GG's Classroom Horizons

Introduce or review with your students how to choose quality quotes/textual evidence from a text for writing essays with this 2 day lesson! This resource guide offers you a full slideshow lesson to review terminology of quotes, citations, works cited pages, and more, and gives students a chance to identify what makes a quote good quality. There is a quiz to assess what your students were able to take away from the lesson, Quick Reference Sheets to hold onto; AND a worksheet to offer students pra

This activity packet offers students 8 learning challenges (plus a bonus page!) of activities for at home or at school - both fun and educational - that they can complete during school breaks, quarterly extra credit challenges, as a part of a hybrid model, a group or classroom project, or simply as a continued learning at home resource. Good for all ages! This covers it all: Student choice, student ownership over learning, left AND right brain activities, social emotional activities, AND physic

Analyzing poetry can be difficult, especially complex monologues like T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." This resource takes students through a step by step path to breaking down the poem, while also challenging them with high level questions that require a depth of critical thinking and interpretation. Students in this lesson will be asked to read, re-read, and read the poem again, given a copy they can color mark, as well as a copy that have pre-written questions that can focu

This all-in-one creative writing resource is a 2(-3) day lesson that is so much fun to teach your students about the literary technique of good diction and dynamic word choice! Teach your students how to pick the right verbs and adjectives for great descriptions of characters. This lesson highlights the creative ideal of "Showing and Not Telling." This can serve as a great mini-lesson or intro into a unit on creative writing, or it can be a stand alone activity for when you have a few extra days

This 2, 3, or 4 week adaptable unit plan comes with plenty of fun, engaging, critical thinking literary and writing activities to keep your students on their creative and analytical game while offering a host of choices and different options for you and your students! This unit is designed with 4 overall tasks: a WebQuest adventure story where students engage in research and creative collaboration to learn about the origins and makings of fairy tales; a genre immersion where students can analyze

Shakespeare can be daunting to teach and to learn. This resource is an all ready-for-you introduction lesson and review game. Whether your students are brand new to Shakespeare, or just need a refresher, this is a fun way to review the basics of Shakespeare and theater of his day, as well as some deeper thinking into the concept of language and how it evolves through time. This lesson is appropriate for most secondary grades and - depending on the length of your classes - should take about two l

This character development analysis activity pairing takes students through three different analytical and critical reading activities to prepare them for a written paragraph or essay. If you are looking for an activity to help your students understand how characters develop and change over the course of a text, and how that development and change is connected to their internal conflict or the overall theme of the text, this is the resource for you. Students will choose their character, break d

These ready-to-use student contracts offer an easy fill-in-the-blank style communication form to encourage an individualized plan of action for students to get back on track. This is also a great resource to show administrators how you are communicating with parents and giving students every opportunity you can to be successful in your class. This product comes with the following items: Teacher Notes2 Parent Letters for Poor Behavior/WorkStudent Contract for Marking Period FailureStudent Contrac

Are you a new teacher just getting started & looking for strategies & routines to start the year? This bundle will give all you need to help set up your classroom with great writing posters, set up base routines (exit passes, formative assessment strategies, student partners, and more), and gives you some time-saving forms and contracts to use to help your students succeed! Some of the resources are strictly for your use with students, or for decorating your classroom, or are actual activiti

Building a classroom community and environment of respect and responsibility is one of the most important ways to start the school year. This resource includes a lesson powerpoint, activity workbook, and three stations for students to engage in an even more rigorous analysis of the lesson. However, though this fits perfectly into the curriculum at the beginning of the year, it also doesn't and shouldn't end there! This resource, effective for use at any time of the year - including as a social

Encourage your students to really get to know and analyze their protagonist and antagonist characters as they read independently! This resource is a great ongoing assignment in reading, writing, and student choice that you can use for one marking period, or repeat for each marking period all year long to hold students accountable for reading at home. This allows students to read at their own pace, on their own time, keep track of what is happening in their book to build up their reading comprehe

In this Mini Lesson, students will clarify their understanding of content vocabulary of literary devices, elements, and techniques through several mini-activities. Help them prepare for reading AND writing short stories using this interactive analogy based lesson! Guide students through a discussion based google slides that is great for a small group or whole class activity and have them engage through discussion, whip arounds (every student offering a one or two word answer as quickly as possib

Engage your students in critical conversations with an excerpt from the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, a prominent and influential leader of history. Analyze this excerpt from chapter 8 together, using the graphic organizers, or independently, as a reading check practice. Additionally, this resource provides the opportunity for students to practice annotation skills. If your student struggles with highlighting too much or too little, or not writing clear and brief notes in the margin - th

Asking questions is a Life Skill that should be explicitly taught to students. If you have students who sometimes struggle, or get confused, or feel like they ‘just don’t get it’ when doing assignments, then this single day Questioning Lesson is for you. Great for remote learning, a sub-plan, or an independent center activity as it includes a pre-recorded lesson you can easily upload to Google Classroom or EdPuzzle and you're set to go! Or teach it yourself with slides and get ready for some gre

This bundle features several of my literature resources that include an excerpt from a text (*public domain), 10 M/C critical analysis and close reading questions, 5 vocab questions, and 10 writing activity options. Each resource comes with before and during reading activities as well, but they can also be used as cold reads for comprehension and independent reading practice, as a quick 2 or 3 day sub plan, a mini-lit circle practice, even practice for an AP exam. These are higher level texts a

As teachers, we know how important it is to get students reading on their own time for enjoyment, and also how important it is to give students choice in their assignments to promote ownership of their learning! This resource is a GROWING BUNDLE of ongoing quarterly projects for reading, writing, and student choice! Each IRP is designed to work, essentially, as a homework assignment over the course of one marking period. In this bundle, you will currently find FOUR IRPs - a slightly different pr

This resource designed specifically for "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller asks students to analyze the various characters in the text and come to more awareness of the layers within a character's characterization. So often students want to view the characters as either 'good' or 'bad,' but this resource asks students to dig a little deeper into who the characters are and why they make the choices they make. Students will outline the characters' faults and redeeming qualities, as well as analyze fr

This interactive literature activity asks students to analyze the various characters in the text and come to more awareness of the layers within a character's characterization. So often students want to view the characters as either 'good' or 'bad,' but this resource asks students to dig a little deeper into who the characters are and why they make the choices they make. Students will outline the characters' faults and redeeming qualities, as well as analyze from a psychiatric perspective - cons

This resource is a fun matching style game for young students learning to read to practice Letter Recognition, Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Recognition, and building their skill of letter to word associations with a word and picture for each letter to create a set of four related cards! Each set features different words to reflect its letter, and helps students move beyond the traditional "apple, bat, cat" beginning- level letter to word associations. This is ideal for a learning center or sta

Looking for a practical life skills lesson to do with your seniors? They are often scared and nervous about the future, but this will give them so much know-how and insight into securing a responsible and abundant financial future. This two to three day lesson will guide students into understanding what they need to know about credit cards, spending money, saving money, and how to track money! These are tools your students will thank you for and be able to use for their entire lives! Get them re