Ashley Matson

These forms provide steps by step instructions for improving writing. They help students disect their own writing and improve it based on need (clarity and coherence, paragraph structure, subject-verb agreement). Students write individual sentence as they exist in their own writing on the right. Then, following step by step instructions, students will be able to transform their own writing into grammatically improved pieces. This could also be used in partner work or a student draft supplied by

To assist students in analyzing the diction in Malcolm X's "The Ballot or The Bullet" and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream", this organizer selects important words from "The Ballot or The Bullet" to demonstrate the selection of important language. It then provides space for students to indicate whether these words were negative or positive descriptors within the speech. The organizer also provides a space for students to attribute specific tone vocabulary based on the word or phrase. Once th

This handout provides brief information on cause and effect and then leads students through a process to analyze the structure and respond to a high level question regarding the relationship between purpose and structure. It features a protocol and scaffolded questions to streamline this process. This can be applied to any cause and effect text.

This is a take on the fun, traditional building block game, with each block assigned a number that aligns with an analysis question. These documents have a literature, non fiction, and poetry edition. After students read, annotate, and analyze a text, they can engage in this exciting game! Just number your building blocks 1-10 to align with the questions. The physical game and documents can be purchased by request (ammatsongtn@gmail.com).

These resources outline the process of writing a narrative to aid students in identifying, applying, and analyzing elements of literature through their own practice. The assignment sheet doubles as the rubric!

Students love choice!!! Provide an article or allow students to choose one of interest to them and then move through the process of analyzing the nonfiction using this "blitz". Each element has a challenging "genius work" element that can motivate students to stretch their thinking or be assigned by the instructor to heighten the complexity.

A "Complex Poem" is a poem composed of dependent and independent clauses. This activity encourages creativity while practicing grammar concepts. It contains reminders about clauses, an example of a "Complex Poem", and space to create your own "Complex Poem". This exercise gives students an opportunity to practice writing dependent and independent clauses while creating a fun piece of poetry.

This will help students understand what it means to make an inference. It is a point of reference for students to place into notebooks (there are 2 on a page to save paper), or a resource that teachers could enlarge and use as an anchor chart.

This Mind Map file can be printed poster-size for groups or on individual paper for partners or individuals. The major topic and categories can be unique to any lesson to help students access background knowledge, organize thoughts/ideas, or demonstrate learning.

This frame presents the educator an opportunity to organize ideas when presenting a specific argumentative topic including claims and counterclaims. Additionally, as independence is built, students could use this blank frame to select their own topics and plan an original essay with multiple sources.