Kelly's Class

Need a fun way for students to respond to what they've been reading lately? This is a set of reading response menus, which include both artistic and writing-based options to demonstrate what they've learned from their books of choice. This menu idea has taken our grade-wide expectation of reading responses from one that students dread, to an activity that students can't get enough of! I usually have my students complete two of these per month, as we have a daily reading expectation. I also swit

If you've already taught your students about Bloom's Taxonomy, this is a great group activity that applies their knowledge to scenarios. Groups must work together to elevate their assigned choice project from one level of the taxonomy to another, so they can demonstrate higher levels of critical thinking. I did this lesson with my students to encourage them to go beyond posters, slideshows, and informative essays for their choice projects. This helped them figure out how to take their projects

This is a comprehensive guide to writing a three part thesis statement using the CER method. A thesis with three parts will ensure that the student is not only answering the question guiding the essay, but including the reasoning that makes it their own. This guide includes why a thesis is important, planning, construction, and how to dissect examples into the three parents. You can divide this guide up into multiple lessons, or keep it as a reference for students who need to go back and revisi

This project was designed for a 6th grade humanities class, but can be adapted to elementary and older middle school students as well. This document is a starting point to get you inspired. In pairs, students take on roles in famous rivalries throughout history and present day. Using biographical research and argumentative writing/speaking, students must convince their class that their person in the rivalry is truly the GOAT (greatest of all time... as the kids say) compared to their rival. St

This lesson allows students to apply their knowledge of checks and balances, and separation of powers, to recent events in the terms of our two most recent presidents (Obama and Trump). 5 sets of current events are summarized for students, and students must answer the accompanying questions on the worksheet for each event, This can be made into an entire packet, or the events can be scattered around a large classroom or hallway with pictures for a more station-like activity.

This is a comprehensive guide to writing a body paragraph using "claim, evidence, reasoning" strategies. This covers planning, constructing, and dissecting examples of body paragraphs in the three parts. You can break this up into multiple lessons, or keep it in your classroom as a reference for students who need to go back to it later.

Does your school have students create portfolios to demonstrate their learning? These are some simple writing tips that help elevate their reflections through the use of "show, not tell" writing. I had my students use this in their portfolio editing process this year, and parents noticed a huge difference!

For my Civics Studies course, a combination of government and english content, we created a unit which focused on why checks and balances were essential to society today. This unit plan focuses more on the Government part of the unit, but the unit also included the reading of Parts 1 and 2 of the novel Fahrenheit 451. Activities such as making propoganda posters, weekly lit circles, quizzes and a socratic seminar to end the book were used to tie the novel to checks and balances. This unit wa

This is a list of helpful websites that I have used to find lesson plans, primary sources, fun apps to use in the classroom, and resources for reaching all of my students. I found it very helpful as a student teacher, as did the rest of my cohort when we needed ideas to fall back on. Best suited for Social Studies classes, but many of the websites are interdisciplinary in nature. The list is categorized, and each link is accompanied by a very short summary of what the website is most useful fo

This PowerPoint introduces the very basics of Executive Orders and their significance. I recommend accompanying it with my Executive Order Case Study file for an independent, research based activity that allows students to apply research to the material.

A simple worksheet to accompany the "The Basics of Executive Orders" powerpoint. Using this sheet, students will independently research an executive order from either President Barack Obama or President Trump. Then, students will find two other students who researched two different executive orders to share with for the second page. Great activity for if students need a day of something a little less structured, or if you want students to practice their academic research skills.

When teaching my students the complexities and dramatics that a Supreme Court nominee must go through, I used recent Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch as an example using this text set including a political cartoon, tweet, an image and news articles. This also includes the comparisons many make between Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia, which students can assess for themselves is positive or negative. To make the most of this resource, I would provide background information about the la