Digital DP

Based on the NY Times’ popular “Anatomy of a Scene”, the blog offers a guideline on how to teach students to think like a director. Using this as a foundation, the unit below ties in other resources from ReadWriteThink and original creations (visuals, written descriptions, and a rubric). Objective: Students will identify relationships between the written and visual art forms of our culture, to understand an author’s/director’s purpose, and to increase their analytic thinking skills.

Objectives: To observe, name, and practice effective discussion strategies. To improve ability to analyze literature by improving collaborative group discussions. Contents: 1) An introduction sheet explaining the objective and design of the Seminar, and expectations of the groups. 2) A guide sheet for the inner circle group and outer circle groups. 3) A grading rubric. The Seminar guide may be used in any classroom.

In this unit, students will study African culture - their stories, their people, their religion; they will also also look at how the media portrays Africa and compare it to real-life accounts. This is a powerpoint that has hyperlinks to other activities. Most of what is here is based on the lesson plan provided by PBS, with other ideas and sites connected to it.

Overview (provided in Word Doc in zip folder): Before becoming caught up in the question of defining multi-genre, you need to have a clear understanding of what genre means. Simply put, a genre is a category created based on its component parts. Written genres are often defined by the writing style, the form, and/or the content. Most people are familiar with broad genre classifications of literature: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Within these genres are sub-categories; think about familiar

Students will be creating their own book review podcast for a novel read in the current year that they would recommend to others. When writing the book review, they will combine persuasive statements that get the listener excited about reading the book with their own opinion.

Fakebook, farcebook, facebook - help your students create an online profile for a literary character, historical figure, or themselves using the free website "FakeBook." These guidelines help ensure that students will create quality work.

Project Goal: To demonstrate student understanding about a theme from their reading in multiple ways, spotlighting their individual talents.

Teaching informative writing? Trying to keep up with CCSS and need resources fast without boring your kids with worksheets? Let their digital savvy take over. Head to pro-con.org to explore controversial issues. Teach students to research, summarize, and present ideas in an organized, unbiased form with this template. Standards Met: CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.7,8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, an

Here you will find the information and guidelines I give to students when we reach the writing portion of current events and nonfiction unit. I have a separate guide for reading nonfiction. Note, I did not include a specific outline for the article (introduction, three body paragraphs, etc.,). One of the things I do is to invite students to notice and identify the style of different nonfiction pieces. We use the example articles to model our writing after and each of these is different. Student

The new and improved version of my 8th grade vocab builder. This meets the Vocabulary and Acquisition portion of the Common Core Standards. Your school may not be adopting the Common Core - that is ok! This still pushes students to think critically and examine the languuage they use and read.

One of the biggest challenges I faced when implementing the CCSS was finding nonfiction resources appropriate for middle school. This file is the guide I use with my students. We start with understanding why writer's write, identifying nonfiction elements (including an elaborated section on text structures), read a variety of reference material to notice the language and technique of authors, and finish with a lead-in to argumentative reading/writing (the unit I follow with).

Looking for a way to implement the Common Core Standards for Language? This is it! After a year of tweaking, this is a way for students to organize and manipulate new words and phrases they find in their reading. I give my students a month to complete one sheet; they pull it out each day during reading time. I also do check ins with them halfway through to work on issues and clarify any confusion. So far, I see vast improvements on their understanding of concepts such as "distinguishing connotat

Step by step directions and visual organizer as well as examples. Adapted from an original source by The Poetry Center and John Timpane to better fit the 8th grade classroom. Can be used 7th grade through 12th.

With this weekly worksheet, I give students five words that pertain to our other lessons or reading. For the remaining five spaces, they find words in their independent reading or vocab from other classes. The goal is that students will not only become familiar with the definition, but also be able to accurately use it in a sentence in it's various forms (as an adverb versus an adjective, in past tense, plural, etc.). ***This is my original vocab builder. For a more rigorous option, see my addit

These Word files break down Jason Ohler's "The Art of Storytelling" found at http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/storymaking.cfm into a manageable, meaningful guide for middle school students.

One thing that trips my students up is the language on the WKCE test. With this short lesson in addition to practice tests, students can better tackle the questions. I break them up into groups, each getting a slip, and then we come back to share and discuss.

This document include a writing goal, necessary vocabulary, suggested prompts, and a process guide with space to fill in due dates. Prompt topics vary and their differences touch on the different intelligences described in Gardner's work (music, linguistic, intrapersonal, and visual).

The new and improved version of my vocabulary builder! Each item listed corresponds directly to the seventh grade Vocabulary Acquisition and Use standards as well as the convention to "Spell Correctly" CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.2b. In my class, "Spelling Demons" are words students consistently struggle with. They keep a list in their notebooks of their words and can remove them when they are confident in their spelling. I give students two weeks to complete the activities with the ability to rework