Feltopia Press
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Jupiter, Florida, United States
About the store
I have spent 28 years teaching advanced and gifted language arts at the middle school level. The instructional materials I offer here are informed by empiricism, experience, and research. I know what students need and what teachers want.
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Exploring the Author's Voice & Purpose PowerPoint
Voice and purpose are intricately tied together in any piece of writing, whether professional, literary, or student. This slide show leads students through an exploration of the elements of voice (diction, figurative language, syntax) and how they must be suited for audience and purpose. Each concept is illustrated by a literary passage that class and teacher, together, can analyze.
This file comes as a 28-slide PowerPoint (2007) file. The background is no-frills, intended for an older high
8th - 12th
English Language Arts, Literature, Writing
Marzano Student Scales for Middle and High School Language Arts
My school district has bought into the Marzano model, but as with most educational spasms, no one really knows what’s going on. Part of our evaluations are dependent on employing student learning scales, but no one seems to have a clear idea whether that means a separate scale for each of the 81 skill standards I’m expected to teach or what they should look like. The few examples that are out there are either too juvenile or too technical and full of eduspeak; neither seems appropriate or help
6th - 12th
English Language Arts
Outlining Informational Text - two practice assignments
Outlining is a powerful tool for cutting through the chaff and getting to the essential information of a text. In these two exercises, students will read a high-quality, extended non-fiction text and then outline its main points. The texts are included, as well as blank outline and answer key filled in outlines. Both articles, as well as providing great practice on this important reading skill, can lead to some great classroom discussions.
The first article is "The Last Days of the Iceman"
8th - 12th
English Language Arts, Informational Text, Reading Strategies
Advanced Punctuation - PowerPoints and Handouts
Finally, the mysteries of the dash and the ellipsis revealed!
Advanced punctuation is a topic that is often overlooked in secondary language arts education, and yet correct punctuation is critical to clear writing and accurate reading. Here is a complete package that will help you provide thorough and practical instruction in the nuts and bolts of advanced sentence punctuation (and teach some grammatical concepts and sentence variety and complexity at the same time). These two PowerPoint pres
7th - 12th
English Language Arts, Grammar, Writing
George Orwell's 1984 Complete Study Guide
Dystopia! Cruelty! Deceit! Love in a time of tyranny! 1984 is a haunting warning of a possible future world ruled by a power-mad oligarchy. Now more than ever, Orwell’s great cautionary tale about the cynical abuse of power is relevant to our world. Help your students develop critical analysis skills, close reading skills, vocabulary acquisition, historical knowledge, and reading stamina by guiding them through the world of 1984. This item, in a zipped .pdf and .ppt format, provides you w
8th - 12th
Close Reading, English Language Arts, Literature
The Clause of All This Trouble - Locating Subjects and Verbs
Teaching grammar can be such a monstrous chore! Make it a bit more palatable for your students and a bit easier on yourself with this grammar package that thoroughly covers locating the subject and verb of a main clause.
In order to help students write more mature and stylish (and correct) sentences, they must first be able to identify the subject and verb of a clause. And if your students are anything like mine, they can’t find a subject/verb combo with both hands and the help of a seeing ey
7th - 12th
English Language Arts, Grammar, Writing
Problem Words 1 - 9
English is such a confusing language! So many homophones and similar sounding words--what's a motivated student supposed to do? Here is a great resource, presented in very manageable portions, of difficult words, with a powerpoint presentation, practice assignment, and test for each unit. These lessons will help your students be better, more precise writers and increase their reading vocabulary, while giving them plenty of high-level reading practice.
This item contains ten PowerPoint pres
6th - 12th, Adult Education, Higher Education
English Language Arts, Vocabulary, Writing
Welcome to Hell--Parts of Speech PowerPoint
Oi! You and your students both find it dull. But you know it's important. Here's a vampire-themed PowerPoint presentation that very thoroughly covers all eight parts of speech, with examples, tips, and suggestions for determining part of speech. It's a bit irreverent with a flames of hell background and a little flapping devil in the corner of each slide, geared toward an older audience of high school students. Check out the preview to see if it's right for your classroom.
8th - 11th
English Language Arts, Grammar
Sentence Construction: Building Great Writing
Constructing solid, sophisticated sentences requires planning and a detailed blueprint of building techniques. This 30-slide PowerPoint presentation provides just that—a thorough introduction to the four types of sentence structure, how each is constructed, along with invitations for students to practice writing each type as you go through the lesson. Using a construction-site theme, this presentation first introduces clauses (both main and subordinate), then how they can be linked to form sim
7th - 11th
English Language Arts, Grammar, Writing
Writing the Introductory Paragraph
Here's a friendly PowerPoint presentation to help your students get their essays started with an effective introductory paragraph. This 30-minute lesson offers six ways to open an expository or argumentative essay. Strategies include: personal experiences, quotations, fact/statistics, rhetorical question, current events, and contrast, each with multiple student writing examples. Stop teaching the whiz! bang! onomatopoeia gambit and step up to more effective and more mature intros. Writing I
7th - 12th
English Language Arts, Writing-Essays, Writing-Expository
CCSS
W.9-10.1
, W.9-10.2
, W.9-10.2a
Commas--The Nuts & Bolts of Sentence Construction
Commas—the most complicated of punctuation marks. Help your students navigate the myriad rules of comma usage in a thorough but engaging PowerPoint that covers all the rules succinctly and provides practice for each rule as you go through the presentation. Pair this item with “Commas and Compounds and Clauses, Oh My!” for a complete unit on comma usage and how it fits into a larger grammar unit that will improve writing mechanics and sentence construction.
6th - 11th
English Language Arts, Grammar
CCSS
CCRA.L.2
Problem Words - Pronouns & Contractions
Here is the introductory unit to my Problem Word series, which is designed to help students sort out similar sounding or otherwise easily confused sets of words.
Included in this free item is a complete lesson on five sets of easily confused pronoun/contraction combinations: it/it's, your/you're, there/their/they're, who/whom/whose/who's, and to/too/two. The pdf file contains two exercises--one practice, one test, with answer keys, plus resources. There are already Quizlet flashcards prepa
6th - 12th
English Language Arts, Vocabulary, Writing
Writing with Verbal Phrases PowerPoint
A ten-slide PowerPoint presentation to introduce the three types of verbals and how they function in a sentence. However, the primary emphasis of this presentation is to get your students writing with verbals, thereby increasing their versatility and sophistication. The last slide presents an evocative picture and invites students to begin a piece of creative writing wherein they experiment with and practice using verbals in their writing. Fun!
8th - 12th
English Language Arts, Grammar, Writing
Contractions vs. Pronouns PowerPoint
This bright, informative PowerPoint guides students through the problems of recognizing and using contractions vs. pronouns. Fun, complex illustrative sentences highlight the differences. Scroll through the offerings of my store and you'll find a FREE exercise that accompanies this slide show, both of which are part of a larger workbook of easily confused words.
Professional, accurate, relevant, and ready to use--just what every busy teacher needs!
5th - 12th
English Language Arts, Grammar, Vocabulary
Word Power Warms Ups
Bell Ringer! Get your students revved up with a great set of PowerPoint slides of quick, diverse language arts topics and skills. One question per slide, use one or two slide per class to get everyone focused and thinking. Slide topics include vocabulary fill in the blank sentences (both one and two blank sentences), proofreading for punctuation errors, sentence combining, parts of speech, grammar, subject/verb agreement, awkward phrasing, and more. Answers for each item included with slide.
8th - 12th
English Language Arts, Grammar, Vocabulary
Persuasive Writing Tips and Techniques
Persuasive and argumentative writing often proves more difficult for students because they treat it more as an expository essay, simply explaining their reasons. What they need are rhetorical elements that compel the reader to act or believe as the writer wishes.
Enter the rhetorical triangle. This PowerPoint presentation offers tips and techniques for appealing to ethos, logos, and pathos in student writing.
Pro tip: change the name in the last slide to your own.
7th - 12th
English Language Arts, Writing-Essays
Showing 1-16 of 16 results
About the store
Experience
I have spent 28 years teaching advanced and gifted language arts at the middle school level. The instructional materials I offer here are informed by empiricism, experience, and research. I know what students need and what teachers want.
Teaching style
I am a big proponent of rigor and relevance which, unfortunately, I have found to be sorely lacking in the resources and instructional materials provided by my school district or that are commercially available. I want to employ materials that will engage students in a deeper exploration of significant literary and informational texts; I want study guides and assessments that go beyond factual recall questions and that leave students disconnected and uninspired. In short, I want to challenge my proficient, advanced, honors, and gifted students, to make them dig deep, to explore ideas, themes, and character motivations, to appreciate novel language usage, to question the author’s subtext and purpose. Frustrated at this dearth of appropriate materials, I took it as a challenge and have spent the last five years revamping many of my earlier materials that relied too heavily on lower-level, factual recall questions. By immersing myself in Florida’s state standards and now the Common Core standards, I believe that I have been able to produce instructional materials of consistently higher quality and higher cognitive expectations.
My own education history
BA in English - Florida State University;
MA in English - Florida Atlantic University
Additional biographical information
National Board Certified Teacher;
Gifted Education Endorsement
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