Posts tagged english
A love of learning, a love of life
So, my friend is stage managing Macbeth and made this status today…
I’m quite pleased with this.
Rapping this out loud in my empty classroom like swag.
WALK INTO THE CLUB LIKE WADDUP I AM A BIG SCOT
I’M SO PUMPED ABOUT SOME VISION THAT THE WITCHES GOT
I WILL BE THANE, SO SAYS THE PROPHECY
THAT PEOPLE LIKE “DAMN, MACBETH DESERVES GLORY”
OMG, so fun! Some high school English students would take this and fly with it!
(via rareandradiantmaiden)
This is how I teach the construction of a thesis statement for literary analysis. I developed it last year.
It’s clean and easy to understand and use.
Students who are weaker writers appreciate it for giving them guidance and boundaries.
Stronger writers enjoy putting their own twist on the “so what?!?” and pushing the edges of what a “literary device” can include.
They’re amazed when they use this model in other classes (history, foreign language, etc) and it works there too. They always ask if I did that on purpose.
This example is easy to chunk in order to teach paragraph development, topic sentences, use of quoted text, and original conclusions.
It can be modified to meet the needs of any grade level, too. Just take out “title” or “literary device” and replace with the focal points of your choice. The “so what?!?” is non-negotiable since it applies necessary critical thinking skills.
(Source: tomesaway)
(via peace-love-kindergarten)
(Source: ilovecharts, via insideateachersmind)
(via freshlysharpenedpencils)
Contour Lettering (by inky alchemy)
book spine poem - missing cat (Taken with instagram)
In hindsight, I wish I’d switched “OVER IN THE MEADOW” and “WHERE IS THAT CAT?”. Read it that way and it sounds much better.
This is awesome, Lefty!
Common Analogy Relationships
Analogies are a great way to sharpen the mind because they require logical thinking to solve. Besides knowing the meanings of the words, you must also understand the relationship expressed in the analogy.
When teaching analogies, it is often helpful to introduce them by relationship. After becoming familiar with the part to whole relationship, flip it to whole to part. Then move on to tool and use or some other relationship. Most workbooks follow a similar pattern.
(part to whole - rim : mug)
(object and its use - spade : dig)
(synonyms - gleeful : joyous)
(antonyms - irate : calm)
(object and its characteristic - denim: durable)
(an item and its category - cellist : musician)
See more about analogies here!
271/365. Friday, 27 January.
End product of my students’ pyramid dioramas. Each side of the pyramid showcases a plot element from a story they are familiar with.
Wow
(via insideateachersmind)
Sentence Surgery…laminated unedited sentence strips, bandaid strips for ending punctuation, small round bandages for commas and quotations, tongue depressors to mark capitalization, and ‘Emergency Kit’ paper bags w/ red cross on them (to keep surgery supplies). Can be adjusted to use K-6…the kids loved it!
(via write-to-learn)
30 Ideas for Teaching Writing
The National Writing Project’s 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing offers successful strategies contributed by experienced writing project teachers. These ideas originated as full-length articles in NWP publications (go to the site for find the full article that accompanies each idea below).
30 Ideas for Teaching Writing
- Use the shared events of students’ lives to inspire writing.
- Establish an email dialogue between students from different schools who are reading the same book.
- Use writing to improve relations among students.
- Help student writers draw rich chunks of writing from endless sprawl.
- Work with words relevant to students’ lives to help them build vocabulary.
- Help students analyze text by asking them to imagine dialogue between authors.
- Spotlight language and use group brainstorming to help students create poetry.
- Ask students to reflect on and write about their writing.
- Ease into writing workshops by presenting yourself as a model.
- Get students to focus on their writing by holding off on grading.
- Use casual talk about students’ lives to generate writing.
- Give students a chance to write to an audience for real purpose.
- Practice and play with revision techniques.
- Pair students with adult reading/writing buddies.
- Teach “tension” to move students beyond fluency.
- Encourage descriptive writing by focusing on the sounds of words.
- Require written response to peers’ writing.
- Make writing reflection tangible.
- Make grammar instruction dynamic.
- Ask students to experiment with sentence length.
- Help students ask questions about their writing.
- Challenge students to find active verbs.
- Require students to make a persuasive written argument in support of a final grade.
- Ground writing in social issues important to students.
- Encourage the “framing device” as an aid to cohesion in writing.
- Use real world examples to reinforce writing conventions.
- Think like a football coach.
- Allow classroom writing to take a page from yearbook writing.
- Use home language on the road to Standard English.
- Introduce multi-genre writing in the context of community service.
(via englishteachingtoolbox)
