Engaging Deeper Thinking

Podcasts are a wonderful way to bring storytelling into your classroom. Research has shown that "better listeners are better readers." This is a blurb from The Cult of Pedagogy website- "Listening to stories helps students hear grammar and syntax and understand how stories work. Incidental exposure to vocabulary through listening and reading together helps students learn the meaning of unknown words. Research shows listening while reading improves text reading rates and leads to higher compreh

This pdf is filled with 7 informational articles about the history of how some of our most prominent Christmas traditions came to be (the Christmas tree, Christmas lights, the poinsettia-to name a few). Each article has multiple choice questions about that article. Students can choose a Christmas tradition to read about and then complete the questions. Next students will create blackout poetry on the article they chose. One example shows the article about gingerbread blacked out to make a beauti

This bundle includes a variety of 7 Greeking Out episode companion sheets. 5 of the episodes are based on Greek Mythology and then there is one about a story from Mesopotamia and one from Norse Mythology.

Brains On is an amazing science based podcast for kids. This bundle includes the high interest topics of Time Travel, Ancient Lost Cities, Language, Tardigrades, and Dreams. This could be a great whole class listen or could be a centers based activity with students listening to the episodes with earbuds.

This activity is a great end of book project. It can be very effective as a group project, but can also be a great individual project. As a group students will need to justify and explain how they want their hexagons/ideas connected and agree at the ultimate arrangement. There isn't one right answer and the conversations will be rich and lots of critical thinking will be taking place.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum is a beautiful tribute to the victims of 9/11. The website does an amazing job of bringing the museum and its exhibits to life even for people who have never been there. This Google Slide deck has links taking students throughout all corners of the website in an organized way. It hits on some of the lesser known aspects of 9/11 as well as gives students the big picture. It ends with a link that moves away from the museum and tells a less known story about the boat evacua

The Freedom Trail is a walking trail in Boston that links the many historical sites important to American history. This Google Slidedeck doesn't cover everything on the tour, but highlights those important to what students learn in American history. Some places included are the Paul Revere house, the Boston Massacre Site, Bunker Hill Memorial, and the USS Constitution. It also includes a link to another walking tour in Boston called the Black Heritage Trail. This is a carefully selected curation

Podcasts are a great way to get students excited about storytelling. The podcast Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest has creepy but still overall kid friendly stories that the students get super excited about. This is a set of 5 notes pages to fill out while they listen to five episodes from the first season. The first season of episodes can be accessed for free. These notes pages build ELA skills like summarizing big ideas in different ways but are a low risk way for students to practice these skills. Anot

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on mythology. This would be a great addition or extension to a unit on Mesopotamia. Many students know more about Greek or Roman mythology but know little about one of the e

Annotating while a student reads is an incredibly important skill. This assignment makes annotating fun with booksnaps. Students will look for signposts like words of the wiser, again and again, aha moments, memory moments, and tough questions. They will take a picture of the text and then create a fun and thoughtful reaction and analysis of the important quote they chose. This does not have to be used with The Lightning Thief. Booksnaps is an idea that works for any fictional book. It could be

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece or Greek Mythology.

Students will briefly learn about what UNESCO world heritage sites are and will explore a map that shows their locations. They will then get a virtual tour of 5 different sites- the pyramids of Giza, Rome city center, sites in Greece, Easter Island, and the Taj Mahal. Each slide has a link and then questions to guide students in their explorations. The questions help the students stay focused as well as hold them accountable. Students will love this opportunity to explore the world and it could

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology, or with reading Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. This is about Theseus and how he defeats the minotaur. It has students analyzing w

This is a great beginning of the year activity to get to know your class. It gets the students really thinking about books that have been meaningful to them throughout their lives. Listening to students share the books that have impacted them will create classroom community and also allow you to get to know them as readers. You'd be surprised how inspirational of an activity this ends up being when students present their Textual Lineage to the class. This Google Slidedeck has example slides tha

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening schools, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece or Greek Mythology.

Listening to podcasts in the classroom has many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology, or with reading Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. This is about the creation story of humans in Greek mythology. It brings in the Tit

Podcasts are a great addition to any classroom of any age. Brains On is a wonderful podcast that usually covers scientific concepts, but the topics can cover pretty much anything. This is an interesting episode about tardigrade or water bears. Kids will love listening about the microscopic world around us. This recording sheet could be used as whole group or the students could listen independently if they have their own technology devices. It could be used as a substitute for read aloud one day

There is a traveling exhibit called The Science Behind Pixar that has made its way across the United States to different Science Centers. They have created an amazing virtual exhibit that gives a wonderful online version of this exhibit. This Google Slidedeck helps students to stay organized and focused while they travel through the exhibit and holds them accountable while they explore. It is a great STEM activity and shows real world career connections for students who are interested in animati

Forever Ago is a podcast that digs into the history of popular everyday things. This episode is about the intriguing history of macaroni and cheese. Students will be surprise to learn how far back macaroni and cheese goes and to learn about how Thomas Jefferson introduced it to America and how it helped Americans during the Great Depression. There is a notes page as well as a fun, highly engaging blog post assignment. Students will take notes during the podcast and then use those notes to creat

This virtual field trip begins in Pompeii. Pompeii has 360 degree views of the ruins that students can explore. It gives informative background knowledge about Pompeii before the eruption as well as why the impact of its discovery is so important. Finally, there is a connection to another famous volcanic eruption that occurred in what is now Greece. They share the connection of both being destroyed by a volcanic eruption, but at the same time being perfectly preserved underneath the ash for thou