about the book. This is where I can support their oral language development by asking questions about the book. I also model my own response, then they take turns sharing their thoughts and ideas. 👉🏼 Respond to reading. After reading the book, students respond to the book. There is a space in the back of the book to write, so that's were we do the writing. After writing (or before), students add an illustration and color it. Lastly, they share their writing and illustration with the group. 👉🏼 Word Work/Phonics. I always pull word work from the book. I look for a word that I can build word family words with, usually CVC words, then have students practice writing them on a white board. Word work for my students still learning letter names and sounds looks different, so the word work activities are chosen to meet the needs of each group. Other weekly activities are sentence structure and letter formation. For the sentence structure activity I take a repetitive sentence from the book and write it on a sentence strip, then cut apart the words. If I have 5 students in a group, then I have 5 different sentences cut apart. Each student gets one sentence and is tasked with putting the words in order, then reading the sentence aloud. Letter formation is also an important skill we practice each week. I try to tie the weekly letter to something in the book. Lastly, I'll sprinkle in additional activities such as letter identification, read aloud books, thematic monthly vocabulary, and games to keep each week fun and engaging. I think it's important to make learning fun, and my students seem to really enjoy this system. Monthly Thematic Activities Weekly Format of ELD Lesson Components I meet with my groups 4 times a week, 30 minutes at a time. Here's how I structure each week. Monday - tap into background knowledge, introduce vocabulary (pictures are laid out on the table), identify and highlight a sight word, read with a purpose, matching activity- vocabulary words with pictures Tuesday - review vocabulary, reread the book, sentence structure activity, write & illustrate Wednesday - I don't see my K-1 students on Wednesdays Thursday - reread the book (less support), word work from the book (activity depends on the group), color their illustration and share their writing Friday - reread the book (support only as needed), letter formation, add an additional fun activity (game or read aloud), exit ticket out the door (a sentence from the book with no picture support) and a high five;) After Reading the book, students match word cards with their pictures. Exit ticket out the door- reading without picture support. This structure could be easily implemented with a variety of books; they don't have to be Reading A-Z books. But I do really like that students own their books, can write in them and take them home to read to family members each week. Graphic organizers are another great tool for incorporating the writing component when using non-consumable books. If I didn't use this online book subscription, I'd use book sets from my school's bookroom along with some good graphic organizers. Having a structure in place for weekly ELD lessons eliminates the guesswork from lesson planning, and that's huge! If you have a Reading A-Z subscription, try this out with your K-1 students, even K-2! If you don't have a subscription, grab some book sets and graphic organizers and do the same structure. Let me know how it works for you! 🙌🏼 Below is a monthly thematic resource bundle linked to my TPT store. I devote one week out of the month to building monthly themed vocabulary. Each month comes with printable books, a digital book to project for a shared reading, vocabulary cards, a writing activity, plus a fun BINGO game. Each month is also sold separately Happy Teaching!

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Doug Savage's Savage Chickens "comics" are a single-frame comic drawn on a sticky note that illustrates the life of chickens whose experiences reveal the "savage" truths of the human existence. Teaching satire in secondary ELA is a high-interest and humorous way to engage studen

Lesson planning is crucial for helping your students reach their learning objectives. Check out these 27+ lesson plan examples & templates.

Annotation can be a powerful way to improve comprehension and increase engagement, but its effectiveness can vary depending on how it's taught.

Let's explore the 3 brain networks associated with UDL. As related posts, videos, and resources are published, they will be hyperlinked below. The items that are not currently hyperlinked represent great content that will be offered in the near future, so please bookmark this post and check back often.

Check out these games and activities for ESL pronunciation, along with worksheets and lesson plans. Help your students with pron today!

I would like to suggest this four-skill comprehension worksheet for business students that is adapted for upper intermediate and advanced levels. Your students have to watch a job interview video to identify mistakes (bloopers) Nicole makes and try to suggest correct answers. The video has two versions (success & failure). There´s also a note-taking task based on a talk and a vocabulary matching exercise related to the 2nd video. But guess what the treat is! You´ll find a whole lesson plan to follow throughout. The activity is both professional and fun. What´s more? it´s authentic. Find the 3 video links included in the worksheet. Have fun teaching. - ESL worksheets

5E Science lesson plans support student inquiry based learning as they engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate.

Teach students to use hyperbole effectively in their writing--and let them have a little fun too! I created these challenges when I realized that my students -- who could parrot back the definition of hyperbole, and even identify it in their texts -- could not easily use it in their writing. The challenge is designed to give them practice with the process required to create an effective sentence (and paragraph) that uses hyperbole which, in turn, will help them better understand it in the texts they read. First, there is a slideshow that reviews the concept of hyperbole. Next, you will find four different options for challenging your students to use it. Students can do the process alone or in pairs. The hyperbole cards and student handouts are completely editable, so you can tweak them to meet the needs or your class. I also have The Metaphor Challenge, The Allusion Challenge, The Idiom-Imagery Challenge and The Personification Challenge. If you'd like to save and buy all of them, check out my Figurative Language Challenges. If you're looking for other games and activities, you might like to check out: My Grammar Games Bundle and Writing Challenges If you're looking for other critical thinking activities, you might like to check out: Critical Thinking Activities for Any Text Connect with me: Real Learning in Room 213 Room 213 on Pinterest Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and products: • Look for the green star near the top of any page within my store and click it to get important updates on new products and sales.

5 questions teachers too often forget to ask themselves while planning that can increase engagement and improve classroom management.

Love podcasts? Check out this post in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute Podcast :

Check out the best ESL writing activities, games, worksheets, lesson plans and more. Level up your English writing classes!