Learning in Bold

Wanting a lesson that is engaging, interactive, and gets kids talking while focusing on core ELA concepts? This is one for you! Spend three to five days diving into Achebe's dynamic story that ties into generational conflict, cultural conflict, individuality, and acceptance. Explore these ideas through this close reading, seminar (suggestions and guide included in speaker notes), and a writing activity with rubric. Constructed response practice made purposeful!

*UPDATED* We all have stories that we hold dear--this lesson is a tribute to the stories that shape our identity. Students first explore the concept of stories and storytelling. Then, students do a close reading of Anna North's essay, "Writing is the Process of Abandoning the Familiar," using a graphic organizer to guide their thinking. This text serves as a mentor text for the student writing assignment that follows. Students choose a story that shaped them, much like how The Odyssey shaped No

Wanting something new, rigorous, and creative for students to construct as you read a play by our old friend Billy Shakes? This resource is perfect for ANY Shakespeare play (I've even used it with other plays, like Oedipus). Students are guided through a standards-based analysis of each act, and represent their analysis with their own personal style. I allow students to use their sketchnotes on quizzes, tests, and writing assignments--letting them see that the more they put into them, the more

Wanting a lesson that is engaging, interactive, and gets kids talking while focusing on core ELA concepts? This is one for you! This powerful speech is a great supplemental text for your Night unit, when you are discussing human rights, or even on its own. Explore this text through close reading, discussion, and a writing activity with rubric. Constructed response practice made purposeful! Project and go with this easy-to-use Google Slides presentation.

Help your students "get in the groove" of embedding quotes in sentences. This PDF can be printed as a poster or shared in Google Classroom as a great reminder of how to put quotations in a sentence. This poster includes three methods of embedding quotes, each with an example.

Enjoy this daily warm-up structure for your leadership course, club, or student council. There are 39 videos/podcasts/articles for analysis on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the semester, and as I find more solid resources, I am adding them in the presentation. Also included are templates for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday warm-ups that include goal setting, creating a personal agenda, and reflection. These warm-ups were created with a semester-long leadership class in mind, but they can also

Wanting to dive deep into character analysis? Much like an iceberg, there is more to a person than just what sits on the surface. Use this lesson with any novel, play, or short story and let students showcase their character analysis using textual evidence and providing their own commentary. This assignment can be used as a standalone assessment at the end of a unit OR to prepare for a character analysis essay. Slide one includes an example character analysis of the character Shrek, slide two co

There is something so rewarding and exciting about inviting guest speakers into the classroom, and being prepared and organized for the speaker makes the experience even better. With this purchase, you will get a Google Doc short letter/information sheet to share with your speaker ahead of the event and a short notes template for students that encourages active listening. The letter includes a thank you, possible questions, class mantras as guidance for the speaker, and space for campus arrival

Great back to school activity! Want to start the year with an exciting lesson, but don't want to begin with a big unit? "Aesthetic" seems to be the buzzword of the year for kids. A scroll through the “For You” page on TikTok or carefully curated Instagram posts shows you just how precise many people are about how they present themselves or how they want to be perceived. Whether represented by your room, clothes, digital persona, or something else, each person has a “vibe” of some sort. This goes

This authentic writing assignment allows students to analyze their own generation or the ideas associated with growing up. It's so fun to see student creativity with this assignment. I have included a rubric, guidelines, links to structural examples, and several ideas to get students started. I typically assign this at the end of my unit on youth and generational conflict, where we read articles about their generation and generational conflict, analyze songs about youth/growing up, and particip

Need an easy new year activity? Grab this and stay on top of trends. TikTok is currently flooded with "ins and outs" for the year, so students will likely be familiar with the concept. I am making one alongside my students. I plan to print them and have students put them in notebooks, but these would also make a great bulletin board display. Students will practice digital design and be reflective of who they are and their hopes for the new year. Photos in the presentation are from the Unsplash e

The Hunger Games opening activity for active learning with a focus on themes and classroom collaboration. I love using an anticipation guide to start off any major text we study in class. They are a great way to introduce themes that we can trace throughout our reading. Use these however you wish, but in my class, I have everyone stand in a line in the middle of the room. I put a statement on the board, and students walk to one side of the room if they agree and to the other side if they disagre

Teaching newspaper and your staffers just don't know where to start? This story planning sheet is the resource for you! When I implemented this weekly planning sheet and used it as a way to check in with students each day, I saw a huge uptick in productivity and story quality. I hope it does the same for you! NEW UPDATE and NEW STRATEGY: The assignment sheet now includes a backside with a reflection for the week. I have also started initialing each weekday at the end of class if students have me

Encourage a positive classroom community and get to know your students with these easy and fun introduction slides. Students add a picture of themselves, a link to something that describes their interests or personality, and their favorite quote. This is a "share and go" activity with no prep on your side--perfect for back to school! I included my teacher slide as an example.

When working in leadership and service, it is incredibly important to know who exactly you are serving. This creative and reflective activity encourages students to examine who they are and who they are serving by creating a moodboard/poster/thinking map and presenting it to the class. After all presentations, students are asked to reflect and move forward knowing who they are serving. Students may work in pairs, groups, or independently, and the activity duration is dependent on your needs and

Are you an avid lover of class discussions or Socratic seminars looking for a way to document student engagement? With goal setting and reflection sections, this seminar notes template helps you and your students on a journey to being better speakers, listeners, and thinkers! This resource serves as a way for students to organize their thinking during a text-based seminar; it's also a good way for your less vocal students to still track their thoughts and engagement without forcing them too far

Great poster or handout for students as you work on embedding quotations in writing. Want a different design, but love the content? Just shoot me a message, and we can customize posters for the look you want! :)

Do your students need a little bit of help organizing and planning for their constructed responses and paragraphs? This resource can be shared on your Google Classroom or LMS, or it can be printed and used as a physical resource. Use it again and again with ANY paragraph or constructed response you assign! Students will plan their response in the top section and draft it in the bottom section. Students are reminded of ACES for checking that their response covers all bases as well as guided by tr

Get in the "groove" of writing formal paragraphs, whether for an essay or a standalone constructed response paragraph. This framework and guide helps students with structure and formality. It's a great reminder to post in either Google Classroom or to print and hang in your classroom.

Tired of reading questions? Print and go with these easy-to-use graphic organizers for ANY play. Have students use higher-level thinking skills as they read and complete these graphic organizers.