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Best Secondary Resources for Back-to-School

 

Planning for back-to-school just got easier with this carefully curated list of ideas, tips, suggestions, and resources for your secondary classroom – in any subject!

1) Teacher Planning and Organization: Calendars, planners, notes, Oh My! The list goes on and on for what the teacher needs to get organized and feel ready-to-go for the first days of school.  For me, that’s my planner and my high-level curriculum map.  In the past it has been hard to find a planner perfectly suitable to the unique schedules of the secondary world, so I made some.  And then I made some more!  Now I have a fun line of different themes tailored specifically to the various schedules in a middle or high school – in traditional and digital formats.

Choose a planner that works for you, and get comfortable with it.  I like a planner that is only for planning because it helps me keep focused.  Watch a quick Facebook live video where I explain how I set mine up, and I also wrote a blog post explaining how to get the most out of your planner. Read that post here.

https://juliefaulknersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/eplanner-commercial.mp4

 

My friend Lauralee over at Language Arts Classroom wrote about her process for classroom organization over on her beautiful blog. You can read her ideas here. And her back-to-school pack of goodies will establish consistency in your secondary classroom from the first day of school with this organizational bundle. Included are an editable presentation covering routines, procedures, and expectations; hallway passes; a parent letter; Google Classroom Backgrounds, and syllabus. The design is clean and simple and made with older students in mind.  So pretty!

Secondary Classroom First Days of School Presentation, Parent Letter, and More

2) Classroom Decor: Decorating and organizing my classroom is probably one of my favorite things to do to get me in the mood for back-to-school. I don’t always do a lot with decor each year, but I always try to bring in one or two things new. I’ll pause here to address the camp of people that say, “It’s not about the room. The kids just want to meet you, the teacher.”  That’s true… to some degree.  However, I think the room needs to be as clean and organized as possible to create a welcoming environment, but I think the aforementioned sentiment comes from the place where teachers go regarding overspending and unhealthy comparing.  To read more on that topic, swing by this blog post: How my trip to Magnolia Market helped me prepare for back-to-school. With that said, I’d love to share some cute student-centered and student-created classroom decor supplies and ideas.  If an activity can double as classroom door (AKA – the kids create it and I don’t have to), then that is perfect to me.  For all my secondary math friends out there, take quick trip over to Math in the Middle’s blog and read her post on setting up your middle school math classroom. She has tons of practical ideas and pictures!   Scaffolded Math and Science does just that for her middle school math classroom with her back-to-school math pennants.  Some pennants ask students to fill in information about themselves (name, birthday, favorite color, favorite class), some have numbers of the Fibonacci Sequence within the Spiral, and others are more open-ended for coloring or adding what you’d like to see on the pennants. Super cute!

Back to School Math Pennant and Glyph Activity

O Some Great Stuff for English Teachers has her students create “Share Your World” globes that reveal their true identities.  Perfect classroom decor and icebreaker all in one!  I typically have my freshmen do a Soundtrack of their Life, but I think I’ll add this activity in as well!

BACK TO SCHOOL Share Your World Creative Activity

The growth mindset trend continues to grow, and I think that’s because it’s actually something that makes sense and works! Chalk Dust Diva has a no-prep set of posters she made for any subject at the secondary level that you could use a million different ways!  Promoting growth mindset is also an excellent way establish a positive classroom climate, and Chalk Dust Diva has a creative presentation and reading lesson that will teach your student what it means to have a “growth mindset” and how the views and beliefs they have about themselves impacts the decisions they make and the lives they lead.

Growth Mindset Posters - Fixed vs Growth Mindset

Sometimes just putting a few posters around the room will help spruce things up a little, too, and I love reminding students that how we treat each other is so important.  Grab my free anti-bullying awareness posters here. They are super easy to print and go!

3) Housekeeping: We all have to satisfy requirements from admin, ensure communication with parents, track data, make sub plans, keep attendance, and more. Here are a few resources to help make all that easier.  Math by the Mountain keeps office hours, and she posts them for students and parents.  This idea really helps students respect boundaries and take ownership.  Elly Thorsen fixed up a parent and student survey in English and Spanish, which I think is awesome to already have that done! It provides information about how to contact family members, the strengths and areas of need of the student, and other helpful information to know as a teacher.

Unfortunately, a major issue we have to plan for is absenteeism.  Free to Discover created a cute set of absentee slips to help students stay organized if they have been out.  They are free; grab them here.  I also write weekly assignments on the board each week and post the list on the Google Classroom stream.  Having a method for tracking data is another item on our back-to-school list, and I like to set up a way for that to be student-centered. Take a quick look at a blog post I wrote about how I track data. It’s super simple, and best of all — it’s authentic and collected by students! Read that post here. Grab my data pack here… or get it in a money-saving bundle of other great back-to-school goodies for any subject at the secondary level here.

Sub plans are another item on my back-to-school to-do list as well. I usually grab the matching Sub Plans label (from the planners I make) and fix up a new 3-ring binder with the daily schedule, class rosters, seating charts, and school emergency plan. Then, I’ll add a few emergency lessons in another section just in case of an unexpected absence.  In my high school English classroom, I typically use my Hot Topics Info Text lessons because they are no prep and have the substitute instructions sheet included.

Hot Topics Informational Text Lessons: BUNDLE, Set 1

4) Classroom Climate: From the moment students step foot in the classroom, they need to feel welcomed.  Even though, we may not as secondary teachers do a hug or high five with each student who enters, we can set a positive and inviting tone.  Icebreakers and team building games play a role in creating a welcoming environment for students.  Teens love to talk, but they are pretty insecure when it comes to speaking up and out in class.  These conversation starters from Pathway 2 Success are a flexible way to get kids chatting.  The 170  task cards are the ideal mix of questions regarding self, home, friends, school, family, and beliefs. They would be awesome to help students share information, open up, and begin to form positive relationships.

Conversation Starters for Middle and High School

Escape games are still really hot right now, and I know my kids would love to participate in one as an icebreaker on the first day of school.  Presto Plans won’t let her middle school students zone out on the first days of school! Her back-to-school zombie escape game is highly engaging! It can be used in English class as it incorporates some ELA skills, but can also work for any other subject.

BACK TO SCHOOL ESCAPE ROOM: ZOMBIE TEACHER

Lit with Lynns created one that will work with any class.  Her game includes a crossword puzzle, a completely EDITABLE syllabus accompanied by a syllabus scavenger hunt, and a get to know other students activity. I love that it’s a quick 3-puzzle game, so it doesn’t take up too much time, but lets kids have a little fun! Barraug Books and Curriculum goes old school for her back-to-school team building game: Cup Towers. While students are racing against the clock to build the tallest cup tower, you are evaluating their strengths and interpersonal skills. It’s a win-win!

First Day of School Icebreaker: Cup Towers

Since I’m not a science teacher, it didn’t even occur to me that part of setting up a classroom climate should include safety measures until I saw this science lab for teaching science lab safety from Strawberry Shake! This resource contains everything you need to get your students started safely in your lab or science classroom, and I think your middle school science kids would love it.

Andrea from Right Down the Middle has a cool idea for incentives, which an excellent tool for positive classroom management. Students are able to earn reward incentives through their kind deeds, actions, and performance in class, then they cash them in at various times during the year.

Reward Coupons for Positive Behavior Management: Reward Coupons and Incentives

Bell ringers are probably the #1 activity teachers need in their toolbox to set the stage for class right from the beginning of the year.  Part of classroom climate, to me, is structure and order.  Bell ringers say to students: We are going to be serious about work and have purpose in this class.  Content-specific bell ringers are meaningful for your subject matter, and they teach students to get busy and orderly right from the start of class.  Spanish teachers can also set things up for each day of school with Angie Torre’s Spanish Bell Ringers.  They are packed full of tasks to challenge your high school students.  I love use to grammar bell ringers with my high school English classes.  Ten minutes each day covers a lot of ground in grammar, and my students are working from bell to bell.

Last but not least, are the classroom rules… but going over classroom rules doesn’t have to be boring! I created these fun emoji puppets that I use every year with my high school students on the first day of school.

If setting up station rotations is more your idea of fun for addressing classroom rules and procedures, check out of a few of these ideas: With Tween Spirit’s back to school stations, students search the syllabus, take selfies, and more.  Room 213 sets up stations, too, and she has students setting goals, meeting classmates, and learning rules.

Back to School Getting-to-Know-You Stations

5) Activities and Lessons: A teacher can never have too many back-to-school activities, in my opinion. It’s like a girl with her shoes – something to match each outfit and/or situation. If you are like me, once you do a few icebreakers and go over classroom rules, you are ready to get to work. A good place to start is with review.  Real Lessons for the Teenage Mind has a bundle of review activities for English skills that would be perfect for your middle school students because they combine authenticity, movement, competition, and collaboration to make sure your students stay engaged and build a positive classroom culture in the first week.  I like to use my 100 Words Every High School English Student Should Know list as a pre-test to see where students are with their Tier 3 Vocabulary.  Science teachers can review key terms and even lab safety with The Lab’s Back to School Science Color by Number Activity Bundle.

Back to School Science Color by Number Activity Bundle

If you teach middle or high school Spanish, you are going to love The Stress Free Spanish Teacher’s Spanish Llama Mystery Pictures. We all have that crazy picture day right at the beginning of school, and these are so clever. I laughed out loud when I saw them! Spanish Mystery Pictures, Llama Mystery Pictures, School Picture Day Fun!

Once the first few days are over, then what?  Start looking at long-term units and units that build on each other through the year.  OCBeach Teacher has her students working on writing prompts that encourage students to think critically about situations requiring problem solving.  Teacher of any high school subject who want to get in more reading and writing this year could take a look at my no prep Article of the Week Resource.  Reading pedagogy suggests that students are most successful with a text when they revisit it more than once with a different and meaningful purpose each time. The “article of the week” approach does that. Get ready for standardized reading assessments and improve your students’ reading and comprehension skills a little at a time week over week!

https://juliefaulknersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/aow-google.mp4

 

I also love this email etiquette mini unit from Reading and Writing Haven.   She said, “You might be surprised to learn that 91% of people check their email daily. It’s a real-life skill. Email is the #1 app used on a smart phone. In short, email matters. We need to teach students how to represent themselves well when communicating in this genre.”  Melissa is passionate about helping teachers help kids gain the skills they need to function in the real-world, and this mini unit is the perfect way to set kids up for success during those first days of the year.

How to Write an Email to Teachers: Email Etiquette Mini-Unit

Luke Rosa from Students of History says, “As all teachers know, it is [going to be] a long school year. Over the course of [the next] 180 school days, there are bound to be point where both you as a teacher, and the students, are burned out, bored, or just otherwise not excited about the curriculum.”  Bookmark his blog post, “6 Awesome Insta-Worthy Classroom Activities.”  I plan to visit it throughout the year to give myself a little boost when the activity idea bank starts running low.

Here’s to a great school year. Please feel free to link up in the comments what you use and do successfully for back-to-school!

Love this content? Join a group!  There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple.  Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey, and I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Written 7/2019
Cover Photo Matt Raglan

Filed Under: back to school, backwards planning, classroom decor, Classroom Management, classroom organization, classroom routines, classroom success stories, classroom teaching strategy, classroom theme, daily grammar program, data charts, data portfolio, data story, data tracking, secondary classroom management, secondary classroom organization, secondary classrooms, secondary ELA, secondary english classroom organization, secondary English Teachers Leave a Comment

Tips for Covering and Teaching Grammar

Teaching Grammar, 10 Minute Grammar

Teaching grammar and getting it all in no matter what schedule you have is a challenge because time is limited… and grammar is difficult to teach.  Nonetheless, there are standards we must cover before the final end of course exams or standardized tests roll around.  Plus, if you are a writing teacher like me, you really just want to see your students’ grammar, usage, and mechanics improve.  Grammar is one standard that must be covered, but it’s a huge umbrella encompassing so many skills that it becomes overwhelming to plan for.   This 10-minute grammar strategy was just sort of “born” organically in my class from years of just trying to figure out what works.  Thus, here are the five classroom-tested pieces to my grammar program that I’ve found to cover all that grammar — in just 10 minutes a day!

1) Daily Proofreading Starters: On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, my daily starter is two sentences with various mistakes.  I have those on the board when students come in, and they know to get started making corrections. I give them time to write the sentence as is, and then they go back and make corrections with a red (or colored pen). — Why do I have them write the sentences as-is? As we make corrections to the sentences, I am explaining rules and using proofreader’s marks to make corrections.  I want students to be able to see the original mistake, how to fix it, and what the rule is. — Then, we go over the answers together, and I use that time to provide any additional instruction, explanation, or rules.  It takes about 10 minutes each day.  Students keep up with their corrections and notes in their folder from day to day.  The sentences that I’ve written in my complete grammar curriculum are based on research from current events or provide information about authors, so there’s always something interesting to read about!

See a video of me doing these bell ringers “live” right from my classroom!

2) Flipped Classroom Videos: I recently discovered the value of the “flipped classroom.” I was aware of the idea but had never tried it. I hadn’t tried it because I just couldn’t really place an effective way to make use of it – until this year.  My students struggle with grammar concepts, as most students do. They actually asked me for more lectures on grammar because they were concerned about the ACT.  But, I just couldn’t devote large chunks of class time to PPT presentations of grammar. Even though they said they wanted more instruction and practice, I don’t really think they wanted that either.  My solution was to try the flipped classroom concept.  Each week on Tuesday afternoon, I send out a link to a grammar tutorial via my Google Classroom.  You could also just send and email or use the Remind app.  It is a short video over one skill.  I encourage students to watch it as many times as needed and to take notes.  We will typically work on the same skill or skill set for a few weeks but with a different video each time.   So, where do I get the videos?  I certainly don’t make them myself ;)!  I once had a college professor say, “Work smarter – not harder!”  All the videos I send come from youtube.com. Some of my favorite go-to channels are GrammarBytes, Shmoop, The Sentence Center, MrsBartonFWA, and MisterSato411.  These weekly videos work pretty well for my juniors and seniors partly because most grammar has been covered by the time they get to me, so a quick refresher typically will suffice.  Even with younger students, though, I could see the value in sending home the video link the day before a lecture to set it up. The more times they hear and see the information the better. My complete grammar curriculum includes links to the videos that I’ve carefully curated and collected over the years.

3) Worksheet Wednesday: Students need regular practice with specific, isolated skills.  I like the idea of a skill-drill to give students specific practice.  These worksheets are unlike the daily bell ringers, which have a random selection of mistakes.  Each Wednesday when students come in the room, they have a grammar worksheet to pick up and do as a grammar drill for the day’s starter. It’s timed (10 minutes), but they can use their notes that we’ve take in class or from last night’s video. The worksheet usually has some notes at the top and examples for that skill.  This way students can give their attention to that skill and work through examples of all the rules associated with that skill.  The skills that I’ve included in my grammar curriculum were selected primarily from the skills covered on the ACT.

Teaching Grammar, 10 Minute Grammar

4) Weekly Quizzes: Weekly quizzes go hand-in-hand with the daily proofreading starters.  Yes, students may see a question from the skills worksheet, but mostly the questions from the skills we covered in the bell ringers.  That is because it’s during the bell ringers that I’m giving the most instruction and rules.  Plus, just like on the ACT – the skills are all mixed it, so I want these quizzes to simulate that experience.  When I first started doing the daily proofreading, I was collecting notes and notebooks and giving credit for that.  It was cumbersome and so time consuming, and I realized I wasn’t actually assessing if students knew those grammar skills we had worked on all week.  I was just measuring if students could take notes and keep up with them!  At that point, I started making multiple-choice weekly grammar quizzes.  The task was huge, but after several years I had a nice compilation.  Since they are multiple choice, my students can take them on the ActivExpressions or Scantron, and that makes easy grade recording for me.   We take the short 5 to 6 question quizzes on Friday, and go over the answers immediately.  I spend time discussing why one answer is correct over the others, and then students take time to chart their scores and make notes on strengths and weaknesses.  It’s a 10 minute time commitment, and students often report increased scores on ACT after having worked through the daily starters and weekly quizzes. Click here to read another post about how I track data.

5) Old-fashioned Homework:  One way to get more grammar practice in is to assign homework, but it needs to be homework that requires application.  Grammar homework (worksheets) typically has right or wrong concrete answers, thus making it very easy for students to cheat.  Instead of assigning worksheets, have students write 10 sentences or a paragraph demonstrating their understanding of sentence structure, subject verb agreement, or parts of speech, etc.  This way you can be certain their work is original as it will be easy to spot “shared work.”  Coming fall 2019, I will also have digital quizzes/worksheets students can do for more practice, and they are perfect for homework. 

I know there are camps of people who suggest that teaching grammar “in isolation” doesn’t work, but I am here to say that it really can.  When done well, teaching students the grammar rules, having them practice the rules correctly each day, and holding them accountable with assessment and in their daily assignments is the ticket. In that case, to me, it really isn’t teaching grammar in isolation.  It’s teaching students fundamentals, explaining the whys and hows, and modeling when and where to use what they’ve learned.  You wouldn’t teach an automechanic how to work on a car’s engine without first teaching him or her what each tool does and the correct process of dissembling and reassembling.   The same is true for teaching students grammar.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen students’ test scores go up by 3,4,5,6,7,8 points.  As a writing teacher as well, after students have worked through this grammar program with me, students CAN apply the fundamentals to their own writing because they understand the why rather than having to just rely on what they’ve memorized or managed to figure out from the guesswork of “exploration-type” teaching.   I wouldn’t be sharing this if I didn’t KNOW that this method worked – from my own experience, from students who have seen better scores on tests and writing, and from parents who see how much their students have learned and are able to do.

If you are ready to try a 10-minute grammar program, take a look at my complete grammar program with daily grammar proofreading sentences, the video links I use, rules, worksheets, weekly quizzes, and explanations and answers.  It’s a one stop shop for grammar instruction.

Grammar MEGA Bundle, Ten-Minute Daily ACT Prep, FULL YEAR Curriculum

Love this content? Join a group!  There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple.  Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey, and I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Filed Under: ACT prep, back to school, daily grammar program, grammar ideas, grammar lessons, grammar prep, grammar quizzes, teaching grammar, Uncategorized 11 Comments

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