CafeELA

This resource has many uses! Help students learn 16 important literary elements! Students can create flashcards or cut out each box individually to create a matching activity. Students can also use them as notes. Teachers could use them to create a literary element anchor chart in your room. The possibilities are endless!

Help your students understand what a theme is by providing them this list of common themes in literature. Using this list for reference can provide students with the scaffolding needed to understand how a theme is different than a topic, and lead them to creating theme statements of their own! I created this list to reflect a variety of themes that are common in literature.

In this personal essay by Craig Kielburger, Kielburger shares the journey that led him to create his organization Free the Children. The guided read questions alongside the article help students understand how events affect individuals, while identifying writing techniques often found in narrative nonfiction. In addition to these guided read questions, students can also analyze character with this high interest piece. What makes this selection especially interesting, is that Kielburger wrote thi

Help your students review figurative language with this short activity. Students are provided with quotes from the short story "Rikki Tikki Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. Using the word bank of terms, students must identify what type of figurative language can be found in each quote. There are also examples of conflict in this activity too.

Help your students better understand and identify main ideas and details using this interactive Hyperdoc activity. The topic centers on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Students follow the Hyperdoc through the stages of learning, practicing and applying their understanding of main ideas and details. Specifically, students begin by watching two videos on EdPuzzle (I use the two main details and details videos by McGraw Hill that can be found on YouTube.) Then, they explore the su

This Google Slides activity asks students to close read eight passages (provided) from the short story "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto. Students analyze characterization in each passage. The slide deck also reviews the five approaches to characterization: words, actions, looks, thoughts and reactions others have. Students can click and drag a highlighter bar to the section of text that best conveys character. Then, they provide a written analysis. Two examples are provided. The activity concludes w

In this station activity, students explore character, conflict, theme and setting by completing three Station activities. While the materials in this slide deck are labelled for "Yeh Shen" and "Rough Face Girl," I have also taught "Sootface" using these stations by changing the labels. Included in the slide deck are more specific directions for teachers. In station 1, students explore the relationship between characterization, character motivation and character actions by completing a table-size

These THREE engaging study guides have several activities to help your students become better readers and writers! This is a complete unit! Students will title each chapter in the novel, complete grammar activities with sentences from key parts of the novel, answer analysis questions, actively read and respond to the text, make connections through journal writing, explore vocabulary, use art to access analysis skills, write poetry and explore setting! This is more than a study guide - but a com

Do you students struggle with paraphrasing like mine do? Use this paraphrasing practice activity and escape room to help! Students will read an abridged article about the printing press. Then, they will practice identifying relevant text, use synonyms, recognize effective paraphrasing, practice changing sentence structures and write their own paraphrases! Activities 1-3 in this set include a digital escape room using a Google Form. Activities 4 and 5 are still interactive - but do not lead to a

Turn your course syllabus into an engaging scavenger hunt! I do this activity the first two days of school, instead of reading the policies and procedures. Students are up and exploring the room, which gives you a chance to meet each one in person and have one on one conversations! I included the full scavenger hunt I use, including the clues/answer key. You will need to customize/edit based on your own policies and procedures, but I also included directions that explain the concept behind each

This engaging project will help your students understand text structures, make connections, practice paraphrasing and explore transitions! They will read an abridged "Kids Who Changed the World" article originally posted on the Good Housekeeping website (included). Then, they will select five kids from the article and analyze the text structures used by the author. Finally, they will choose three of these inspiring kids and create an infographic poster, using different text structures along with

Use these literature circle roles in your next Graphic Novel study! For use with a single whole class work, or in book club style units, these five literature circle roles ask students to analyze character, conflict, mood, style and plot. When you print the document double-sided, the analysis students complete is on the front, and a note-taking graphic organizer can be found on the back.

Help your students explore persuasive writing, creative writing, point of view and character with this two week mock trial project! Rikki Tikki, the mongoose, has been accused of murder; was it murder, or self defense? Should Rikki Tikki be considered an antagonist or protagonist? Each student in your class will be assigned a character in the short story (there are also attorney and wildlife expert roles). The student must close read the text to find evidence of the assigned character's perspect

In this activity, students will work in groups of four to review basic literary elements using the picture book, My New Teacher and Me by Al Yankovic. Reading this book at the beginning of the school year has so many benefits! In this case, after reading, students answer questions about basic literary elements (plot, setting, conflict, characterization, theme, etc). As they answer the questions, they play tic-tac-toe BINGO, which helps keep them engaged! More specific directions on how to run t

Help your students develop critical reading skills with this graphic organizer that works with any text. Students use the word ACTIVE to remember six effective active reading strategies and apply them as they read. This graphic organizer can be copied double-sided and offers plenty of white space for note-taking.

Help your students better understand figurative language by tapping into their artistic talent! In this activity, students read the poems "Identity" and "The Rose That Grew from Concrete." Both poems use figurative language and imagery to convey their messages. Students create sketches of the nouns in the poems, and then use the adjectives, verbs and adverbs to figure out and label what each noun stands for. Not only are students analyzing figurative meanings, but they are using grammar to be be

This engaging study guide has several activities to help your students become better readers and writers! Students will title each chapter in the novel, complete grammar activities with sentences from key parts of the novel, answer analysis questions, actively read and respond to the text, make connections through journal writing, explore vocabulary and explore setting! This is more than a study guide - but a complete set of activities for chapters 1-6 of the novel. Study guides 2 and 3 are also

This engaging study guide has several activities to help your students become better readers and writers! Students will title each chapter in the novel, complete grammar activities with sentences from key parts of the novel, answer analysis questions, select important lines from the text, make connections through journal writing, record a Flip video that shares important observations, sketchnote key scenes, explore vocabulary and write poetry! This is more than a study guide - but a complete set

This engaging study guide has several activities to help your students become better readers and writers! Students will title each chapter in the novel, complete grammar activities with sentences from key parts of the novel, write a found poem that captures the setting of the refugee camps, pretend to be Salva and email Michael about his travels to Rochester, answer analysis questions, select important lines from the text and sketchnote key scenes. This is more than a study guide - but a complet

In this research project, students pretend to be a person they read about during the unit, and using lines from the text for inspiration, create four social media posts that demonstrate their ability to shift their point of view and purpose. This project allows helps students practice their paraphrasing skills. I use three texts for this project. Two are from Scholastic: The Girl Who Dared (a reader's theatre play) and "This Girl Fought for Free Speech" (an article). I also use a personal essa