teaching strategies

End-of-Year Reflection: Top Five Classroom Success Stories of 2018

It seems to me that 2018 has been quite the long year… but then again it does feel like I was just rounding the corner of 2018 not too long ago, and here we are already at 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), and choosing only five moments is always so hard, but here goes: My top five classroom success stories of 2018! This year in review…

1) Read-o-Lution: Reading is the hallmark – the cornerstone – of any English classroom, but let’s face it: In today’s time, even reading can sometimes take a backseat to everything else we cover. And with our teens walking around with tiny TVs in their hands at all times streaming the latest Netflix Original or watching the newest Youtube sensation, there isn’t much reading going on. I started the second semester (Jan 2018) with a focus on reading and having my juniors make a reading resolution or “read-o-lution” after studying an article about the importance of reading. If you are a Common Core state, you can use the reading passage from Appendix A to discuss the importance and value of reading. If not or if you just want something ready-to-go for the new year, I have this super simple informational hot topics lesson on how Reading Is Good For Your Brain. Throughout the year, I implemented my Article of the Week program, too (another blog post to come on that this year but you can get the materials for it here now). We also read more full-length short fiction texts in class, and my honors students read an out-of-class novel for book clubs. (See more about my book clubs here). I also set up a mini classroom library, and students checked out books all year long that way. I left their poster up the rest of the semester, and many students truly did make efforts to take reading more seriously and achieve their reading resolution.

2) Podcasts: I love introducing students to something new, and surprisingly Podcasts were actually kinda new to my students. They had, of course, heard of them, but they never really listened to them. Again… why would they when they could just watch something on the tube? I actually used Podcasts two ways this year. First, with my yearbook staff, we listened to a Podcast crime series when we finished our book. Up and Vanished (Season 1 carefully edited) was the perfect way to get my staff engaged. They completed a casebook to keep track of their listening and crime solving. That casebook is free in my TeachersPayTeachers store. Second, in my English class, we did some spooky Podcasts from Lore during Halloween, and students took notes on a podcast worksheet I created. (Get those here.) Then, they wrote their own spooky stories. My students wrote some really amazing stories: We had many laughs and many spooky cold chills, too! Readers of my email newsletter Teaching Tidbits with Julie Faulkner got that activity for free back in October. Be sure to sign up for that email at the bottom of the page, so you don’t miss anymore goodies. You can also see some of my Podcast suggestions via this link over to my Facebook page at Julie’s Classroom Stories.

3) Victorian Tea Party: Another focus I had this past year was on careers. Whether students were going straight to a career or college after senior year, I still wanted them to be focused on their futures in terms of where will they work when it’s all said and done. I’ve found that this year especially, my students are so uncertain about what they want to do, and they don’t even really have any idea what’s out there. I’m going to be adding a few more career-based lessons in the new year to possibly help students get a better idea of what their options are and what might be a good fit for them. But this project was an interesting way for students to really think about who they are as a person and what they’d like to become — just like our gal pal Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady. Hats are a huge symbol in this text, and I wanted students to not only understand and recognize that symbol and it’s role in the characterization, but I also wanted them to make text-to-self connections as well. I loved seeing how their hats turned out, and it was a fun way to make a class party text-based. See this activity and all the instructions here in my TpT store.

4) Sieve and the Sand Experiment: I’ve lost count how many times I’ve taught Fahrenheit 451 over the years, but this year I did something new that I’d never done before: a science experiment. No we didn’t burn anything… though it alarms me how many people want to burn books as part of teaching this unit. (Insert “I dunno” emoji here.) This was actually an experiment that brought the text to life and helped students get hands-on with Bradbury’s choices. I hid a few “surprises” in the sand for students to find, but ultimately, my goal of them being able to use the experiment as a jumping off point for discussion during book club meeting was super successful. I was really proud of how they went back to the text to see what Bradbury said and truly analyzed Montag’s memory. Get my 451 unit here.

5) Character Stockings: About once a year I can get it together to make a huge reading display outside my classroom door. I wish I could do it more often, but quality over quantity, right? This year, we were inspired by Fahrenheit 451 to design a hearth and decorate it for Christmas. I drew the outline for the hearth and printed up the stockings using clip art. Several of my students drew the fire and bricks and put on the finishing touches with paint. Each student then chose one character from the novel and designed a stocking for that character using text-based details. I LOVE the way it turned out!! I’m so proud of it, I’ll probably be “one of those people” who leave their Christmas decorations up year-round. LOL!

As you can probably see, this year was about all about a focus on reading — fiction and nonfiction. I wanted students to see the value in reading and truly immerse themselves in it. Making text-to-text connections, text-to-world connections, and text-to-self connections really taught students to dig in and read closely. I think the reading focus paid off: Just seeing students doing more guided reading in class and independent reading out was fulfillment enough, but we also saw major improvements in ACT reading scores with students making gains of 5-6 points on the reading section and some students scoring 30+. That sounds like a great year to me! Share your best moments of 2018 below, and here’s to having your own classroom success stories in 2019!

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A Movie Review of HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 from a High School English Teacher

Finally… the moment my students and I have been wishing and waiting for – an updated movie remake of one of our favorite novels: Fahrenheit 451. We always have a little fun playing the role of director, choosing which of our favorite actors and actresses should play Montag, Beatty, Mildred, Clarisse, and all the other memorable characters. However, we do always wonder… would Bradbury actually approve of any screen adaptation of his magnum opus? I had so many questions before watching HBO’s hot, new adaptation: Who would play Montag? Would it capture the theme accurately? What would be removed or added? And most importantly… would it be a good fit for using in class? Keep reading for the answers. WARNING: There are spoilers.

1) Characters/Characterization: Not everything about the characters was 100% spot on, but that is to be expected, I suppose. So what works and what doesn’t?

Beatty – Captain Beatty is our resident manipulative, maniacal manager of the fire. He’s the villain through and through, loving to control the narrative and burn anything that gets in his way. Right. Right? Well, maybe not. Beatty’s ambiguity is what makes him so compelling, confusing, and complex. In my opinion, the film does a nice job of painting a picture of Beatty of which Bradbury would approve.

Faber/Granger – These fiction-loving fellas aren’t named characters in the film, but their archetype is certainly present. In fact, they play a huge role in the film in terms of propelling the conflict. In the novel, the bulk of the conflict is driven by Montag’s internal struggle, but the film really hinges on both the person v. person and person v. society conflict with the “Eels” to move the plot. I suppose that’s a pretty decent substitution.
Montag – I’m not sure anybody can really live up to our Guy Montag. He’s always the hardest one to pinpoint and agree upon when we do our exercise in class of picking the actors/actresses. Everyone just always has a different idea of who he should be. He fumbles through most of the book trying to figure himself out, so maybe that’s why he is so hard to pinpoint. HBO’s Montag experiences a similar struggle, but I am still not quite satisfied for some reason. Montag the confused – yes, I can get on board with that. Montag the superstar – nah, I’ll pass on that interpretation. Maybe my hopes were too high. That said, I would give Michael B. Jordan a B+.
Ms. Blake – What a powerful scene. Glad she – and it – was included. Enough said.

Mildred – Initially, I was bothered by the fact that Mildred wasn’t included. The more I think on it, though, I can accept the choice. Bradbury needed a vessel to paint the picture society’s bad behaviors, etc. On the big screen and with today’s special effects, it is possible to just make it evident in other ways. Figuratively, too, it speaks to the whole idea of how little she actually contributed anything to Montag or society at all and how truly forgettable she was. Gone like a freight train (puns are intended), gone like yesterday. Wait, who was Millie again?
Clarisse – Clarisse provides the most mystery in the book, and the kids always love her. Bradbury is even quoted as saying he is Clarisse in the book: full of wonder and curiosity. It’s with Clarisse that the film falls of the wagon in the characters/characterization category. Clarisse is supposed to be light and airy and a picture of innocence, but in the film, she is too dark and brooding for my liking. And then there’s the whole spark between Montag and Clarisse. Not. My. Favorite. My students always think they’ve “picked up” on something between Montag and Clarisse when they read the scenes with her, and I always stress how incorrect that reading is. Clarisse is a catalyst for Montag’s path toward the truth. In that that way – and only in that way – might she serve as a femme fatale, luring him to the light. Am I surprised “Hollywood” used her character as a way to provide some on-screen romance? No, but it’s just textually inaccurate. As an aside here: My students didn’t like her in the film either.

2) Setting: So much of what Bradbury penned was futuristic – and dare I say prophetic – in the 1950s. Today, though, just about every bit of it has come to fruition, and what hasn’t can be computer generated for the movies. I was pleased to see the infusion of the large screens; they are, in fact, everywhere: in homes, in streets, and even on the skyscrapers. Bradbury’s biggest fear was the detrimental effects of people’s over consumption of and obsession with television. However, I’m not so certain the intended dystopian city that Bradbury envisioned really seemed “all that bad” in HBO’s version. The setting, for me, kinda fizzled out.

3) OMNIS: This is a massive change from the book, but it may just be this detail that shows us – 2018 watchers of the film – how close we might actually be to Bradbury’s dystopian future. OMNIS holds every piece of literature, art, and history in a DNA strand, preserving the long forgotten culture that the firemen tried to erase. While there are underground members of society, like Granger and his “railroad” crew that memorize entire books in order to preserve them, it is this OMNIS that they work to protect and preserve. Once the OMNIS is introduced into the plot, it becomes the major source of the conflict, as it is the focus of the firemen’s revenge. The twist is that this DNA strand has been implanted in a bird. After some thought, I decided I might be satisfied with this change as I see connections with it and the prominent role of the Phoenix in the novel. OMNIS becomes a symbol of hope in a bleak, literature-loathing society that hints at the emergence of a better future. It’s a reminder that it doesn’t matter how much “graffiti” (books) the firemen decide to burn, there’s still hope out there for a free-thinking future — much like the Phoenix that is burned but rises again.

4) Theme: Ultimately, Bradbury wants readers to put themselves in the characters’ shoes: What role would you have played in this dystopian universe: perpetuator, bystander, fighter? Would you see the truth like Montag, or continue to fumble your way through the pursuit for ~~emptiness~~ happiness like Mildred. Would you fight to manipulate and cover the truth like Beatty or use truth to lead others to it like Faber or Granger? It is the growth from within that he wants – that really can bring the change that this culture needs. Truth, knowledge, morality — all erased and replaced with what people see rather than what they think. The movie does a good job of making that clear — maybe a little too clear (some points didn’t leave much to the imagination), but in order to bridge the gap to “modern audiences,” I can see the need. Maybe that’s a tad ironic, and telling, in and of itself. Nonetheless, tons of lines from the book are woven throughout, and I enjoyed hearing Bradbury’s voice.

5) The Ending: Bradbury’s ending is open, or so many of my students say, and most really do hate that. I always pose the question to them, though, Is it really open ended? Throughout the entire book, Bradbury wants readers to realize that the value of books is to provide information, but more importantly to make people think. On one hand, the open ending forces readers to do that. On the other hand, maybe the ending so open at all. Montag did figure out his purpose, and if you read it that way, then what else was there? Either way, the movie definitely provides us with Bahrani’s idea of what he thought should be Montag’s purpose: keep the “books” alive. But die? I could see a case for his death in the book, but die at the hand of Beatty. That idea should be torched. In the movie, the books “rise from the ashes” to live on and that offers some hope, but having Beatty kill Montag gives the villain way too much power, and erases hope that the books — and future — will really be safe. To link in another once “hot” film, President Snow said, “Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained.” (Sidebar: Does anybody else see the HG connections? I can’t unsee it.) If Bahrani intended to remove that hope, that’s dark and maybe it’s a little too dark. But perhaps that’s just me trying to look on the bright side.

Final thoughts: Is it appropriate for class? HBO rated the film TV-MA for violence and language. That said, just about any novel we pick up is going to have violence and language or worse. I am not a fan of it either, and I don’t want to convey that at all. Otherwise, it’s pretty benign. All in all, I did think it was time well spent showing it to my students. It brought up so many conversations; and we really did decide that the book is better. It doesn’t get much better for my little English-teacher heart. In my school, anytime we show a film, we have to get our principal to approve it. So, I did that, and I wrote a parent letter and created a set of questions student would answer during the viewing. He was fine with that, and I had zero parents ask for an alternative assignment. I do have older students, but if you cover your bases this way you should be fine. (See my Teacher Talk Video on Facebook here about dealing with novels with difficult content.)

Get the letter I drafted and the questions HERE for free!

If you teach Fahrenheit 451 as a novel unit, stop over to my teacherspayteachers store and take a look at my complete unit plan. Also, did you enjoy the memes above? I have to brag on my students. Those were all their original work, and I have to admit, I laughed out loud at most of them.

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Top Christmas Holiday Lessons for Middle or High School Teens

The excitement is in the air, the carols are playing, the trees are going up: It’s Christmas! What a wonderful time of year for celebrations. If you are like me, though, you want to be sure that you are still keeping your class contained and working on something skills-based. Here are few Christmas holiday lesson and activity ideas I’ve found that I love for middle and high school teens for all subjects!

1) Teaching the Spirit of the Season: This is the time of year for giving, so I’m always looking for ways to inspire and warm my students’ hearts during the holiday season. It’s so easy for tweens and teens to get caught up in making their own lists and checking them twice that they quickly forget about others. My high school English students enjoy the activities in my Surviving the Christmas Bundle. These Christmas lessons and activities will inspire students to think beyond the hustle and bustle of receiving glittering gifts in order to focus on the moments and meaning of the season! Whether they are reading nonfiction about Toms shoes and analyzing poetry, watching the funny holiday film Skipping Christmas, or researching different symbols of the season from various holiday traditions around the world to present to their classmates, they will be focused and engaged. This pack includes various levels of texts with appropriate thematic pairings, so you can provide your students with the best materials for them.

Yearbook and journalism students can practice their headline writing skills and reach out to the student body with my Christmas headline writing activity. Students will read news articles about the holiday and write the missing headlines. Then they will organize an in-school service project. Your journalism students will love the Christmas-themed activity and service-learning project, and you will love that they are brushing up on crucial journalism skills.

2) Teaching Christmas Traditions Around the World: Many classrooms are blessed with diversity, and having activities at-hand for all students to see themselves in the celebration is important. In other cases, you may be required to incorporate a lesson with various Christmas traditions during this time of year. Either way, there are some pretty awesome resources available that will allow you to teach Christmas traditions around the world creatively and easily. My bundle featured above includes my Symbols of the Seasons research project, which would be perfect for English classes, advisory periods, technology classes, journalism/media, and more. A short research project like this is also perfect for sub plans. Middle school students (and even high school kids) enjoy coloring every now and then, too, and my Coloring-by-Figurative Language sheets offer a variety of images!

Escape games are all the rage right now, and you know how much I love them. This Christmas Around the World Escape Room by Think Tank will take your middle school students in any subject on a secret mission around the classroom! This escape room has students decode fun and interesting facts about Christmas traditions around the world. Students will learn brief holiday traditions of Iceland, Japan, Philippines, Germany, England, Ukraine, Russia, Norway, Marshall Islands, Australia, Slovakia and Venezuela. Grades 4-8 in geography class can join the fun with these latitude and longitude puzzles from Dr. Loftin’s Learning Emporium. Students simply plot the given coordinates, connect their dots, and discover a hidden picture (Santa, Gingerbread Man, Stocking, Elf, Snowman, Reindeer, Snowflake, Christmas Tree, Star of David, and Christmas Star).

3) Teaching with the Magic of Movies: I am a sucker for Christmas movies. This time of year my TV recorder is already full of holiday movies, and I can’t wait to cuddle up and binge watch. My all-time favorite Christmas movie is Home Alone 2. Old-school, I know, but I love the music, setting, and message. It’s no surprise, then, that I developed a FREE lesson for my high school English class, so I could show it at school! Plus, teach your students how to extend the holiday spirit with the real-world project included!

Another super-sweet movie this time of year is Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory. For this movie, I’ve also created a movie guide that has students practicing skills such as theme, conflict, characterization, mood, and setting. The human plot chart puzzle, symbolism worksheet, and constructed response prompts are excellent options to follow up the movie. Plus there are several suggestions for service projects that are inspired by the film.

And let’s not forget the all-time favorite Christmas classic: Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. If you like to show this film during Christmas, take a look at my movie guide. From reading charts and graphs, to reviewing plot with the interactive human plot puzzle, to analyzing symbolism, to writing, this movie guide is sure to add rigor to your movie-viewing experience. It works with any version of the movie you have on hand.

Go ahead… get cozy with some cocoa and a Christmas movie without sacrificing any learning.

4) Decorating and Celebrating in the Classroom: If you are allowed to have a Christmas party or decorate in your classroom this time of year, here are a few ideas to make it fun, easy, and educational!

Fun Theme:

Who knew that those tacky Christmas and holiday sweaters from the 90s would actually become a party trend? Yet, here we are… and they are actually super cute. I created this school-wide Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Pack, and the students at my high school have an Ugly/Tacky Christmas dress-up day every year; even the teachers participate! It’s so easy to host a tacky Christmas sweater party, and if you need some ready-to-go materials to communicate with parents and students or to make it educational, check out my Wacky Tacky Christmas Sweater Classroom Party Pack! There are even awards and activities to do in class during the party.

Elly Thorsen has you covered (All my puns are intended!) with her Physical and Chemical changes Ugly Holiday Sweater Coloring worksheets if you teach secondary science. In the worksheets, students read about a change that occurs over the holidays and identify it as a physical or chemical change by coloring an ugly sweater accordingly. Then they explain in sentences how they knew what kind of change occurred.

Decor:

If you are planning to deck the halls (or your classroom walls) for the holidays, there are so many posters that are educational. These multilingual Christmas and Hanukkah posters from The ESL Nexus represent different 35 countries, and include suggestions for 8 math, writing, and art activities that teach students about the countries! I like to hang my Nativity posters in my Sunday School classroom at church this time of year. These are sized as 8×10 both in jpeg and pdf format! You can print anyway you want… on home printer, online, or at the local photo lab!

If you teach a technology or computer classes, I love this idea from from Innovations in Technology. She has her high school students create her classroom’s Christmas decor using computer applications! Students certainly need to be skilled in Microsoft Excel and Google sheets to be successful in many college classes and the workforce. Students are challenged by creating the Christmas art, and they get to be a part of the decorating process.

Putting a Christmas tree up in your classroom may not be an option, but if you teach middle school math, Wilcox’s Way has you covered with her Middle School Christmas Tree Math Activity. Her resource includes 10 different templates you can use to build your Sierpenski Christmas tree pyramid. Have each student complete a couple of pyramids, and then watch the magic unfold as you put them together and watch your tree grow! I am fascinated with this!

$Middle School Christmas Tree Math Activity$

Treats:

What’s a party without some Christmas cookies and hot cocoa? Given that I have older students, I can usually say that everyone brings something to the table, so to speak, in order to eat. It can be something as small as a 2 liter drink or pack of plates. I even allow them to team up. In the case where students can’t bring anything, I ask them to speak with me and we figure out a good solution; I just want them to realize that it’s important to contribute if at all possible. Another thing to keep in mind is food allergies and school policies on food. If all of that works in your favor, have ALL the cookies, candies, and cocoa. If not, don’t worry. There are still some really fun ways to treat your students.

Kerry Tracy’s Christmas and Winter STEM challenges offer so much variety. I think the Candy Cane Calamity would have your middle school students laughing all the way!

Erin Hanson created a fun hot cocoa themed STEM activity. Middle school scientists will explore the effect of temperature (thermal energy) on marshmallows and candy canes in hot cocoa. Students will practice their science and engineering skills by making predictions, planning investigations, making observations, analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and they’ll love every minute of it!

In Amy Alvis’s middle school math class, students explore ratio and proportion with holiday cookie-themed task cards. Your middle school math students will love using manipulatives to discover how many marshmallows are hidden in each mug of hot chocolate in Leaf and Stem Learning’s Christmas Math Holiday Algebra activity. The variables are represented by holiday cocoa mugs and the constants by marshmallows!

$Christmas Math Holiday Algebra$

5) Stocking Stuffers: This category is my catch-all for the short Christmas activities and lessons I love that are perfect for just your plug and play, last-minute fillers. From stations, literacy, math, or writing centers, to bell ringers, to time fillers at the end of class, to a short periods or odd schedule days, we always need something we can grab quickly and “stuff in”!

The OCBeach teacher has her students writing at the beginning of the period using her poetry bell ringers for the winter season. My Christmas grammar worksheets designed for high school students aren’t your typical Christmas grammar exercises! These are truly NO PREP, print and go, age-appropriate exercises to challenge and review your teens’ grammar skills during December. These grammar activities for Santa reflect a seasonally-inspired thematic concept of the page that coincides with key, standards-based grammar skills. For example, students will repair broken sentences (fragments and run-ons) in Santa’s Workshop. Or, they will help Santa double check his list by correcting apostrophe errors. I’ve also provided beautiful clip art to add layers and interest to the pages to grab your teens’ eyes! Plus, for those fast finishers, there’s plenty for them to color and style! Extension activities are also provided on several of the sheets, and the grammar notes are included as well. Your students will get all “wrapped up” with these grammar activities!!

Getting rave reviews from fellow middle school language teachers is the HappyEdugator’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas homophone search. In this Christmas activity, middle school language arts students will be searching all over for homonyms and homophones in a wacky homophone version of the famous Christmas poem “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clark Moore.

I’m super impressed by the rigor and detail of The Lab’s science coloring by number worksheets for Christmas. Middle and high school students review the human body, periodic table, and more in this coloring activities bundle!

High school Spanish classes can even have a little holiday fun with La Profe Plotts’s Holiday Task Cards. My Christmas holiday real-world grammar fails task cards make the perfect grab and go activity for stations, using in Kahoot, or as bell ringers.

Remember to check your school’s policy on celebrating this time of year, so you are in compliance with those guidelines. May your season be blessed with love, rest, joy, and peace!

From my home to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Tips for Grading Essays to Save Time

Aaaaah. The grading essays burden of the English teacher. It’s a very real struggle for sure. A little while back I did a series on teaching writing, so I’d like to think of this post as an encore to those ideas. (Get started reading that series here at the first post.) Below I’m sharing five practical tips for managing the load.

– Working Those Deadlines:

First is planning time in the writing process to have check points that students submit via Google classroom – or whatever method works for you. Students submit thesis statements, works cited drafts, or even first paragraphs. Then I have a day in class that I “virtual conference” with them. While I’m leaving notes on their drafts, they continue with research typically. They can fix mistakes early and that saves me time later. Plus I’m already familiar with the essay to a certain degree.

Offer extra credit to kids who want to turn in the papers early, and then you can grade them as they trickle in. That helps alleviate the pile of material that comes in all at once.
Last, plan to show a movie or do something hands-off after the due date to carve out a little time in class to grade. I can spend 8-12 mins on a 500-700 word essay, so I have to plan and block that time off to the best of my ability. I usually choose a film of a novel that I won’t have time to cover in class but that I know students would benefit from seeing. Read more about how to make showing movies in class more productive here…. and take a look at my collection of no-prep literary movie guides here.

– Scoring Like a Pro:

I have a carefully crafted rubric that is specific to the task, so it’s easy and quick to mark and when students get their grades back, they can see the areas of strength and weakness. I use a separate rubric for grammar. This might seem like it takes longer, but I score content, Grammar, and MLA separately. For me, it’s actually faster that way, so I can just focus on one thing at a time. Those rubrics are in my complete writing curriculum.

Next, I made a codes sheet to make marking quick and easy for the same mistakes or remarks over and over. Download that sheet free here. But I do elaborate where needed, especially if it’s a weaker writer or earlier in the year.
Last, even though it may not be the “English-teacher” way, I don’t always mark every single error, and if an error is made over and over, I usually just mark it and take off points the first couple of times. That saves time, but also it’s not necessary to “rub it in their face.” In this department, I try to show a little grace. Then in the final note (see what else I say in final notes here), I remark that it’s something to work on for next time.

– Setting Essay Requirements:

If you have any control of the word or page requirements, make that work for you. I set word minimums and maximums. Struggling writers need those minimums to meet the requirement, but my excelling or over-achieving students have trouble with the maximum barrier. I hold students accountable at both ends.

– Giving Yourself a Break:

Be honest with students about how much time it takes to grade an essay, and don’t promise grades back in a short amount of time.
Try to space out your grading during the day or over a few days, so your brain doesn’t get tired. When I try to grade straight through a stack of papers, I really start to lose my focus after a while.
Practice self-care. Really – stay hydrated, and sit in a comfortable position with good lighting. I love to score papers on my front porch early in the morning, or by the big window in my office.

– Go Green:

If it works for you, have students submit papers electronically. Sometimes typing comments can be a lot faster than writing them. You can even use apps to leave audio feedback as well.
I use Google Docs and have students share with me or submit to the classroom. In this format, you can switch to suggesting mode to leave comments along the side of the screen.

Students get instant feedback.
I will still have students turn in the hard copy of their rubrics for me to use as a I grade, but you could also use a virtual rubric as well.

Just remember, that not everything works for everyone, but the most important thing at the end of the day is the fact that students do need more than just a number or letter on their essays. That’s certainly part of the package, but in order for student writers to become stronger, they need solid feedback from the pro – that’s you! In that process, though, we can’t overwork ourselves because it takes more time and effort to go that extra mile. This essay-grading burden is unique to the high school English teacher (and that is not to say that no other teacher has stacks of papers to grade). However, most other subjects aren’t assigning 500+ word essays as their unit’s culminating task multiple times a semester. The reality, though, is that teaching students to write well sets them up for a better future, and that is burden worth bearing.

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How My Trip to Disney Helped Me Prepare for Back-to-School

My family and I traveled to Disney World back in June, and I hadn’t been there even half a day before I started feeling inspired. For me, school is pretty much always on my brain, so it’s not surprising that it came to mind even when I was on vacation! But, truthfully, there is so much going on at Disney that I couldn’t help but learn from the best while enjoying my time at the happiest place on earth. Many of these things that I noticed at Disney reaffirmed what I’ve done in my classroom for years, but it’s nice to review, revisit, and recap. Here are five ways my trip to Disney helped me get prepared for back-to-school this August.

1) You can have a happy place and still have rules. Disney is known for being “the happiest place on earth.” So how is it possible that the happiest place has rules? Oh, but they do. They want you to move left, stay inside the tape, stand in straight lines, keep your hands and feet inside, etc. Why do they do this? So people are safe and get to do what they came to do. In turn – happiness. They aren’t unreasonable rules and requests at all. However, don’t most of our students – and maybe even the public – think that rules are just for fuddy-duddies who want to put a damper on all the fun? I, for one, believe in establishing rules up front so that it’s clear what the expectations are. I don’t like to make rules that are arbitrary and just have a bunch of rules just for the sake of having rules, but there must be a set of guidelines. In my classroom I typically select 3-5 overarching rules that serve as my classroom expectations – and that are good rules to live by as well. Too many rules, and all you’ll be doing is enforcing rules, but if you don’t have some rules to control the chaos, the chaos will control you.

I’ve had the following three rules hanging in my classroom for 10 years now:

Mrs. Faulkner Rule #1: Own it and stay in your lane.

Mrs. Faulkner Rule #2: Be aware of your surroundings.

Mrs. Faulkner Rule #3: Make a way, not an excuse.

You might notice I don’t have rules about gum, food, phones, etc. Now I do talk about these specific items on the first day. Check out my fun Classroom Rules Emoji Puppets for doing just that! I’ve learned if students are following those governing guidelines above and if I’m doing my job of actively teaching and facilitating each period, we can have a successful and happy place.

2) Schedules, plans, routines, and structure are necessary for things to run smoothly, for things to get done, and for everyone to feel good about it. Disney has everything planned down to the minute, and there is very, very little interruption to the plan. If you think about how much they have going on to make the parks the happiest places on earth, it’s critical to establish and maintain routines. They have a plan for shows, parades, buses, rides, fast passes, rain delays, and more. They even publish specifically when and where the characters will appear. Now think about how much we have going on in the classroom: attendance, lunch count, signing field trip forms, turning in lesson plans, differentiating, signing devices on the wi-fi, providing make-up work, collecting homework, passing out tasks, assigning groups, scheduling conferences, RTI, passing out a Band-aid, and on and on. Imagine if there were no plan for how to take attendance or how to pass out papers, etc. It would be chaos, kids would know you had no plan, and you wouldn’t get anything done. I am probably an over-planner or over-scheduler, but I do have a plan for every minute of my class period, every day of the week, and even an extended plan for the month. I have routines for turning in papers, passing out papers, getting in groups, and so forth and so on. Now, no plan, routine, or schedule is any good if no one knows what it is. That’s why Disney has the published pamphlets up front each day and even an app. The first few days of school, I talk about my classroom routines and schedules. We even practice, so they know what to expect. Some may argue that it takes up precious time at the beginning of the year, but it SAVES so much time later on. Plus, I just work them into what we are doing so that it feels natural. Each week I write the daily schedule on the board, and each day, I go over the daily plan with students before we start the lesson. We are all on the same page that way and can get moving.

3) Kindness and smiles matter. There are so many opinions about whether or not to smile at students right away or be overly kind to them. I would even say that my own opinion here has evolved over the years. The people who work at Disney wear a smile as part of their uniform – and maybe they are just genuinely happy to be there. I mean, if I were a Disney princess instead of a high school English teacher, then maybe I’d be all smiles all the time, too. But I chose to be an English teacher – I want to be there. So why wouldn’t I let my kids know that with a smile? So can you be kind and smile AND maintain a professional image and relationship with students? Absolutely – yes. I am 100% not my students’ friend – not in any way, shape, form, or fashion. That doesn’t mean, though, that I can’t – or won’t – be kind to them. That also doesn’t mean that I have no classroom management either or that I’m crossing any lines or that I’m not stern or won’t correct them. Believe me, I have plenty of lines drawn. Kids of all ages crave kindness, and for the 90 minutes that I have them each day, I need to find ways to show kindness. And going back to the idea of really wanting to be there – I do and I like to see kids learning and hear what they have to say. That makes me smile. They make me smile. So from the first day of school to the last, I greet them at the door and smile. I say please, thank you, and great job, and I really mean it. Smiles are contagious – give one and get one!

4) Have a grand finale, but start with the fire fingers. The best closing show at Disney this year, in my opinion, was the Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios. I loved all the closing and opening shows at all the parks because Disney doesn’t ever do anything halfway, but the HS park show had several things that really spoke to me in terms of back-to-school. If you’ve seen the show, you know that it opens with lights and music – it’s the best and biggest lead at any of the shows, and so you are expecting something really, really great. Then up from a mountain on a stage far, far away pops up a teeny, tiny Mickey. Granted, it was a live Mickey and not a projection or puppet, but he was so, so small. I guess I was just expecting more. Then several minutes of almost nothing go by and out of nowhere, he starts to dance and shoot fire from his finger tips!! That is a new level of spirit fingers, folks! Immediately, I was in. Why didn’t they start with that? Why didn’t they start with the fire fingers? The lead in was good and it got me interested, but then it was a huge let-down – until minutes later when Mickey whipped out those fire fingers. When I think about applying this experience to my classroom this year, I was reaffirmed that I must start and end the lesson with something great to get my students’ attention. It certainly won’t be fire fingers every time – or ever LOL! – but it needs to be relevant to activate their learning and draw them in – and keep them in – before I lose them. The law of primacy and recency says you remember the best whatever is at the beginning and ending. I’ll carefully plan bell ringers this year and exit tickets with specific purpose and pizazz so they aren’t just a waste of time or means to an end or a way to check a box. For me, that will look like carefully chosen daily grammar practice because my junior and seniors have ACT on the brain. For yearbook, it will be inspirational photos and team building tasks. To end, I’ll be sure to have students review the lesson and make their own connections. The beginning and end really do matter and make meaning. Every day won’t be “on fire” – that’s just going to be a reality – but this reminded me I do need to bring it to the best of my ability day in and day out.

5) Keep the focus and purpose in mind. I went to Disney with my family and two nieces – nine and three. The girls are super familiar with most Disney characters, and those we knew they weren’t interested in, we didn’t spend much time at. But there was one show we went to and about half way through, my three-year-old niece asked, “Who is that?” We all knew who it was and hadn’t even thought that she might not know. At that moment I realized that might be how our students feel when we present knew material to them. Sometimes we take for granted they know it. Because I have a very tight schedule, I can’t afford to spend time teaching material they already know, but I also can’t afford for them to be lost and have to rush and make it up later. So, at the beginning of the year, I always give a pre-test of 100 words that every high school English students should know. These are words from the CCSS, standardized testing words, and other words that are specific to English. Also, it’s really important to share with students the purpose of the lesson or activity for the day. They need to know why they are learning it and how it connects with the larger purpose. I usually explain it so explicitly to them so that they could tell anyone who comes into the class period to observe or anyone they talk to after class.

At the end of the day, Disney is in the business of making dreams come true. But we teachers are, too. In fact, the biggest of dreams are in our hands. What an honor and privilege to have that role in someone’s life. As I prepare for my 2018 school year, I want to make as much a magic in my classroom each and every day that I possibly can. Here’s to a “Soarin’” kinda year, and not a “Hollywood Tower of Terror” kinda one! Share with me in the comments how you prepare for back-to-school!

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What I Learned About Test Prep from My Handgun Permit Class

Last week I took a handgun safety/permit class. My husband had accidentally let his expire, so we did it together this time around. I wasn’t super sure it was something I wanted to do, but I accepted the challenge. While I was taking the class, it dawned on me that I really hadn’t been a student in a really, really long time, and I’m really glad that I had this opportunity. As a result, after the second day of class, which was the performance test, my head was swimming with ideas for this blog post – super fitting for this test-prep-time-of-year. Thus, I’m writing this blog post from the point of view of a student, but I’m going to throw in a few teacher take-aways along the way.

Practice – Prior to the class, my husband prepped me some at home with the firearm. We practiced what I needed to know for the performance part of the test because that was the hardest part. He set up a target in the back yard, and gave me a quick tutorial of what I needed to know about loading the gun and shooting at the target. The whole time we were shooting the wind was blowing, and the teeny, tiny target he set on the ground fifteen yards away kept moving. Honestly, it wasn’t doing much for my confidence level. He assured me I would be fine, and we wrapped up the practice session. It wouldn’t be until the performance piece of the test that I would realize the value of the level of “hardness” of that practice session. The instructors of class also provided a run-through of the performance segment of the test, too, and in that exercise we learned that we would be shooting a target much closer than what my husband and I had practiced at home, which was actually good news. And when we got to the range, we saw the targets were posted high and steadily on a board.
- Teacher Take-away #1) Once at the range, I felt really prepared for the actual test because I had practiced with someone who knew the test. My husband had already taken it once, so he had an idea of what would be expected. It’s really hard to prepare for something unfamiliar or unknown. That gave me confidence in him as my tutor, and it allowed him to teach me what I needed to know to be successful. Anytime I can go to training for assessments that my state offers, I do because knowing what’s expected is half the battle.
- Teacher Take-away #2) We practiced at home with circumstances that were way harder than the actual test, and I think that was critical. If I had practiced with something too easy – which it isn’t in my husband’s nature to let me off the hook anyway – then it would have been very likely that I would have struggled with the actual test. It helped tremendously that my practice session was set up harder than the real thing. I don’t test my students in class with the easiest prompts or questions. In fact, I go overboard sometimes with the difficulty level, so I can truly push them. Then, when test day comes, they are relieved at how prepared they were.
- The left picture below shows what my husband had set up for me at home…. and it was so windy that day, so the little yard sign with the little orange dot was waving in the wind. The right picture shows the targets at the range, and you can see the other people back there setting up. Look how closely they are standing and large the targets are!! LOL!

Vocabulary – During the lecture segment of the course, one of the main components the instructors focused on was the vocabulary. As a student, this was really important for me because I didn’t really know all the terminology I needed. It may be odd to consider that I would even need vocabulary words to be able to handle and shoot a gun properly, but it really is key. For example, during the performance test, the instructor told us to load our magazines and hold them up. In my domain, a magazine is something you read. In this very different domain, a magazine is what holds the ammo. Without an understanding of the vocabulary for this domain, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The vocabulary also showed up all throughout the standardized test, as well, and it either helped me choose the right answer or eliminate wrong ones.
- Teacher Take-away: I had to know the terms in context in order to understand what I was expected to do on the multiple choice test and at the range. On some of the questions I had to use process of elimination with the answer choices based on the vocabulary. I am also thankful we covered key terms because many of them were used in the questions. The same is true for state standardized tests; without an understanding of crucial vocabulary, students may not even be able read and understand the questions. And it’s really important to learn the words in context. I rarely give my students just lists of words to memorize; we take words from the texts we read and do a lot of work with context clues. I use this list of vocabulary words for my high school English class.

Scenarios – For someone who hasn’t been in a situation to use a handgun or need one (and hope I never am), it would have been really hard to work through some of the questions on the test since all this was pretty foreign to me. A key component of the course, along with the vocabulary and hands-on demonstrations, was the use of scenarios. They not only gave scenarios for when to use a firearm, but also when not to use a firearm. For me, it helped me not to just memorize the information, but I was truly able to internalize it, and I still remember those scenario/stories days after the test.
- Teacher Take-away: Brain research says that teaching strategies such as role playing and storytelling are effective because we remember what we are involved in, and the brain remembers stories because they are connected together with a beginning, middle, and end. When I giving examples and demonstrations to my students as well, I try to bring in examples and non-examples to show the actual target.

The Right Tools – During practice at home, we used a semi-automatic. I wore protective eye and ear gear. I practiced my stance and how to hold my hands. I loaded the gun myself. When we got the class, some people shared they had practiced with revolvers, and some shared they hadn’t previously practiced at all. The latter wasn’t really as big of an issue as the first. The instructors wanted everyone to qualify with a semi-automatic because they can shoot more rounds, and it’s faster since we had so many people in the class. So, the people who had practiced with a revolver prior or who had already been shooting and developed bad habits struggled quite a bit during the exam.
- Teacher Take-away: When we do practice for testing (because that really is a thing that must happen), we must do so with circumstances as similar to the real thing as possible. When my students take a practice writing exam, I run copies of the lined paper they will actually use. I set timers for the exact time limits. When we can, we even go test in the same rooms. The unknown and unfamiliar can be uncomfortable, and I want to eliminate as many curve balls as possible.

Encouragement – My instructors and husband were so encouraging and uplifting the entire time. They weren’t worried about failure, but rather so confident of success. I needed that because I just wasn’t so sure of myself. I tend to fear failure, and I can let it get the best of me – to the point I shut down and won’t keep trying. Thankfully, their positivity and confidence helped me do my best.
- Teacher Take-away: I am very guilty of pushing too much – review, practice, review, practice, review, and so on. I don’t mean it to seem this way, but I think that can convey the message that I don’t have confidence in what students already know. So, this year I packed up my intimidating, draining test review materials and made a conscious effort to use games and positive projects to keep my students’ self-esteem built up. And words. Just the power of positive words. Take a look at this lesson that I created earlier in the week with some words to inspire.

Going into to the class, I knew there would be a standardized test and performance test. So, I had to concentrate and focus, even if it was at the end of a long day and even if it was going to be a lot of new material that I had to learn quickly. Honestly, I was nervous; in fact, a wave of anxiety hit me when the instructors were handing out the test. I thought, “This is exactly what my students must feel like.” I hadn’t been in this place in YEARS. I am really glad that I had this opportunity if for nothing else than that reason alone. Sometimes we forget to put ourselves in our students’ shoes, and that paradigm shift was just what I needed to help me help my students through this testing season.

What do you do to help your students de-stress before the test? Leave me a comment below!

Keeping Kids Tuned in at the End of the Year: A Secondary Linky

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! Join me for a fun recap of some ways to keep students tuned in this time of year. I’m sharing tips for secondary English classrooms, and since that’s where my experience stops, I’ve enlisted the help of other secondary teachers in all subjects to link up great ideas below!

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 few 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!

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 that over my beloved classic fiction texts. Now, I’ve changed my tune completely. 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.
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.
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!
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.
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, and since I don’t show the 451 movie because it’s so old and not even worth the time, I thought this would be a fun way to end the unit. They’ll have to write something showing those parallels, of course!

Also, if you haven’t already followed over at my Facebook page, I’m doing a promo right now to give away The Shack when I reach 200 followers over there! You’ll need to follow and then go comment on that post, so I can enter your name!

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.

Check out my ready to go movie guides catalog for a variety of films- NO PREP! Click Here for Gatsby, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Giver, Hunger Games, Frankenstein, Red Badge of Courage, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Last Song, and more!

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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Treating “Activityitis” – Adding Value and Quality to Activities

Class time is precious and limited. With so many standards to cover and stakes being so high, it is imperative that everything we put in front of our students be standards-based, purposeful, and designed to drive and assess student growth. Over the years, I’ve reflected on some activities that I’ve done with students and realized that maybe just maybe 🙂 some of them were “fluff.” In the past, I have certainly been afflicted with “activity-itis.” In this blog post, I will explore in depth how to determine if activities are of quality and value.

The Symptoms of Activity-itis:

The students have no idea why they are doing the activity. You could probably argue that there will always be students who are clueless in a sense that they aren’t trying. In this case, I the problem goes much deeper. There are times when I dive right into a lesson or activity and just don’t tell my students why we are doing it or what it connects to. If I just forget to tell them, that’s one thing, but if I can’t answer the questions “Why are we doing this?” or “What are they learning from doing this?” then why are we doing it? Why are we building a model of a fire-proof house with our 451 unit? Guilty. Why are we drawing a picture of our favorite character in The Lord of the Flies? Guilty again. Instead, let’s trace the symbol of fire throughout the novel and analyze how it changes. Let’s read an informational text about how fire works and make literal and symbolic connections. If we want students to get to know characters, let’s have them create a body biography with text-based descriptions. Just make some tiny, purpose-driven adjustments can make huge changes in students’ growth and understanding.
The students are busy, but there’s no challenge. I suppose this could happen for a couple of reasons, but like I said before, class time is precious and limited. I’m going confess here that two of my biggest pet peeves are coloring and watching movies. I actually use and sell resource for both. However, there is always something students are doing that is skills based. Yes, coloring and movies make excellent brain breaks and sub plans, but even then, I just can’t get behind vacuous time-fillers. If students are coloring in my class, they will be editing sentences in order to color by number. If they are watching a movie, they are analyzing character development. More on using movies effectively in this post. There is always something that can be done to up the ante with any assignment.
The activity steps too far out of its subject, isn’t grounded in standards, or isn’t connected to any prior or future learning. I think this one creeps up a lot in English class because we do so much with texts that we feel we need to introduce. When I first started teaching The Crucible, I felt I had to tell students everything they needed to know about Puritans before we started the unit. Then I had to spend another day or so talking about the 1950s. Then, yet another day was spent covering the elements of drama. A week or more had passed and we hadn’t even started reading the text; and my kids were bored and over it. Eventually, I stepped back and asked myself, what I am I doing wrong? I love this play so much, but the kids hate it. Then, I realized: it wasn’t the play they hated, it was the presentation. Wow. So, how did I fix it? I ask myself one question: Why am I teaching this play? The answer? It wasn’t so they could learn the history of the Puritans. It wasn’t so they could understand the 1950s. It is so we could analyze a true hallmark in the canon of American literature — for the literature. That’s why I am teaching. In that regard, the only intro material I kept was one short informational text article about McCarthy and a quick vocabulary lesson on allegory. Then, we just dug in. I let the text do the talking. I developed questions, prompts, close reading exercises, and activities that drove students further and further into the text. The result? Students who enjoyed the play more than ever before, and students who were mastering standards.
The activity lack true engagement and/or collaboration. Students aren’t talking at all or aren’t talking about the actual task. How many times have you overheard students saying “What’s for lunch?” or “I have to work this afternoon” during an activity? Sure, students get off task with even the best designed activity. However, a key symptom of activity-itis is students who are off-task. If I have students in groups, what I really want them to be able to do is collaboration, bounce ideas off each, and share out. I want them to even learn to hear different ideas and defend their own answers. I love to have students think first, and talk second, so they have something prepared when they join the group. Task cards are hugely helpful with getting kids thinking and giving them direction.
There is no assessment or there is a discrepancy between the assessment and the activity. If at the end of the day, I’ve done a lesson and can’t recall if the students really “got it,” then I’m pretty much in panic mode. For me, it can be as simple as asking them. Other times, I’ll have a worksheet they have to complete. Other people like to do the ticket out the door. Whatever you choose, again, it needs to be purpose-driven, and truly measurable. You won’t find me having students hold up their thumbs, unless everyone’s eyes are closed! I need to truly know what they learned.

The Cure:

Design, discuss, and post essential questions to drive planning and measure learning. For more tips on creating essential questions and a free planning template to help with creating standards-based lessons and activities, take a look at my CC standards aligned depth of knowledge chart where I’ve aligned every ELA standard 9-12 and my free Guide to Essential Questions.
Student self-reflection. This isn’t always easy, but with particularly reluctant groups, I have success with my weekly reflection task cards that come in my student-directed data pack.Think about the end goal when planning. In other words, plan backwards. In order to help myself remember this important piece, in every one of the teacher planners that I design, I have a reflection page at the end of the month. It reminds me to pause and reflect on what we accomplished and need to work more on. More on planning backwards in this post.
Assessment and measurement that are consistent and align with the skills.
Make connections to prior and future learning. This can be done effectively if you work inside of units where a big picture is evident.

Yes, there are crazy-day schedules, half days , sub days, or sick days, or any number of random odd days occasionally when we need a quick low-stakes, no prep activity, but even those days need to be utilized to matter. Ultimately, I now evaluate each lesson and activity I plan for its standards-based value.

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