Ryan Reeves

(Now includes a PowerPoint version!) This group activity uses a popular student interest, dating, to begin the discussion of the concepts of denotation vs. connotation. The activity combines a whole-group instructional SMARTBoard activity with individual, group, or partner practice. This is an enjoyable way to help the students understand the concepts. Some standardized test practice is included as well as review of using context clues to determine denotation. This has always been a fun and enga

This is a 23-slide fully editable PowerPoint presentation to instruct students on how to give an oral presentation or speech. This is specifically geared to a persuasive speech, but most of the points apply to all types of oral presentations and speeches. Presentation also includes examples of note cards and a scoring rubric for oral presentations/speeches. The presentation can easily be edited and used for any discipline! Thanks for considering this!

This is a simulation based on the premise of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. In groups, students are given the same basic scenario as the beginning of the book and are asked to formulate a plan to save the world. This combines a group project (graded individually) with creative problem-solving and a persuasive speech. It can be easily adjusted based on time and students' needs. Download includes lesson plan, handouts, PowerPoint presentation, and scoring rubric. All items can be edited/customi

These activities could be everything you need for a journalism course or class. Based on over 10 years of experience, the materials are taken from many different resources plus my original creations into: a 69-page staff handout covering almost all aspects of journalism, reporting, and newspaper publishing. Also included is a Word copy of the handbook that can be edited and customized to fit your program. A PowerPoint of the main points is also included. A bonus mini PowerPoint presentation on w

This file includes a 19-page PowerPoint presentation for whole group instruction on connotation vs. denotation with examples and student learning activities. Upon completion of the PowerPoint, students complete Quiz A. Students who do not successfully complete Quiz A complete various learning activities in Practice Activity A. Those students then take Quiz B. Students who do not successfully complete Quiz B have additional learning activities in Practice Activity B. At this point, most of the st

This is a file with the advertised grade-specific English Language Arts (ELA) and literacy common core state standards in a fully customizable Excel spreadsheet format. Create checklists to track your students’ progress in the standards, or to keep track of which standards you have covered. Please download the preview file for more information and ideas on the different ways you can use this file. *Please note that there is no Reading Literature Standard 8, so I didn’t include it in this file.

Although journalism students are anxious to get writing, I believe it's important to give them a bit of the history of journalism so they understand and learn to appreciate the traditions of the past. This is a short presentation that will help give students a foundation or starting point. Thanks for considering this presentation. Ryan Reeves

My students always enjoy reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. As I’m always looking for new ways to teach the standards, I created this argument essay assignment addressing society’s treatment of those with physical disabilities. The focus is on how the side show characters are treated in the book and the movie version as well as the movie The Greatest Showman and whether we have made any progress in how we treat people with disabilities. I really like that the topic is n

*NOTE: This item now includes a Powerpoint version of the SMARTBoard lesson.-- I have put this together from a number of ideas/sources using car names to teach connotation. This is a engaging way to teach connotation: using car names. The SMARTBoard lesson asks students to think about the connotations of various car names. Pictures of the cars are included which really help to solidify the concept. The group activity is a good extension activity to help students spend a little more time with the

In my 18 years in the classroom so far, one of the biggest challenges is always classroom management. Student behavior is the big unknown every single day, and also that which provides some of the greatest joys and challenges of teaching. This is a 40-slide presentation that discusses classroom management. The fully customizable presentation includes traits of effective classroom management, how to design an effective classroom management plan, and offers specific option on how to effectively ad

This activity includes John Adams’ Letter on Jefferson, one of the CCSS Grades 6-8 text exemplars, as the reading passage. The activity presents 19 different practice assessment questions closely aligned to some of the Reading Information Text (RI) and Language (L) standards for seventh grade. The passage is pretty complex for seventh graders, but working through these exercises with them will not only give them practice for the new assessments, but also give them confidence in their abilities.

The story of Phineas Gage is one of my favorites to share with my students, because the life of Phineas Gage and how the injury dramatically changed it really interests the students and keeps their attention. I use the book, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Scienceby John Fleischman because I like the way Fleischman tells the story as well as the information about brain science. However, these activities can also be used with other books or shorter versions of the story such

This is always one of my students' favorite activities of the entire year. It is a poetry writing activity that could be used as an introduction to a poetry unit, a creative writing unit, or as an object lesson about the power of getting to know your subject/topic. Full lesson plan, assignment handouts, and student examples included. Students are assigned to find and bring a rock. Over the course of the next few days, students "bond" with their rocks by answering questions in their journal about

One side of the bookmark explains how/when to use 6 annotation bookmarks. The other side of the bookmark shows examples of how to use all 6 symbols. Instead of providing students with 10, 20, or more symbols to try and keep track of, this bookmark limits the symbols to 6. This number is manageable for students and I find that with practice, students are able to internalize the valuable skill of annotating. Please see the preview file for more details. Thanks for considering!

This is one of my student’s most memorable learning activities. I can say that because at the beginning of June (2013) I ran into some students that had been in one of my English classes 15 years ago. One of the students specifically remembered doing this activity and also enjoying it. She said that she still has her poster. This learning activity is a creative way to address some of the common core state standards, specifically RL.1, W.2, W.4, W.9, L.1, L.2, and L.5. The activity also provides

This is a PowerPoint presentation with effective interview tips compiled from various sources I use primarily with my journalism students. I review these points with each new year. The last slide contains teaching tips and next steps. Thanks for considering this activity.

This is a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation covering Shakespeare's life and career from birth to death. Includes Shakespeare's parents, his youth, education, marriage, children, career, his plays, his critics, and the original Globe and the current Globe. Includes text and pictures and a complete list of his plays by category: comedies, tragedies, histories, and so on. Effective as an introduction to Shakespeare, as a review, or a way to bring all students up to speed where students come from dif

With so many important vocabulary words to teach in a year, making data-informed instructional decisions is vital! These assessments cover the most important vocabulary words in each standard (RI.8.1 through RI.8.9) and can be used as pre- and/or post-assessments. Use the assessments individually (Word or PDF) or customize (Word format) to combine assessments. Words are presented in context, so students must know and be able to apply the word, not just recognize the word or match the word to its

As teachers, we generally have a good idea of how our students feel about our course at any given time. As professionals, we know the value of feedback from various sources. This quick survey provides students the opportunity to provide feedback about your course in an easy-to-complete manner for them, and an easy-to-interpret manner for you. If you are just interested in some data, you can quickly scan through the front page to quickly gain an overall feel of how positive or negative your stude

This is a beginning of the school year bulletin board idea to help students get excited about the reading for the year. It can be done with any kind of map and I've used actual book covers or pictures of book covers to make it more colorful. The main message is that books help us experience a lot of people, places, and things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do. Put book covers or titles of books on the board with strings/yarn connecting the book with where on the map the story takes place.