Getting ready for end-of-year test prep is a sometimes a process. Let’s make it easier for the teacher and the student. complete sentences- A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with end punctuation and has a subject and a verb. Do not assume it is there. Check for it. Edit your own andContinue reading “End of year test prep grammar reminders”
Category Archives: making classroom posters
Teach a quote of the week. Here is why and how.
Why? Teaching quotes from different sources broadens their critical thinking, is often researched based when using educational gurus, increases exposure to more historical names and events, and increases vocabulary. How? Find your own or look around the net for teachers who have already created them for the year. One for each week. Some have evenContinue reading “Teach a quote of the week. Here is why and how.”
Teaching text evidence needs to raise above a DOK 1 level. Here is how.
Too often a teacher has the student write what a character said and call it evidence. Well, what evidence did that prove? Did it align with a question? Did it circle back to the actual desired outcome or was it just random information given and the student was praised for simply giving an answer evenContinue reading “Teaching text evidence needs to raise above a DOK 1 level. Here is how.”
Monday Literature Spotlight-Poetry at specific times of the year
Teaching poetry is a ton of fun if you make it so. Starting off with song lyrics is always a great favorite. But timing is a great motivator as well. For instance, teach “Summer” by Walter Dean Myers just before school ends leading into summer. Here are some more. “Twas the Night Before School Starts”Continue reading “Monday Literature Spotlight-Poetry at specific times of the year”
Quick Tidbits for teaching debate in the classroom
Celebrate their wins. Let them be proud. Make quick posters to hang up and congratulate each other on the way out of class. Create fun group names. It adds to the humor and keeps things light when you first start debating. Keeps tempers, and hormones if teaching older students, from flaring if you can toneContinue reading “Quick Tidbits for teaching debate in the classroom”
Dr. Seuss in the Middle School Classroom for this March 2nd Celebratory Day
Try doing a gallery walk of his books besides each poster having student tell what those stories taught them as small children. Then, have them tell what those lessons teach us for the future. Another idea is to read one as an introductory text to start a new unit. Perhaps “The Lorax” and focus onContinue reading “Dr. Seuss in the Middle School Classroom for this March 2nd Celebratory Day”
Quotes to Introduce the text, “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen
Ferrars and Elinor: “Love with delight discourses in my mind Upon my lady’s admirable gifts… Beyond the range of human intellect.” -Dante, “ll Convito, Trattato Terzo 1. 1 Colonel Brandon and Marianne: “I love to talk with some old lover’s ghost, Who died before the god of love was born.” – John Donne, “Love’s Deity”Continue reading “Quotes to Introduce the text, “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen”
A facilitated classroom is an engaged classroom.
In a facilitated classroom where students discuss as much as if not more than direct instruction, then students are engaged. If you are monitoring well, aiding where confusion lies, and using teachable moments at every turn, then any small discipline can be handled on the side, quickly. Understandably, there is always that one student. PlanningContinue reading “A facilitated classroom is an engaged classroom.”
How to encourage classroom bookworms! Steps to successful readers.
Achieving successful lifelong readers to have a love of reading before they leave your classroom, you really need to be a reader yourself. That’s the first rule. If that is a struggle for you, maybe teach another subject. I once knew a reading teacher who told her students almost every day how much she hatedContinue reading “How to encourage classroom bookworms! Steps to successful readers.”
Star Wars Quotes to introduce a lesson-Literature Quotes Friday
The students are enthralled with Star Wars as much as they were thirty years ago. So take what interests them and apply it to life lessons from the texts you teach. The next time they watch an episode of Mandalorian or Rey and Finn in the Skywalker movie, they will make connections they might notContinue reading “Star Wars Quotes to introduce a lesson-Literature Quotes Friday”
ELA On The Move 