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How To Select and Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

How To Select and Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

In my previous post on the Benefits of Using Paired Texts to Teach Reading, I discuss the advantages of this brain-based teaching method. It’s no secret that offering ways for students to making connections — text to text, text to self, and text to world — is an opportunity to exercise higher order thinking skills. Teaching shouldn’t happen in a vacuum, even though sometimes it does as we stress to move units along the conveyor belt, more acceptably known as pacing guides. Often and unfortunately, we teach one skill and move quickly onto the next. Confession: I don’t teach that way. Everything must build and connect from unit to unit, text to text, and skill to skill. That’s why paring texts is so important, and in this final post in the series, I want to share the practical, actionable ways that I select and use paired texts for teaching reading.

1) Select texts that have related themes.

Most standards now require something to the effect of, “Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.” In fact, in the CCSS, theme is mentioned in the second anchor standard for reading: “Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development.” There is no denying that teaching theme is an important part of teaching reading. Over the years, I’ve noticed that when teaching theme with one text, students do slowly grasp the concept. But, when I add that next layer of a paired text and ask them to consider what universal message the texts share, that’s when the light bulbs ding on. Since texts can have multiple themes, you’ll want to pick the one that is most overarching and/or universal — And the one that you really want students to focus on for the duration of the unit and possibly the one they will focus on for their final culminating task.

In my Lord of the Flies unit, for example, we read Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” and I ask students to synthesis between the novel and play how the concept of hiding behind a mask emerges as a theme.

How To Select and Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading, Lord of the Flies Unit

2) Select paired texts that provide authentic and relevant background information.

When I start a unit that requires a bit of background information for students to fully understand the setting, conflict, etc., I like to provide that information. Rather than “read” a Power Point lecture to them, I bring in an article or excerpt from a history book that provides the content they need — only they are doing the work extracting that information instead of me just reading it to them. Sometimes, I can’t always find one text that does the job, so I’ll write up a faux article using several sources. If you have accelerated students, that would be an excellent task for them to do.

For example, when we read Their Eyes Were Watching God, I want students to understand the historical context of the Muck Bowl, so they can fully appreciate the conflict Tea Cake and Janie experience. Here I used several sources to craft this faux textbook excerpt. On the worksheet, I ask students questions about the historical content itself, and then they apply that information to the novel.

How To Select and Use Paired Text for Teaching Reading

Fire is such an important element in the novel Fahrenheit 451, so I don’t want students to miss its value as a literary element; thus, that understanding is further enhanced by gaining scientific knowledge about how fire works. From the first page, we track fire as a motif throughout the novel, and then near the end, I bring in a scientific article that explains how fire works. By then, they have a full picture and lots of textual evidence to make connections.

How To Select and Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

3) Select paired texts that represent another point of view or voice.

One of the benefits I mentioned the first post in this series of using paired texts for teaching reading was that pairing texts allows for diversity. If your curriculum calls for authors who are too close in ethnicity, gender, etc., pairing a text can open the door for more diversity. It also allows students to see themselves and see topics from different points of view.

In my Trifles unit, I pause to read Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Sympathy.” Not only does this poem connect based on theme, but it relates the experience of being trapped from a Black man’s point of view — totally different from the white female author’s voice in the story. We can discuss how anyone can feel trapped and for so many different reasons. This type of paring really does open students’ eyes and free up higher levels of learning.

How To Select and Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

4) Select texts with intertextuality.

Intertextuality might be an unfamiliar word, but it is a very common practice in the literary world. There is certainly “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The term was first coined by the Bulgarian-French philosopher and literary critic, Julia Kristeva in 1966. According to Kristeva, when readers read a new text, they are always influenced by other texts, which they have read earlier. When a writer borrows from other texts while writing his/her own, he/she attaches layers of meanings to his/her work as well. When that work is read under the light of the others, it gives it a new meaning and interpretation.

Thus, intertextuality is the relationship between texts, especially literary ones. In fact, it can be argued that every text is a product of intertextuality. It’s that feeling of Deja vu: You’ve read this somewhere before. Well, you likely have. Essentially, intertextuality is the retelling of an old story or the rewriting of popular stories in a different set of contexts. It is not a remake, though, as in the instance of one of the Hunger Games books being made into a movie or the various remaking of every Disney movie ever from cartoon people to real people. It’s also not allusions to other texts, either, as in the way Collins infuses elements from Fahrenheit 451 or Greek Mythology in The Hunger Games. However, the entire concept and plot of The Hunger Games is a modern retelling of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery — that’s intertextuality. Another example of intertextuality is between Miller’s The Crucible and Jodi Picoult’s Salem Falls: modern setting, same plot, conflict, and themes. More examples include:

  • Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby retold in Sparks’s Dear John
  • Shaw’s Pygmalion created into My Fair Lady and again into the movie Miss Congeniality
  • Shakespeare’s Hamlet rewritten into The Lion King
  • Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet retold in the Twilight Series
  • Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus 
  • Anderson’s The Snow Queen refashioned into the beloved Frozen

Because you must experience both texts from beginning to end to fully grasp and evaluate the intertextuality, it can take some planning in how to pair these types of texts in the classroom. If it’s a movie remake, that’s the perfect way to close the unit. Ask students to make a Venn diagram to compare/contrast the differences or have them create a mirrored set of plot charts. I’ve also shared the modern versions as part of my First Chapter Friday readings and had students check out the paired text. You could also do it for out of class reading for advanced students or as summer reading, as well.

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5) Select paired texts to advance a character study.

The characters are why we read: we fall in love with them, we love to hate them, we want them to survive, we share in their triumphs, we feel their joy and sadness. Selecting paired texts to teach characterization is an excellent way to enrich the reading experience. You can have students compare how the two main characters handled situations different and why. You can have students study the way the author chose to develop them: point of view, descriptions, voice, and more. Sometimes you can compare characters in different texts from the same author or characters from two entirely different texts. It depends on your purpose.

How To Select and Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

In my A Rose for Emily unit, I bring in a nonfiction article about a woman who couldn’t let go of her dead family member either and a poem from Emily Dickinson wherein the speaker wishes to be alone. Here, I’m making the story relevant and extending our study on characterization: What motives do they share for this behavior and why? Why do they choose isolation? This technique opens up a whole new world of analysis.

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It’s important to conduct a close reading of each text individually first before comparing texts or integrating the information from the layer. Teach the process; teach students how to compare/contrast and explain why. We want students to be successful and really experience the higher order thinking that studying paired texts can offer, so we have to be prepared to teach those skills explicitly first. This means it could actually take a week or more to walk students through close reading and annotating each text individually, especially if it is going to be part of an in-class unit. Check out my Textual Analysis Worksheets if you don’t teach these texts I shared. You’ll find tools for comparing your favorite text pairs.

How To Select and Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

Aside from all the standards that are covered when you begin adding layers and pairing texts to teach reading, imagine the doors that you’ll be opening up for students — doors (in the form of novels, articles, movies, poems, etc.) that they may have never “walked through” before. As English teachers we love reading and know it’s value; pairing texts to teach reading is just a sneaky way to share that love ♥ Speaking of sharing — please drop your favorite paired texts for teaching reading in the comments below!

Faulkner's Fast Five Blog

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. 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 by: Julie Faulkner, 2020

Filed Under: close reading, Creative English Lessons for Teens, Middle and High School English Lessons, Reading Strategies, secondary English Teachers Leave a Comment

End-of-Year Reflection: Top Five Classroom Success Stories of 2019

Teaching Reflections for 2019

One of the most important things we can do as teachers is reflect, and so that’s why I love this annual blog post.  It’s been my new year tradition for the past several years (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), and choosing only five memorable teaching moments is always so hard, but here goes: My top five classroom success stories of 2019!

This year in review…

Teaching Gatsby for the first time in forever and writing the unit plan for it.  A little bit Disney Frozen on the brain here, but it works.   In the past, I had taught The Great Gatsby mainly in parts or just as a movie-viewing experience.  So this time around when I was able to teach the novel as a whole to my group of junior honors, I was very excited to unpack everything it has to offer.  Most students love the idea of the 1920s and the mystery of Gatsby, so I just played off of that enthusiasm. I started the unit with problem-solving questions and station rotations that introduced the time period and the novel.  Once we began reading, I loved having students track the colors, do guided close reading exercises, and analyze the characters. We closed with a “My American Dream” project, and it was really incredible to see what students aspire to become.  I was very pleased with the way the unit turned out. Check out my complete unit, my movie-viewing guide, and my escape game here. 

Teaching The Great Gatsby

Island challenges for Lord of the Flies.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun teaching The Lord of the Flies was after I decided to create the challenges. I had wanted to do something like this for a while with Flies, but never got up my nerve.  Finally, I just dove in and did it. I am SO glad I did.  Read more about all the challenges on this post.  Get my entire unit plan here. 

Teaching The Lord of the Flies

Teaching The Lord of the Flies

Teaching The Lord of the Flies

Vacation Bible School. It seems like VBS makes my greatest hits list every year, and that is fine with me. I enjoy the themes, the decorating, projects, crafts, and energy created by a week of studying the Word with kids.  This year’s theme was The Incredible RACE. We traveled all around the world learning about different cultures and God’s love for us.  We decorated our hallways like an airport and our classrooms like the inside of an airplane and the country we traveled to each night.  What an awesome trip!

Teaching Vacation Bible School

Teaching Vacation Bible School

First Chapter Fridays.  As soon as I saw this idea from my friend Lauralee over at The Language Arts Classroom, I knew I had to work it in somehow.  Each Friday, I would start class with one chapter, or a piece of a chapter, from a book that I thought my students would be interested in. I related the books to holidays as well.  See all the books I shared over on my Instagram, and I also took it up a notch by including pictures of our weekly destinations because my classroom library theme is “Books are an Adventure.”  See the video of me explaining my weekly process here, my classroom library set up here, and get my classroom library materials free here. 

Building a Classroom Library

Christmas Nativity bible escape games with the younger students.  If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know how much I love escape games for the classroom.  I create them every chance I get, and my high school students love them. This year, I was working with the PreK-4th grade students on Wednesday nights at church, and we were planning to study Paul’s escape from prison.  I was in charge of the activity rotation, so of course, I thought – escape game! Since it was December, it only made perfect sense to do an escape game for the Christmas Nativity story. I ended up creating two games: one for the PreK-K level and one for the 1st-4th grade level. It was completely worth it.  I always enjoy it when my high school students are playing, but I can’t even tell you how much fun it was playing the break out games with my “littles.” None of them had ever played one before, but they figured it out quickly and ran with it.  Grab these two games here. 

Classroom Escape Games, Preschool, Nativity

I would love to hear about your greatest teaching moments and classroom success stories this year. Share below!

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.

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Filed Under: bible themes, Christmas, Christmas lessons, church event, Creative English Lessons for Teens, Escape Games, Great Gatsby, literature ideas, Middle and High School English Lessons, novel, novels, secondary ELA, secondary English Teachers, secondary lessons, teacher ideas, teachers pay teachers, teaching ideas, teaching strategies, teaching tips, Vacation Bible School Leave a Comment

5 Ways to Keep Students Tuned-In at the End-of-the-Year

5 Ways to Keep Students 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!  So hopefully, these ideas will make these end-of-year days less stressful, and more fun. Plus, these 5 ways to keep students tuned-in at the end-of-the-year are all student-centered and standards-based, so the kiddos stay engaged, and your job is easy. Join me for a fun recap of 5 ways to keep students tuned-in this time of year. Perfect for any secondary education classroom.

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.  Students really “tune-in” with nonfiction because sometimes it’s so hard to believe that it is actually 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. Whether you teach English or not, finding ways to bring in the “real-world” aspect of your subject matter really gives your topic purpose, and I find students are much more likely to buy-in.

Hot Topics Informational Text Lessons: BUNDLE, Set 1, 5 Ways to Keep Students Tuned-In at the End-of-the-Year
Hot Topics Informational Text Lessons: BUNDLE, Set 2, 5 Ways to Keep Students Tuned-In at the End-of-the-Year

2) Make It Personal

We all know that secondary students can be ah hem… self-centered. (Bless) So anytime they get to talk about themselves, there’s interest.  When my seniors read Fahrenheit 451, they do a generational Interview project as part of their reading tasks for the last section of my Fahrenheit unit.  They – and their grandparents – really enjoy the project and the students learn so much about their families and themselves. 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. Another teacher shared this classroom success story about my poetry pack: “With less than a month left for the Seniors, they are losing their focus in class quickly. These are great assignments that keep them engaged and challenge them to keep at it. This is also great for Poetry Month (April). My student’s actual poems (from the extension activities) are being published in our campus newsletter to celebrate it.” Anything you can do as part of a lesson or short research project that allows students to make connections with their own lives will add a layer of interest they won’t be able to resist.

End of Year Poetry, Surviving Senioritis, Poetry Month Act, 5 Ways to Keep Students Tuned-In at the End-of-the-Year

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 I ever conducted.  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. If you don’t have puppets for your class, then just consider what topic you teach that students to re-enact or role play. For an extra layer of rigor, have the students write the scripts, too!

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 this quick video tutorial just in case you’ve wanted to try it, but have been a little apprehensive about it. When I conduct an escape game in class, I have 100% participation and engagement. It doesn’t get more tuned-in than that!

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 , 5 Ways to Keep Students Tuned-In at the End-of-the-Year

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. Click over to my other blog post, as well, with more Tips for Teaching with Movies.

Here’s to a great rest of the year. Comment below with ways you successfully keep students tuned-in at the end-of-the-year.

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. I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Updated 2021, written by Julie Faulkner

Filed Under: classroom success stories, Creative English Lessons for Teens, crucible lesson ideas, earth day, end of year, end of year lesson ideas, engaging students, interactive learning, interactive lesson, literature ideas, Middle and High School English Lessons, secondary classrooms, secondary ELA, secondary english classroom organization, secondary English Teachers, secondary lessons, teachers pay teachers, teaching ideas, teaching strategies, teaching tips, the crucible Leave a Comment

Greatest Hits of 2015: A Linky of Middle and High School Lessons

Ideas and Lessons for Middle and High School Subjects

As 2015 comes to a close and I think about the new crop of
students I’ll get in January, I like to spend some time reflecting on what
lessons and activities worked really well over the year. Those lessons, for
sure, I want to repeat.  I’m sharing 5 lessons
that I tried in my junior English class this year, and at the bottom, you can
find lessons, activities, and blog posts from other fabulous secondary teachers
who have linked up what worked for them as well! Happy New Year from Faulkner’s
Fast Five!
1) The Writing on the Wall Poetry Analysis: This is a
very low-prep strategy that works really well for poetry.  It was late one Thursday afternoon, and I needed
something for Friday’s book club lesson. 
I wanted to bring in Poe’s poem “Alone” with my novel unit, but I didn’t
have time to make a cute graphic organizer or really even make copies.  My goal was to use the poem to point out the
poet’s word choices and then relate the character in the poem to a character in
the book.  So, it hit me. I decided to
take loaded words from the poem and write each one a blue piece of paper. I
taped them up around the room, and I was set for Friday! When the students came
in, they were curious! Yes! I put them in small groups, and they had a few
seconds to brainstorm any words, ideas, images, etc. associated with that word.
I was short on time that day, and I really just wanted this activity to be a
lead-in. So, we just shared out, and they were able to begin formulating ideas
on the poem’s mood and even subject matter. 
Then we started to dig into annotating the poem.  It was an excellent way for me to draw their
attention to WORDS in a text, and how those words play a large role.  
Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky

Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky
2) Tear and Share Test Prep: I’ve actually used this
strategy several times this year, and I love it! The kids love it! I had a sub
once, and she loved it! And, I was even evaluated once while doing it, and my
principal loved it! So— what is it?  Again,
a super-low prep strategy that makes test prep game-like and truly promotes collaboration
among students.  Step 1: Use any test
prep booklet or material. This year I used FREE materials from
achievethecore.org.  We aren’t a CC state
anymore, but these materials are still spot on for our tests.  Step 2: Students create “hot dog” paper and
label both sides the same way. They will be writing their answers twice. Step
3: Students work through their test prep alone. After they write their answers
twice, they tear the paper in half and turn in the left side. That is the side
I grade. Step 4:  Students take their
other half to a group and work through the problems again to create a group
answer sheet. Step 5: Trade the group answer sheet to peer score, and take this
time to go over each problem and its solution. The group with the most correct
wins candy, points, etc.  You will be
amazed by the depth of the conversations about the material your students will
be having! 
Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky

Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky

Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky

3) Sentence Variety Writing Workshop – Back in September
Commissioner of Education, Candace McQueen, came to visit my classroom. My
students were in the process of revising their first argumentative essay. I had
identified syntactic variety as a point we needed to work on.  I wanted Dr. McQueen to see a snapshot of the
student-centered learning and engagement that takes place in my classroom.  For this lesson, I just used a couple of
tools: #1: Video clip from Whose Line where the actors play the 90 second alphabet
game.  Each line of the scene they act
out must start with a different letter. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHImgoOq024.  #2: Prints from the story The Mysteries of Harris Burdock. One for
each group.  After watching the video
clip to bring in a real-world connection and to set up the activity, students
were tasked with writing a story that solved the mystery of their picture, but
each sentence had to start with a different letter of the alphabet in
consecutive order.  Dr. McQueen and all
the VIPs in my class that loved it, and so did my students. I followed this
activity with a short workshop on sentence variety complete with examples and a
practice worksheet.  From that point on,
I was truly impressed with my students’ concerted effort to use syntactic variety
in their essays. 


4) Four Square Poetry Analysis: “True Blue American” is
a poem that I’ve taught many times, and you can actually read an entire blog
post about it here
and get the complete teaching
pack for it here
.  This time around,
though, I only had one day to do a close reading of the poem and then focus in
on the irony.  So, we have another
super-low-prep strategy I called Four Squares. 
Students folded their papers into four squares and labeled them Author’s
Purpose, Tone, Organization/Structure, and Figurative Language/Word
Choice.  For this poetry analysis after a
quick close read alone, I put students in groups.  I’ve done this where each group is
responsible for only one square or they do them all. It’s a good idea to have
them do just one square as a group the first time you ever do it, then move to
having them do them all on different texts later on for scaffolding purposes.  Then, we always share out with the large group
and have discussion.  I had time to go
around and prompt some groups to dig more deeply and encourage others to keep
going on the right track. I was so impressed with how this simple FREE strategy
allowed my students to dig deeply into a text. 
Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky

Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky

Faulkner's Fast Five New Year 2015 Reflection Linky
Poetry Close Reading Lesson: "True-Blue American" w/ Video


5) Guest Speaker – On Fridays my junior honors
class turns our attention to the novel we’ve been reading for our book club.  One Friday, I asked a local psychology professional
to come speak to the class on teen suicide, which is a poignant topic central
to the book we were reading at the time. 
I gave the students a sheet with some questions to complete before and
after the speaker came.  What I liked
most about this was that the students were able to hear about this topic and
ask questions with a professional, and we were able to use the information he
shared throughout the remainder of the book study. Get
the sheet I used here for FREE.
 

Do you have a lesson or activity that worked really well for you this year? Link up below with the product, website,  or blog post, and leave a comment below sharing why and how it worked so well! Be sure to share the linky on social media!

An InLinkz Link-up

Filed Under: Guest Speakers, Middle and High School English Lessons, Poetry Analysis, Poetry Close Reading, Poetry Strategies, Test Prep Strategies, Uncategorized, Word Choice 18 Comments

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  • Movie Analysis Worksheets, Printable and Digital, These 10, no-prep movie analysis and comprehension worksheets in printable and digital format are an excellent modern and engaging activity to have students take ownership of their learning and dig deeper and closely read a film as a text. Make the most out of your movie-viewing experience with these standards-based options for analysis and accountability. end of year teaching ideas, education, lesson plans, last days of school
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  • Lord of the Flies Unit Plan
  • Teaching Poetry BUNDLE, Analysis and Assessment, Printable and Digital Get set to teach poetry with this bundle of creative and rigorous tools for teaching, analyzing, and assessing poetry. I pull out the games for bell ringers, fillers, or brain breaks, and the worksheets and task cards are perfect for analyzing a paired poem when I'm teaching a larger unit!
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Julie's Classroom Stories

3 months ago

Julie's Classroom Stories
NEW on the Blog:: How to host successful classroom discussions in your middle and high school English classrooms!! juliefaulknersblog.com/how-to-host-successful-classroom-discussions/ ⁠#teachingenglish #juliesclassroomstories #classroomsuccessstories #iteachenglish #highschoolenglishteacher #teachinghighschool #highschoolteacher ... See MoreSee Less

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Julie's Classroom Stories

3 months ago

Julie's Classroom Stories
Right?!? But at least it’s Friday. #tgif #fridayfunny ... See MoreSee Less

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Julie's Classroom Stories

3 months ago

Julie's Classroom Stories
Interested in a research-based vocabulary review game? My students love playing the fly-swatter game, so when I ran across this study, I was pretty intrigued. digilib.iain-palangkaraya.ac.id/2105/1/Shella%20Aprilia%201501121028.pdf ... See MoreSee Less

digilib.iain-palangkaraya.ac.id

digilib.iain-palangkaraya.ac.id

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Julie's Classroom Stories

3 months ago

Julie's Classroom Stories
Hope you've had a great Valentine's Day! ... See MoreSee Less

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Julie's Classroom Stories updated their profile picture.

3 months ago

Julie's Classroom Stories
Julie's Classroom Stories ... See MoreSee Less

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