interactive lesson

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.

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.

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.

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

Formula for Classroom Success Series Post #3: Interactive and Real-World Strategies

I’m continuing the series today on Classroom Success Strategies. Today’s post is a two-in-one tip for interactive and real-world teaching strategies. At the bottom of the post, feel free to link up with your own favorite strategies in the comments section. Link products, ideas, etc.!

In the fast-paced world of today’s teen, I am always looking for new and different ways to appeal to my students. I don’t always expect everything to be fun all the time, but I know that I’ll accomplish more if my students are engaged. If you are on the cusp of branching out into the interactive world of teaching strategies, or even if you are well-versed, perhaps my take below will spark you to get interactive this week!

1) An interactive lesson doesn’t have to be silly. I think a lot of times, especially
high school teachers, think that interactive lessons are akin to playing games
and are silly. Granted, I’ve seen some
that are. To me, an interactive lesson can be anything from using task
cards with individual students or in a group setting to making human
MLA citations! If you wanted to bring in a little silly with the serious, play a funny song or have students race the clock! It really depends on
your style and, of course, what your goals are for the class.

2) An interactive lesson doesn’t have to take a long time in class. I
like to chunk my classes into segments – usually about 15-20 minutes each. This is usually an excellent structure for my daily grammar bell ringer routine, lesson intro, interactive/group work, and individual
task. Sometimes my “real-world” connection
is simply a relatable video as a set activity or a funny grammar mistake from my growing collection of pictures.
Other times, my real-world connections are more project-oriented, take a
while longer, and give students time to work in groups, process through
problem-solving strategies, and employ critical thinking skills. If you wanted to experiment with longer projects, start small. One really
successful project I’ve done is my Earth Day Info Text and Real-World Project,
which is perfect for April. In this Earth Day
themed lesson, students compare and contrast the presentation of a similar theme
or topic across genres (different types of writing) to explain how each genre
shapes the author’s presentation of the theme. Next, they use their
problem-solving skills to raise awareness of the need to be good stewards of
the earth. Students love getting “their hands dirty” with this
real-world project and presentation, and you will love that they are critically
thinking about the world around them while demonstrating their understanding of
key CCSS. Perhaps, you will give
it a try!

Earth Day Paired Text Reading Lesson, Speech and Poem with

3) An interactive lesson doesn’t have
to be hands-on or project-oriented. In
order for a lesson to be interactive, it doesn’t have to be a full-blown
project or even something where students move around. An effective and purposeful whole-group discussion
or guided small-group discussion can take the attention off the teacher and
make it more student-centered and interactive. I also think when a student is 100% engaged in
his/her learning, that’s pretty interactive, too. I like to give case studies and short research
projects where students are responsible for extracting the information about
the assigned topic on their own, and then they give a presentation. If you wanted to be more adventurous and try something interactive while keeping students focused, my students enjoy readers’ theater or role playing. I love keeping a box of costume props
handy when we are reading some favorites like The Crucible, Macbeth, Beowulf, or Trifles. It doesn’t take but a few minutes, and it’s
great for those out-going students.

4) An interactive lesson doesn’t have
to be labor-intensive for the teacher. The idea behind an interactive or real-world
lesson is that students are going to be doing most of the work and hopefully, they will be more engaged – which takes the pressure off of the teacher. One quick way I review
before a test involves a small ball that we toss around the room. In fact, I
call it Ball Toss Review – creative, right? Each student
must answer a question about the topic, and then he/she gets to toss the ball to
whomever he/she chooses. I don’t have to
prepare anything, but the students are on their toes thinking and
responding the entire time. Technology is another
excellent way to get students more involved, and it may or may not involve a little prep work.
Especially when technology
is involved, most times students will dive right in. I love my newest Google-Drive eWorksheets for
poetry, which are a super-cool tool for bridging the gap between today’s teens and poetry!

Digital Poetry eWorksheets Analysis & Comprehension for An

5) An interactive lesson doesn’t have
to cost you anything. Sometimes it may seem daunting to buy game pieces, cut and laminate game cards, or prepare online worksheets or discussion boards for students. If your time and resources are limited (of course they are), there are plenty interactive ideas that are completely free. If you are in the middle of a writing unit, have students complete a 4-square peer review. Students fold a piece of notebook paper into four squares and review each other’s paper for the thesis statement, grammar/spelling, organization, and language. With April being poetry month, another fun and free hands-on idea is to have students write Characterization Poems for the piece of literature you are currently studying. Just beg and borrow to get a few magazines, and you’ll be set. If you have a bit more time, a smart device, and time to print and cut a glass set of Plickers, you will love the results. Even Plickers are mostly free, and would be excellent way to jazz up your traditional exit tickets.

I don’t think every single lesson, every single day needs to be interactive. Sometimes, teachers come down with
the “activity-itis” syndrome. I’ve been guilty of it myself. See more of my thoughts about that here.
The most important thing to keep in mind for a successful lesson is that it
just needs to be on purpose. More on that topic in another post in this series.
Stay tuned!

If you are looking for more interactive ideas right now, I wrote an entire blog post here a while back that describes several ways to engage secondary students in the classroom.

Benefits of Using Task Cards at the Secondary Level

Using task cards at the secondary level can be hugely successful. Interestingly, I was using “task cards” in my class before I knew they were called that – and way before they looked so cute! If I needed to guide a particular group on a topic or break up the assignment, I would often just grab some colored index cards and a sharpie and beginning assigning the tasks, differentiating, or reviewing! Now with the wonderful world of technology 🙂 and access to tons of programs, task cards can come in any form or fashion. Here are 5 ways and reasons to use the task cards strategy at the middle and high school level.

#1) Differentiation and Scaffolding: Task cards offer teachers and students many benefits. Teachers need easy, but effective ways to meet the needs of all students who come to the table with all different ability levels. Task cards can easily be used to tailor instruction and reinforcement to those needs.

–You choose who gets which card, and that can be done without the students’ knowledge of that choice. All of my response to text task cards are written in two levels and are clearly labeled in the file. Pictured below are two examples from my poetry and speech task cards. If you head over to my TeachersPayTeachers store, you’ll be able to get a couple of these free in the preview file.

– One directive per card helps students focus.

–If students or groups of students are working through a set of cards, they set their own pacing. Here different groups of students are analyzing poetry, but one group only has one card, while the other group has two cards.

–Some cards can have suggested answers or clues, while others are more open-ended.

–Some students or groups can be assigned one or more depending on their needs.

– Task cards just by their nature provide individualized instruction and scaffolding because they allow for effective chunking of material. For example, when I teach writing, we use task cards to guide analysis of model papers during the pre-writing process and task cards to provide directives for revision and editing during the phases of the writing process.

#2) Discussion & Collaboration: Classroom discussion is very important for classroom culture but also for understanding. I believe students need to read about it, talk about it, and then write about it. Task cards provide a direct focus for talk topics where needed.

–Students can see cards first to prepare individually before small or whole group discussion.

–Guides whole group discussion. Take a look at these fun Emoji Accountable Talk Stem Puppets They offer a accountable talk stems for students to respond to or use during discussions.

– Can require students to produce a larger product together. For example, if you want students to write a paragraph, give each group a task to complete a certain section of the paragraph. When they put their work together, they have a complete product.

– Can even be used with large class sizes. See how I make it work:

#3) Games and Review

–Play traditional games (board games, card games, beach ball toss, etc.) with task cards for your subject. Below students are reviewing ELA vocabulary using vocabulary cards from my 100 words every high school English student should know pack in order to move their pieces around a game board I whipped up for fun. Give each group a set of task cards, and in order to take a turn, each student had to answer a question on one of the cards. The rest of the group had to agree with the answer before they could move on. Groups or students could also have a recording sheet that they turn in or use as a study guide.

#4) Gallery Walks, Scavenger Hunts, Quests. and Stations: Lessons that involve movement can sometimes be overwhelming to create and produce, but for Kinesthetic students especially, movement enhances learning. Pretty much any student, though, enjoys the opportunity to move around during class. Task cards make these types of activities much more attainable because they are easier to create and/or manage.

–Cards are posted around the room/hall for a gallery walk. Never tried a gallery walk? Want some fresh tips? Click over to take a look at this FREE video tutorial where I explain how to set up and manage gallery walks.

–Assign students certain numbers to complete or do them all.

–Set time limits.

–Students record answers on sheets.

– Use them in stations or centers. Here’s a quick video where I explain how I developed impromptu centers using my poetry task cards in station rotations. Get the FREE poetry recording sheet here.

– Add QR codes for a self-checking function or to add a quick video tutorial.

#5) Going green with task cards The trend is certainly moving toward more technology in the classroom that is student-centered. Task cards offer so many opportunities for teachers to convey both lesson content, practice, and assessment because they are so flexible.

•1:1 schools

•via Google Slides or Google Classroom in the lab, group device, or on their own devices. All of my response to text task cards are now available in Google Slides format. You can get them here.

•Nearpod student led or in homework mode.

•Classflow with student response systems or on their own devices

•Kahoot for whole class review and gaming. I love putting my Real-World Grammar Fails Task Cards in Kahoot to use at bell ringers or fun test-prep review! They come in large pdf and large jpeg mode for easy uploading in this format, so there’s no extra work for you. See more about my experience with Kahoot at this post!

•Single iPad used via Apple TV to share task card work. Below students were correcting sentences with some grammar task cards. In order to share with the class, I used the mirror feature on my iPad with my Apple TV, so the entire class could see the original sentence from the task card as each group explained the corrections that needed to be made.

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Updated Sep. 2018

True-Blue American: September 11 Poetry Lesson Success

Over the years I’ve noticed that my students are getting further and further away from knowing what happened on September 11, 2001, and feeling the weight of its magnitude on our nation’s history. I was in college when the towers were struck, and I remember sitting on the bed in my dorm room crushed, scared, crying, and praying for each and every family affected by that senseless act of terrorism. I will never forget how I felt. And over a decade later, we are still impacted by choices and decisions made that day. So, this was the perfect week for the poetry close reading lesson I’ve had bouncing around in my head for months now – in honor and remembrance of our freedom in America.

Poetry Close Reading Lesson: "True-Blue American" w/ Video

Here are 5 reasons why I loved how this lesson turned out.

1) The timing was perfect for a quick transition lesson related to this topic because we just finished our narrative unit and are about to move into our argumentative unit. Since moving to Common Core, I’ve tried to restructure my pacing into four bigger units associated with the writing modes. In between each big unit, I’ve been doing smaller mini lessons that usually take a couple days. Most times, it is one my Hot Topics Informational Text Close Reading Lessons. If it works out to be around a holiday, then I’ll do something thematic. Such was the case this
week.

2) To piggyback on that concept of the “transition mini lessons,” I was able to review key ELA skills and build on those skills for more in depth analysis. These short mini units are perfect for focusing on and practicing one or two key skills. This particular lesson’s focus is how texts develop a theme and how two different texts can convey the same theme in different ways, á la CCSS Anchor R.9.

3) Students were engaging with the poem. One thing I’ve tried to do to take my students more in depth with the text is to provide different ways for students to engage with the same text multiple times. That is, in essence, the nature of close reading. I think of close reading as dissecting a text in stages. First, we read for just the main point or to summarize. (I use my SWBST strategy.) We also go ahead and catch any unfamiliar words here, too. I always provide them with a highlighter and encourage them to make notes in the margin. Next, I have students read again looking for deeper meaning, language usage, word choice, and tone. If students have a new purpose each time, I’ve found they are less likely to get “bored” with looking at the same text multiple times. After students have worked individually with the texts, we have a group discussion. To reinforce their ideas and model strong annotating, I will get a blank copy of the text and annotate under my document camera as they discuss and share. In this particular lesson, since we were ultimately leading up to comparison, after annotating, I provided them with a fun thematic Venn diagram on which they recorded their analysis. In case you are wondering- Yes, I do give them a few seconds to color their diagrams!

4) Students were engaging with each other. Academically productive talk has become a staple in my classroom the past few years. I admit that I was so unwilling to even try it at first, but as a Common Core Coach for my state, I felt highly obligated. Once I began to realize the value in it – students talking about texts and ideas to prepare them for their own individual task, to learn how to express themselves accurately, to form rebuttals purposefully and respectfully – I was sold. In this particular lesson, I tried something new– the interactive anchor chart. The two forms of text we were comparing were a poem and a video lecture/talk. I wanted to make anchor charts for each type, but I didn’t want to just stand up in the front of class basically writing answers for them. Instead, I formulated 4 questions about each genre and gave them a few minutes to work individually. Second, they collaborated with their shoulder partner about their responses. (Watch a quick tutorial about shoulder partners here.) The next step is where the interactive anchor chart is born. Each group got one sticky note and was assigned to be the expert on one of the questions. They wrote their answer to that one question on their sticky and placed it on the anchor chart in the designated space. To review the answers, I read them out loud and we added and deleted ideas as necessary. This strategy could work with any type of situation where you want students to have notes about a topic and maybe they have some prior knowledge you could activate. Plus, they were doing the work- not me!

5) We are taking time to pause to remember and discuss tough issues. Some of my students are usually slightly familiar with what happened on 911, but it’s generally pretty foggy. I know that their history teacher is covering the facts, so I didn’t need to take time to do that. However, I did want to do something and as an ELA teacher, and a thematic approach seemed fitting. While this lesson could actually work for many other patriotic holidays or just as a stand-alone mini unit, I did it to bring up issues surrounding the events at Ground Zero. Most of the time, we are so focused on skills and what the text says, that we forget to make text-to-self and text-to-world connections. I like that this lesson allowed us to do that. To close the lesson, then, students completed an out-of-class project where they designed a flag that described what it means to really be a true-blue American. Looking at what they wrote made me proud to be a teacher in this great country.

You can give this lesson a try via this link. You can also check out my newest poetry lesson for September 11 that uses an Emily Dickinson poem here as well.

Our actions and words affect other people and make this world we live in what it is – for better or worse. I hope that in my classroom, I can do a few things that make a difference. #merica

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