Barbara Yardley

Looking for an engaging way to teach Text Structures and Analysis that will really get the skill to stick? Look no further than this fantastic kinesthetic reading activity that gets students up out of their seats and into thinking mode. Students browse large reading passage posters as if they were at an art museum to practice analyzing text organization structure. Use in connection with the free Text Structure PowerPoint presentation available for download in my store. Or combine with the entir

Teacher tested—student approved! This engaging Text Structure and Organization Unit offers a wide variety of inquiry based activities and mini-lessons to teach students how to analyze the ways authors use text structure to develop ideas. Aligned to the Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards, the unit includes 5 mini-lessons, hands-on activities and games, instructions for interactive practice sessions, mentor text suggestions, a writing assignment outline, and a final assessment. Use this lesson pla

What better way to engage your students in close reading and literary analysis but with a spine tingling thriller complete with skeletons, a lonely island, and three trapped men! Addressing the Literature Common Core Standards for reading, this complete lesson unit makes use of the classic horror story “Three Skeleton Key” to teach students how to analyze an author's choices, and support inferences with text evidence.The Unit includes a printable copy of the story, and mini-lessons and activitie

Although making and supporting inferences while reading is one of the most important aspects of the ELA-Literary curriculum, the skill can be quite challenging for many middle grade students. Formatted as a lottery style card game, “Risk It” is an engaging activity designed to give your students plenty of “reps” supporting their conclusions with text evidence. Designed specifically to take advantage of the adolescent propensity to take risks, students quickly become willing participants in re

Understanding text structures is an important reading skill because it aids comprehension of informational texts. Get middle school students started understanding and analyzing Text Structures and Organizations with this engaging PowerPoint presentation. Presentation addresses the five most common structures: : description, chronological, cause/effect, compare/contrast, and problem/solution. Examples and teacher instructions are included. Aligned to Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards: RI.6.1, 7.

This fast-paced, fun card game allows students to practice working with the figurative language concepts of simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and irony. The printable card set includes 40 great examples of figurative language in context, 10 ZAP! cards, an answer key, and an instruction sheet. During game play students must correctly identify the figurative language type as they compete to get rid of their stack of cards and avoid getting �Zapped!âï

Get your students up and moving as they race to classify and understand the four basic types of conflict. Aligned to the Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards, this engaging activity can be used as a follow-up to your own conflict types lesson, or used in conjunction with my Conflict Unit which is available in my TpT store. During this interactive, competitive activity, students read short story scenarios, identify the conflict types, race to the appropriate corner of the room, and collaborate with

If your students have a tendency to write “grocery list” essays, then here is the unit for you. In this series of 5 brief lessons, your students will learn how to use connectors like transitions and conjunctions to add sophistication and flow to their expository writing. They’ll study mentor texts to see how published authors tie ideas together, participate in activities that will allow them to create the missing links, and practice incorporating the transitions into their own writing. "

Identifying central conflicts is the first step in the literary analysis process, yet many students have trouble picking out the predominant problems in a complex text. Learn how to solve the problem and make your students conflict experts by teaching them just one simple sentence stem. This unit includes a five day lesson plan, interactive activities, worksheets, project materials, and a summative assessment. The “Conflict” PowerPoint presentation which accompanies this unit can be downloaded f

It's or its. There, their or they’re. Your or you’re. You’ve probably seen homophone mistakes on billboards, in newspapers, or even on school newsletters and just cringed. It’s clear choosing the correct homophone is often a problem for adults in our communities, and it’s especially difficult for beginning writers. There are all kinds of neat tricks for getting students to learn the correct form, but they still need practice. Instead of giving them a boring worksheet, why not use a fun game

Reading is thinking! If you want to help your students improve their reading comprehension skills this colorful PowerPoint presentation is just the ticket. Based on proven, research based techniques this presentation outlines how to apply basic reading strategies before, during and after reading, and introduces the acronym P.A.W.S. to help students remember what to do before they begin reading. An invaluable tool, the slide show includes teacher presentation notes, references, and plenty of memo

Making inferences while reading is one of the most fundamental skills in the ELAR curriculum. However, learning how use textual clues to make inferences can be quite challenging for many elementary students. Because students need plenty of practice identifying text evidence to support inferences, having several engaging activities in your bag of teaching tricks is a real must. This “Take a Chance” learning game can help fill that need. Formatted as a lottery style card game, “Take a Chanc

A research based "text talk" activity, this vocabulary lesson begins with the shared reading of a picture book and continues on to incorporate the brain friendly strategies of movement, novelty and repetition. Over the course of the lesson, students are presented with multiple opportunities to use new words in multiple contexts such as acting out word meanings, writing on the interactive white board, and journaling with a partner. Each unique interaction with the new words provides students with

Before students can accurately summarize and analyze a text, they must be able to identify a story’s central conflict. An understanding of that central struggle is integral to understanding a work’s overriding themes. (Common Core Reading Anchor Standards 2 and 5) This powerful, interactive PowerPoint presentation is designed to instruct middle and high school students how to quickly identify the core conflicts of literary pieces to ensure accurate summarization and structural analysis. Student

Looking for a great way to help your middle school students analyze and understand theme? Try this simple activity sheet that takes students through a step by step process of analyzing and identifying the central messages of popular picture books. The research-based principles of student choice and instructional scaffolding are at the heart of this activity. Not only is "Clues to Theme" highly effective, but students find the activity so enjoyable that they actually beg to repeat it. Created by

When it comes to analyzing poetry every English teacher has heard students exasperatedly complain: “I don’t get it!” or “How do you know that what it means?” at least a thousand times. Interpreting symbolism and extended metaphor is a difficult skill for middle and high school students, but this series of lessons we called Poetry Cheat Codes can quickly move students towards mastery of these challenging, but crucial skills. Scaffolding student learning from what teens already know about meanings

Homophone practice for more advanced students! It's the same fun-filled, edgy card game format your students have loved in "Risk It" and "Homophone Hazard", but this version has some of the really tricky homophones like effect/affect and principal/principle. The game can be used as a whole class activity, in tutorial sessions, or even in writing centers. It's simple to create, simple to learn, and a simply marvelous way to get those "reps" in without a boring worksheet. Turn your more advanc

Get your students in the MOOD for reading the classic thriller, "Three Skeleton Key," with this spooky story trailer. The trailer can be used in conjunction with my close reading unit "Analyzing Mood: Three Skeleton Key" which is available for sale in my TPT store. The story is perfect for teaching students students how to analyze an author's choices, and support inferences with text evidence, and study literary elements such as foreshadowing, mood, diction, and voice.

This is the answer key to the Structures game included in the lesson packet. I neglected to include it so I am offering it as a free download. Newer versions of the lesson plan with include the answer key as part of the packet.