Teacher Off Duty

One of the hardest parts in facing down preparing for the school year is knowing WHAT to prepare when the list is absolutely endless. That's what these checklists are for! A set of 3 summer checklists for new teachers, adjusted for how much time you have to prepare for the school year: whether you have one month available to prepare, one week, or one weekend. It walks you through what to prepare for: Curriculum year overviewYour first 4 weeksYour first lesson plansDesigning a functional class

After sitting in on probably a hundred interviews, I decided to sit down and put together a workbook to help you do what 99% of teacher candidates DON'T do. So much of an interview is how you prepare for it, but so few teacher candidates seem to know how to prepare for it. The good news is, it's not difficult. it just takes some careful strategy, and someone who's been on the other side to let you know what they're looking for. This workbook is my secret sauce to nailing any interview you walk

This 3-unit, CCSS-aligned bundle includes units for Personal Narrative, Slam Poetry, and Argumentative writing for a total of 4 months of detailed lesson plans, slides, handouts, and rubrics. Purchase and you're set for a jam-packed, highly-engaging semester! Each unit pushes students to pick topics, life lessons, or world problems that they are passionate about, and then identify real ways to publish their writing. For the Personal Narrative unit, students get to know each other and deepen

This comprehensive, 24-lesson, 200+ page unit has everything you need to empower your students to speak their stories, find their voice, and create something they're proud to share. Perfect as a first unit of the year, or any other time of the year, this unit will not just push your students to expand some of the trickiest narrative writing skills, but bring your class together. The unit is in Writing Workshop style, with creative ideas for 10-15 minute mini-lessons, 25-30 minutes of work time

The perfect bundle to inject some self- and peer-revision and editing strategies into your argumentative writing unit. Because let's be real: these skills too often fall by the wayside, and it can be TOUGH to get creative about teaching one more skill. --- **Note**This bundle is included in the following, larger bundle at a discounted price:Full Argumentative Writing Unit Plan---This pack includes every lesson about revision from my full Argumentative Writing Unit including self-evaluation, pee

The perfect bundle for boosting students' skills in writing smooth, cohesive arguments. Teachers teaching argumentative writing: don't worry. I get it: You're going through your pre-assessments, and it's like your students have never seen an outline. They've got 3 reasons in one paragraph, some with evidence, some with none, and some weak reasoning behind just one piece of evidence. Students are slapping quotes around like just putting them in there, with no lead-in, no analysis, proved

Not sure how to teach students how to add research to their argumentative piece? I've got you with this 5-lesson research bundle. --- **Note**This bundle is included in the following, larger bundle at a discounted price:Full Argumentative Writing Unit Plan---It's no joke, teaching students how to use research in their writing without plagiarizing is hard. Not to mention teaching them how to do it in the age of fake news... But they need to know it. And you need good resources to teach it tha

So, you want to have students write about what they care about--but how do you get them to come up with an idea that they care about...and then how do you get them started? --- **Note**This bundle is included in the following, larger bundle at a discounted price:Full Argumentative Writing Unit Plan---This bundle is the perfect set of lessons to kick off your choice topic argumentative writing unit. 7 engaging lessons are the first lessons I use in my full Argumentative Writing Unit, and will ge

25 CCSS-aligned lessons walking students through writing passionate argumentative letters about an issue they care most about, one letter of which they will mail at the end of the unit. The unit begins by exploring how teen activists have changed the world by speaking out about what they believe in, and then guides students through identifying what they’d like to change in the world. The remaining 5 weeks of lessons teach students Common Core argumentative skills, addressing the most common

This lesson goes beyond defining quotes and paraphrasing and helps students decide whether to quote or paraphrase information they find from other sources. Using a flow-chart, they can use questions to decide why they are including the information (because of the wording? Because of the fact? etc.) to decide whether to quote or paraphrase. Another handout takes them systematically through the rest of their writing to evaluate how they quoted/paraphrased all their other evidence, and fix it to m

A lesson plan that combines Colbert and Wheat Thins to teach one of the most difficult-to-teach skills in argumentative writing: smoothly integrating quotes and evidence. --- **Note**This lesson is included in the following bundles at a discounted price:Full Argumentative Writing Unit PlanResearch Lesson BundleOrganization and Structure Bundle (for Argumentative Writing)--- I GO CRAZY when students just slap a quote the middle of their writing with no intro and no analysis. Because I’ll just be

An easy way to teach students to evaluate their sources for reliability--whether for research or for life. --- **Note**This lesson is included in the following bundles at a discounted price:Research Lesson BundleFull Argumentative Writing Unit Plan--- This lesson plan on evaluating sources walks students through searching for a source and evaluating its reliability. It includes a checklist I have used with great success with my own students. By the end of this lesson, my students were sometim

Don’t let editing grammar and formatting fall by the wayside this argumentative unit. --- **Note**This lesson is included in the following bundles at a discounted price:Revising, Editing, and Peer Feedback Pack (for Argumentative Writing)Full Argumentative Writing Unit Plan---This lesson plan includes a lesson plan along with 9 stations’ instructions you can mix and match, including: Run-on sentencesTheir/they’re/thereCapitalizationQuotation marksGeneral formattingIn-text citationsWorks Cited

One of the most challenging argumentative techniques to teach, this lesson plan addresses the most common pitfalls students have while crafting counterarguments. It includes a scaffolded, easy-to-differentiate handout along with a detailed lesson plan and slides to help your students go from defining a counterargument to applying it in their own writing within a class period. --- **Note**This lesson is included in the following bundles at a discounted price:Organization and Structure Bundle (f

My go-to lesson plan for teaching claims, evidence, and reasoning, this lesson compares making an argument to riding a rollercoaster. --- **Note**This lesson is included in the following bundles at a discounted price:Brainstorming and Outlining Bundle (for Argumentative Writing)Organization and Structure Bundle (for Argumentative Writing)Full Argumentative Writing Unit Plan--- Each part - claims, evidence, and reasoning - is a different step to the process of strapping your reader in and keepin

So, you want to have students write about what they care about--but how do you get them to come up with an idea? This 2-day lesson challenges students to identify problems in their community and the world that they care deeply about. The first day, they will circulate the room, creating giant lists of problems they see in the world. The second day, they will use their peers to talk about each topic from their personal list to discover which would be the best for them to write about. Both days

Forget giving an outline for students to mindlessly plug and chug. This CCSS-aligned lesson takes teaching organization one step further. This lesson begins with students annotating mentor texts for where they find claim, evidence, and reasoning, and then creating a plan for how they’d like to organize their own. --- **Note**This lesson is included in the following bundles at a discounted price:Brainstorming and Outlining Bundle (for Argumentative Writing)Organization and Structure Bundle (for

We hardly get it right in the first go, so why should we expect our students? This lesson plan prepares students to perform a speech, slam poem, presentation, or any other type of scary performance before the actual day. This lesson plan takes students through practicing their speech over and over and over with different peers BEFORE the big day, so that when it finally arrives, they own it. I've done this lesson plan almost every year I've taught, and it's always one of my favorites. Though s

Unsure how to introduce slam poetry to your students? Nervous that they won't take it seriously? This is my go-to lesson plan to introduce slam poetry to my students (as featured in my blog post here. In 4 years, it's never failed me, and I'm providing it to you for FREE because I know how much of a game-changer slam poetry can be. This lesson plan includes: -Content standards -Language standards -One detailed lesson plan -Editable handout accompanying the lesson plan -Power point slides for t

Wondering how to teach your students to give thoughtful, meaningful feedback on their writing, but not sure how? Productive peer conferences do not happen automatically, and it is a difficult skill to teach. It's no wonder that they can lead so many teachers and students to frustration. Luckily, I've learned a few tricks that I would love to share to help improve feedback in your own class, and as a result, improve your students' skills and independence in academic conversations AND writing. I