jonpickles

What if the classical heroes, gods, and goddesses from Greek Mythology were not all-powerful beings, but instead were high school students stuck in detention? No, it's not The Breakfast Club--it's Bash of the Titans: A Classic Myth-Mash! This play is a surreal and hysterical look at adolescence from a skewed perspective. Facing the boredom of detention, the protagonists plan for The Mount Olympus High School Prom. The wily female leads send their arrogant and ignorant dates on an epic quest t

Interactive Fiction (IF) a form of storytelling in which the reader participates in the narrative by making choices and navigating branching paths. It blends elements of literature and games so that the reader’s decisions influence the direction or outcome of the story. IF texts can be powerful tools for building literacy when they are intentionally aligned with the Science of Reading (SoR). The key is to use their built-in motivation, decision-making, and rereading loops to strengthen the very

Practice Oral Reading Fluency and engage your most reluctant readers with- MORTAL WOMBAT: The Island of Misfit Puns-a rowdy, rollicking, and ridiculous read-aloud play.  The play is full of literary and cultural references, puns, idioms, alliterations, playful language, and theatrical elements. It’s the perfect playground for the adventurous English or language arts teacher.  There are two 30 minute acts with nearly 25 speaking roles to engage all of your students. Mortal Wombat also contain

Practice Oral Reading Fluency and engage your most reluctant readers with Alpaca Lips Now: The Camelid of Catastrophe, a rowdy, rollicking, and ridiculous read-aloud play.  The play is full of literary and cultural references, puns, idioms, alliterations, playful language, and theatrical elements. It’s the perfect playground for the adventurous English or language arts teacher.  There are six short scenes (along with a prologue and an epilogue) and eleven speaking roles to engage your students

Practice Oral Reading Fluency and engage your most reluctant readers with-  The Fast and the Furriest: Speedway Showdown- a rowdy, rollicking, and ridiculous read-aloud play.  The play is full of literary and cultural references, puns, idioms, alliterations, playful language, and theatrical elements. It’s the perfect playground for the adventurous English or language arts teacher.  There are several short scenes (along with a prologue and an epilogue) and nearly 25 speaking roles to engage a

ARMS and CUPS are well-known, powerful strategies for young writers to revise and edit their writing, particularly narratives. ARMS is an acronym for Add, Remove, Move, & Substitute, while CUPS stands for Captialization, Usage, Punctuation, & Spelling. This product contains my original and thorough overview of both strategies and a unique checklist for students which details each step of the revising and editing process. Give your students a precise, practical, and actionable method for editi

Leaf in the Wind is a middle-grades novel. It is a literary fantasy that examines the themes of environmental conservation, learning disabilities, and the healing power of the fine arts. Along with the novel is a complete set of activities for your classroom which include a pre-reading guide, vocabulary assignments, a journal activity, and a visual arts book project. “The Champion Tree Project was conceived to preserve the genetic information of the country’s most outstanding trees. This p

Most educators were presented with Bloom's Taxonomy - a hierarchy of learning- in their college preparatory classes. This tool is then used by teachers to design their lesson plans and scaffold instruction. However, most teachers miss out on the opportunity to share this knowledge with their students. Now you can use this powerful tool to lead your students to the understanding that there is a depth and breadth to knowledge, of which they were previously unaware. This presentation walks educat