Faulkner's Fast Five

Creating Classroom Success Stories

Internet-Free Activities for Middle and High School Classrooms, Any Subject

Recently, we experienced a school-wide Internet outage where I teach, and being without access to the World Wide Web really threw my students and me (along with everyone else in the building) for a loop. The days we were out of Internet, I had planned for students to make presentations that were stored in Google classroom, print papers to turn in, among other things that required Internet.  It’s not the first time the Internet has gone down in our rural school, but going without really kicked my Plan B mindset into gear.  So, I’ve put together a list of fabulous Internet-free ideas and resources for middle-high school in any subject that can be used in a pinch – or with some planning – when Ralph, or whoever, breaks the Internet.

1) Get Crafty or Build Something:

  • Collage projects are pretty much my go-to, hands-on activity when I need to grab something fast, plan for a sub, or fill some time.  Even my high school students love to cut and paste and create, and I think it’s even a fun way to sneak in a little reading. I always catch them actually reading the magazines we use. Plus, reusing those old magazines is the best way to recycle them.  In English class, I have students make character poems, character personality collages, book covers, social media posts, and the list goes on and on.

Theme collage after studying “Brave” and Malala Yousafzai

America dream collage after watching The Great Gatsby

Character collages for “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

Character collages for The Great Gatsby

  • Coloring never goes out of style, and crayons have been around way before the Internet was born.  Draw a scene from a book, illustrate a favorite quote, draw the plot, or draw a diagram of the solar system or various other subject-based topics that need to be reviewed through the year.  I’ve been using these color-by-grammar or color-by-figurative language worksheets in a pinch forever, and they are always a big hit with my secondary English students.

If you teach secondary math, the Math Stop has a fun coloring-based activity that would be awesome in a no-Internet setting.  Students develop their knowledge of graphing coordinate pairs, quadrants, and reflections about the x and y-axis with this fun and engaging art activity. Then, they make it personal by using the letters of their name to decode them into arbitrary numbers from a decoder box.  In the end everyone has a cool and colorful design that represents his/her own name.

Name Symmetry Art Math Activity

2) Play Games or Conduct Experiments:

  • Old-fashioned board games can be very educational whether you are playing them purely for the logic or teamwork of it, or if you are putting your subject-area twist on it.  That’s pretty much how I do it; everything has to be English-related. (Wink) When I found these ready-made game cards with an extensive bank of 144 CCSS-aligned grammar and literature terms and definitions by The Littlest Teacher, I thought I had hit the jackpot! If you teach middle or high school English, you are going to want these!

ELA Games Pack Review Grammar & Literature CCSS Aligned

  • I don’t know a student who doesn’t love a good game of Trashketball! You can set up a trashketball review game for any subject with little to no prep at all, and you’ll be set. For all things trashketball, I turn to the OCBeach Teacher. She’s the coach on this topic, and she has ready-to-go ELA games set up, so I don’t have to do anything but enjoy the game! She has full instructions and links to her no prep ELA review games here!

trashketball, march madness, games

  • Other ideas include taking time to have students get to know their classmates better like with this fun Spanish speaking activity that gets them up and out of their seats to “Find Someone Who” can answer questions about classmates’ families, pets, favorite classes, sports and food.  Download it for free!  Truth or Dare would also pique your students’ interest, and I love how Reading and Writing Have uses this game – and others – to help students review vocabulary words! Whether you’ve chosen words from literature, from test prep lists, from a vocabulary book, or hand-selected words you think your students should know, the exercises in this bundle will complement them perfectly. Designed to work with any Tier 2 vocabulary list, these activities, games, and practice worksheets will get your students thinking creatively… without the Internet! 
  • Experiments and STEM projects always catch my attention. I think it’s because I secretly wish I were a scientist! That’s definitely not in my future, but I love seeing what other teachers are preparing for their students.  When I saw this Pirate Coding activity created by Curiosity and the Hungry Mind, I knew it was a treasure. (The puns are always intended.) Plus, I have a major soft spot for Pirates. (Again, what I wish I could be when I grow up.)  You’ll be able keep upper elementary and middle school students engaged in unplugged coding and STEM challenges with these cool activities!

Pirate Coding and STEM activities BUNDLE

  • This STEM project from Professor Doubter piqued my interest immediately, and I think your upper elementary or middle school students will want to dive right in, too.  This lab activity challenges students to prove there is REAL IRON in cereal by designing and conducting their own experiments to prove magnetic fields exist between objects!  The only materials you’ll need are a strong magnet, hand lens, ½ cup of dry breakfast cereal (Total® brand) in a small plastic baggie, and small beaker/container of water.  Grab the instructions and files here, and let your little scientists get busy!

Fields Exist Between Objects NGSS Middle School Magnetism Lab Activity MS-PS2-5

  • Last but not least, how about just going outside to play? From your middle school students to your high school students, everyone will be participating. Have students toss a ball around and review a point from the lesson.  Write vocab words on the sidewalk with chalk.  Misty Miller has her students go outside and play tag with math integers.  Integers Math Tag Relay is a great way to practice solving problems with integers while having fun.

Integers Math Tag Relay

3) Write:

  • If you are in the middle of a writing unit, and the Internet goes out, you don’t have to stop what you were doing entirely.  With every unit, my students benefit from analyzing sample papers.  You probably have a few lurking in your file cabinets, and if you can plan ahead, I have several available in any mode, too. I like to put students in groups or set up stations and use task cards to guide their analysis. (See another post here or a video via Facebook for how I do that.) Peer reviewing and/or revising are also super important in the writing process, and if students have been drafting on paper or have old papers that have already been graded, you can have them pull out those copies and review. I use self-evaluation forms, task cards, and “sticky notes” to get kids reading, reviewing, and revising their writing.

  • Writing is such a big part of the educational process, and it’s really important in any subject. Just something as simple as having students write a fun narrative about “The Day Without the Internet,” or an expository essay explaining  the effects of no Internet in school, or an argumentative letter to local legislatures persuading them to bring better Internet into the county – would be perfect.  Have students read them aloud, and that will help with your grading!  Science classes could write explanations of their most recent science experiment, and history classes could write summaries of an important event they just studied.

4) Read and Role Play:

  • I’m pretty certain every school has an old-fashioned library stocked with beautiful books just waiting to have their spines cracked. Take a visit! Also, our local newspaper delivers free copies of the weekly paper to our school.  It came to my attention not too long ago that my freshmen hadn’t really ever read or picked up an actual newspaper.  It’s hard to believe, but if you stop and think about it, that’s probably true.  If you can get access to some newspapers, have students do a scavenger hunt looking for text features, main idea sentences, use of dialogue, etc.
  • Nothing makes reading come alive more than acting it out.  Every unit I teach must include some kind of readers’ theater or role playing scenes because my students beg me for them. We either act out some scenes I’ve abridged or created, they create the scene by responding to a role playing prompt, or we just throw on some costumes and read the text we are studying!

Students responded to a role playing prompt and wrote “scenes” here for the play Trifles.

Here students got dressed up to complete a second reading of Patrick Henry’s speech.

Students reenact the famous scene from Act 4 of Macbeth.

5) Listen to a Podcast or Watch a Movie:

  • Movies never go out of style, and they are perfect in a pinch.  You can find so many ready-to-guides for tons of movies, so you can just press play! 

All this made me think about back in the day when we didn’t have Internet, at least not so readily available and at such high speeds. What did we ever do?  Also, there are other times of the year when using the Internet might not be an option, perhaps if you are in a testing window at the end-of-the year, or if you are displaced from your classroom for various reasons.  Teaching and learning must continue, even if it’s going to look a little different or if your main lesson is going to be on pause for a little while.  Sometimes you can plan ahead, and other times, it’s unexpected. Basically, the show must go on, and we teachers know how to make that happen.

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3/2019, Photos Taken by Julie Faulkner or used with permission

Keeping Kids Tuned in at the End of the Year

It’s getting to be that time of year when things get a little crazy – a little sideways. Students – and teachers – are starting to tune out!  In a middle or high school English classroom, this is an excellent time of year to start that novel you’ve been wanting to teach or to try a new project. So hopefully, these ideas will make those even more creative for you! Plus, they are all student-centered and standards-based, so the kiddos stay engaged, and your job is easy! Join me for a fun recap of some ways to keep students tuned in this time of year.

1) Make It Real – When the CCSS started to roll out and there was so much emphasis placed on nonfiction, I’ll be honest – like many other “old English teachers” – I was nervous about giving up so much class time to those texts over my beloved classic fiction texts.  Now, I love finding nonfiction texts that stand alone and/or that pair with my fiction.  And, honestly, the kids LOVE it when they know it’s real.  Sometimes I have them go searching on their own for real information – like in my mini research project on banned books in my Fahrenheit unit.  Or other times, I’ll pair the info for them and have them dig into the material in class like in my lesson on the LeRoy HS outbreak after we read Act 1 of The Crucible. Also, take a look at several bundles of hot topics informational text lessons I have ready-to-go.

Hot Topics Informational Text Lessons: BUNDLE, Set 1

Hot Topics Informational Text Lessons: BUNDLE, Set 2

2) Make It Personal – We all know that secondary students can be ah hem… self-centered.  So anytime they get to talk about themselves, there’s pretty good buy-in.  My seniors just completed my Generational Interview project as part of their reading tasks for the last section of my Fahrenheit unit.  They – and their grandparents – really enjoyed the projects and the kids learned so much about their families and themselves. This was an out-of-class assignment, but they did share in class. Now that’s an easy prep! Another way to make it personal and keep kids tuned in is with poetry that speaks to them.  In my treating senioritis poetry pack, I’ve selected several poems that draw on students’ personal experiences and the follow up activities ask students to reflect on their past, present, and future.

End of Year Poetry, Surviving Senioritis, Poetry Month Act

3) Make It Interactive – I have to admit that I’d never used puppets in the classroom before with high school students, but now that I have, I can’t stop.  I also have to admit that it was partly my students’ idea to conduct the first puppet show.  When my seniors read The Canterbury Tales, I had made little cards with the characters on them. I wanted each student to read and research about that character to share with the class.  One student was holding up her card and thought she was being funny when she said, “We should do this as a puppet show.” I said, “Actually, that’s a great idea. Yes, we should.” That night I glued Popsicle sticks on the cards and borrowed a puppet curtain my mom had made for my nieces.  Voila!  The next day we had a puppet show!  After that, I let my emoji addiction get a little more out of control, and I made emoji puppets for accountable talk, review, point of view, and more! See my Facebook post about them!

 

Escape games are super hot right now, too, and you can find them in just about any subject and grade level. The end of the year is the perfect time to give one a try for review or just for fun.  I’ve made full-length games for some favorite stories I teach, and I recently started to make mini escape games that last 30 minutes!

All of my games are designed so that you can use a physical lock box that you buy premade or make yourself or digitally with Google.  I love using the physical lock box for students, and I’ve created a quick video tutorial just in case you’ve wanted to try it, but have been a little apprehensive about it.

 

4) Make It Project-Based – Projects don’t have to be a lot of work for you. Nor should they be a lot of work to prep.  One year I wanted something new and fun for Earth Day, so I rummaged through my junk drawers at the house and had student create uses for the various items.  The skills we covered? Propaganda, Info-Text Analysis; Speaking and Listening, Presenting.  That project is for sale here! This time of year, my yearbook students also work on projects to keep them busy until the books come back.  They would be excellent for a yearbook class, business, art, or technology class.  I’ve also successfully done short research projects, and I have a ton of those available as well on a variety of topics.

Earth Day Paired Text Reading Lesson, Speech and Poem with

 

5) Make It a Movie Day –  Let’s be real for a minute.  We can’t always show a movie, but if we are talking about getting tuned in, well, we can’t ignore the obvious.  If you missed my post about how to incorporate media effectively, click here to go check that out.  I will say that my seniors are going to be watching The Hunger Games next week.  Why in the world, right? It was their idea – and it wasn’t because they just wanted to watch it randomly.  In fact, they’ve been asking me all along our 451 unit if there’s a sequel to Bradbury’s magnum opus.  (Can we pause to just say how awesome it is that they want to read MORE 451?!?!?) Then one day, it dawned on a student that there was quite a bit of intertextuality between 451 and THG.  I had noticed the parallels before because I love THG! He made a pretty good case for it, so I thought this would be a fun way to end the unit. They’ll have to write something showing those parallels, of course.  Plus, I’ve got you covered for tons of movies with ready-made, standards-based movies guides. All you need to do is get the DVD and press play!

Here’s to a great rest of the year! Share your ideas for ending the year strong below!

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Updated 2019

School photo created by freepic.diller – www.freepik.com

Host a Gatsby Party: End of Year Literary-Themed, Text-Based Classroom Parties

It’s that time of year – the end of the year. And that means classroom parties.  My students always ask for a party of some sort, so several years ago I decided I would allow them to have a party – on one condition – it must be literature based.  We always study The Great Gatsby at the end of the semester, and, of course, it doesn’t get much better than that to inspire a party.  If you are thinking about doing the same, here are a couple of ideas for planning your Gatsby party! (These tips can be easily applied to hosting a literature-based party for any text, and I’ve even provided a few more stories at the bottom that might work if Gatsby’s not on your reading list.)

 1) Reading/Watching the Full Text: Because the purpose of the party is to make the literature come alive and have students step right into the pages of the book, it is crucial that they understand the mood and time period of the story.  I don’t usually have time on a block schedule to have students read Gatsby, but we do watch the film to experience it.  I use various resources from my movie guide throughout the film to make watching more rigorous.
The Great Gatsby: Movie Viewing Guide, Questions, Quiz, Su
 
2) Close Reading the Party Passage: In Gatsby, we read a section of Chapter 3 to the quote “Good night, old sport. . . . good night.”  The party scene here is very descriptive, so it’s excellent for having students go through and chart what the characters experience.  We make a list of what colors are mentioned, food, music, drink, even décor.  I also use this time to discuss figurative language used, other literary elements of the passage, and what purpose the party serves to the text as a whole. You can do the close reading before the end of the text or after you have finished it completely. I especially like doing the close reading from the novel with the movie because it exposes students to the text.
 
3) Planning: Once have students have noted what the text itself says, we then go back and make a new column for how we can adapt that to our classroom. With Gatsby specifically, we can’t bring any bubbly to school, so we discuss options for what to bring.  The same is true for the food. We let the text inspire what we can bring to class, so students must get creative. For example, in Gatsby, it mentions “glistening hors d’oevre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pasty pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.” So students bring finger foods and turkey sandwiches, for example.
4) Hosting: I bring a tablecloth and other various glamorous decorations to enhance the atmosphere.  Of course, I play 20’s jazz music and music from the “new” Gatsby movie soundtrack.  I also want students to “dress” the part as closely as we can do a Gatsby party, but with some obvious boundaries. I do teach in a rural school, so I have to keep that in mind when considering what students have access to.  They are welcome to “create” some Gatsby inspired outfits to wear, but the text does give some specific examples: yellow dresses, blue and white suits, and bright primary colors. I encourage students to at least wear a nice top that fits into one of those categories.
 5) Managing:  I do have a rule that you must bring something to go through the food line.  Most times we have plenty, but the very few times that I have someone not bring something, I do let them go through at the end.  Again, I do teach in a rural area, but during the planning process, we plan things that are doable for everyone.  For example, we do need napkins, and sometimes people will even go in together to bring a bigger item.  Another thing I do on party day is schedule a project to be due. We are on a block schedule, so 90 minutes is a long time for students to be partying.  At the end of Gatsby, my students are required to do an American Dream project, so they present those the first half of the class, and then we eat the second half. See how my American Dream project turned out here!

 

 

 

Get my lesson plan and guide for FREE! Click the thumb below for an instant download.
Other notable parties in literature:
-Bilbo Baggins’s Eleventy First Birthday Party from The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
-The tea party in Pygmalion (When I do this one, I have students make hats that symbolize who they are to wear to the party.)
-The ball in Romeo and Juliet
-The Victor’s Tour Party in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
-A Jane Austen ball

-The Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice in the Wonderland

-Ichabod Crane is a hungry fellow in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

If the novel or story you are studying doesn’t have a full-blown party scene, as an alternative you could have students trace the food mentioned in the book and use that as inspiration.  For example, the dauntless cake in Divergent.  Another approach would be if the text you are reading has a party scene but details are lacking (as in some mentioned above), have students research the time period and host the party based on those findings.

Eat up!

Effective Activities to Use with Digital Media in Any Class

 
 This week I was evaluated… twice, actually.  I’m pretty sure the number of times I’ve shown a full-length movie this year I can count on one hand.  I do, however, regularly show video clips as starters or as tutorials or examples to supplement content.  So this year, it has been very odd that three of the seven times I was evaluated (they are all unscheduled pop-ins) have been when I was showing some sort of movie/show.  No cute hands-on project. No grouping. No discussions.   Just. My. Luck.  I am only ever showing videos, films, or clips during class time if I am using it as a tool or as a text, so my students always know the purpose and are held accountable for that.  But does it look that way to a visiting administrator? A worksheet, list of questions, or quiz would always add more rigor than nothing, of course.  If you want to up the ante, though, here are a couple of more engaging and effective strategies that I keep in my toolbox to use when I show films in my class – visitor or no visitor.  Some of the tips would work with any type of film, and some would work well with either a major motion picture or documentary.  What’s best is that most of them can be done with NO PREP and at a moment’s notice.
 
1) Graphic Organizers
This week my juniors started their Antiques Show and Tell Research Presentation that was inspired by my loving of picking and The History Channel’s American Pickers.  To kick off the unit, I show a portion of an episode in class so students can see how Mike and Frank research the personal and historical stories of the artifacts they find.  Since that was my goal for the lesson, I included those questions on my graphic organizer and took the opportunity to add a few other specific ELA skills as well.  When my assistant principal came in, I was able to tell him what the students were working on and he glanced at one student’s paper while he stayed to evaluate me.  If you have some time to prep before showing a film, a graphic organizer is a really good way to engage students and guide their focus on a few key points and skills while they watch. This strategy keeps students on task during the viewing but can be concise enough with only a view questions so that they actually get to enjoy the film as well.  They are also perfect pacing guides, so you could pause and discuss a particular point during viewing if you needed to.  A graphic organizer can be used for a movie or documentary.

 

2) Pause to Summarize 

This is a classic strategy for quickly assessing students’ understanding and reactions to a film. Just press pause and have students write a quick summary of the main details up to the point where you stopped the film. I like the use the SWBST strategy, and I keep blank templates handy.  Another way to jazz up pausing to summarize, especially if you have an unexpected visitor, would be to give each student an index card or sticky note to write their summaries on.  Extend the activity for movies by having them flip the card over and predict what they think will happen next.  You can collect them and read a few aloud and discuss their accuracy when the movie is over.

 

3) Four Square Facts

This interactive activity would work very well for a documentary or tutorial.  Students fold their paper into 4 sections. I have students write three facts from the film – one per square. They must elaborate on each fact in the square. Then students move with a partner to share their ideas and gain one more. By the end of the quick and easy activity, they have reviewed and should have a total of four facts on their paper.  This activity would work best to stop
half-way through the movie or at the end.  The foldable would look exactly like this one does – from my previous post.

 

4) 3 – 2 – 1 Check Point

An excellent check for understanding is the 3-2-1 strategy.  To make this a little more interactive, I have students fold their paper into three sections, horizontally.  You can have students do this before the movie begins, during, or at the end.  I have students write 3 new facts, 2 questions they still have, 1 part they enjoyed.   You can certainly modify the elements of the 3-2-1 to focus on particular content questions or for other purposes you may have. For example, when my students watch the Salem Witch Trials Documentary during our Crucible unit, I don’t give them a set of questions to record or a fill-in-the-blank sheet to do as we watch. Instead, I have them write: 1 thing you learned
that helps you better understand The Crucible; 2 facts about “witches”; 3 facts about the Salem Witch Trials. We always spend time discussing afterwards to make sure everyone has the crucial information, but I like giving them the chance to draw it out on their own.

 

5) Compare & Contrast Characters

Comparing and contrasting is a very important skill and most state writing exams, EOCs, and even the ACT require students to think on this level, so I try to incorporate as much of it as I can.  If you are showing a major motion picture with fictional characters, compare/contrast works very well.  Have students make a vertical fold to divide the paper in half (a hot dog fold).  On the left side they will write “Protagonist,” and on the right side they write “Antagonist.”  In each column they must write at least five traits about each character.  This activity can be done at the beginning of the film or during viewing quickly and easily.
Movies are an excellent way to engage students any time of year, but you can take it to the next level with these simple and easy ideas.  If you are planning for a substitute, again a movie is a good choice for a sub plan, and any of these choices could be left with a sub and would do an excellent job of keeping kids on track.
Don’t see a title that fits into your curriculum? Check out my printable and digital worksheets for any movie analysis.

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Sign up for my monthly newsletter – “Teaching Tidbits” – that is delivered directly to your email inbox each month.  Each month you’ll get announcements, tips for teaching, updates on new and revised resources, and, of course, an email-only exclusive FREEBIE!

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