STownes

This is a 28 slide powerpoint containing 10 songs/lyrics of various genres. Artists include Ke$ha, Coolio, Taylor Swift, Maino, Jay Sean/Lil Wayne, and other artists of high interest to students. Students must assign an appropriate THEME to each song after hearing the song played and reading along with the lyrics. Students must also pull out at least one Figurative Device (There is at least one present in each of the songs. Most songs contain more than one for students to choose from). I hav

Comprehensive Unit for Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain. Includes: Poetry and Narrative creative writing with models and examples 2 short answer, constructed response reading quizzes Final Test (short answer, thematic, literary analysis, multiple choice, true/false) Comprehensive Literary Analysis Data Sheet for book Daily Book Club, Thematic reading log, and Figurative Language reading log assignments Introductory activity on "dead dog" archetype with video and read aloud "i-Search

This quiz/handout accompanies the 28 slide "Theme and Figurative Language through Song Lyrics: Review Quiz/Powerpoint" product I posted. The powerpoint is a 28 slide powerpoint containing 10 songs/lyrics of various genres. Artists include Ke$ha, Coolio, Taylor Swift, Maino, Jay Sean/Lil Wayne, and other artists of high interest to students. Students must assign an appropriate THEME to each song after hearing the song played and reading along with the lyrics. Students must also pull out at le

17-song Powerpoint presentation that presents the lyrics for students to follow along as the songs are played in the classroom. I used this to introduce themes of Of Mice and Men at the beginning of the unit. The songs correlate to the themes of Friendship, Loneliness, and The American Dream. Artists include The Beatles, John Mellencamp, Journey, Simon and Garfunkel, The Rembrandts, Queen, and more. Use in conjunction with Of Mice and Men Themes through Song HANDOUT, also on my site. Provi

This handout is part of a 3-day close study of the movie Shrek to review and reinforce literary element study. Students have watched Shrek the previous day through the characterization lens, using my "8 common character roles" handout. There is space for them to record and analyze any literary elements they observe in the film, and the bottom of the worksheet is devoted to TONE practice. Students adore this movie, and I have had a lot of success with both engagement and academic end-product by

To culminate a unit on The Art of Racing in the Rain, my 9th graders write an "iSearch" paper in which they track the history, origin, and development/evolution of a single word across many different sources and mediums. Students must investigate the origins of an abstract noun (such as "friendship" or "loyalty"), and then track this word's usage throughout various sources including the novel itself, the Shakespearean concordance, Concordance to the Bible, poetry, nonfiction, and others. Stu

Powerpoint with accompanying handout with 8 common character roles in a story, including Protagonist, Antagonist, Sidekick, Skeptic, Tempter, Mentor, Emotional, and Logical characters. Powerpoint provides tons of pop culture examples of these roles from movies students are familiar with. (Harry Potter, Shrek, The Hunger Games, Twilight, etc.) To keep students engaged in the powerpoint, all they have to fill out on their handout is the examples they'd like to have to refer back to. When I did

Handout that accompanies 17-song Powerpoint presentation that presents the lyrics for students to follow along as the songs are played in the classroom. I used this to introduce themes of Of Mice and Men at the beginning of the unit. The songs correlate to the themes of Friendship, Loneliness, and The American Dream. Artists include The Beatles, John Mellencamp, Journey, Simon and Garfunkel, The Rembrandts, Queen, and more. Provides space for students to record which theme they think correlat

Introducing the themes of Animal Farm through pop culture references with which kids are familiar. Includes slides on Toy Story, Chicken Run, Star Wars, The Hunger Games, etc. I use this on one of the first days of the Animal Farm unit simply to familiarize students with the themes I want them studying. This is accompanied by a basic handout on which they record examples and add their own as we go.

This is a 23 slide powerpoint I use at the beginning of the year to go over the genres I use in my 9th grade classroom. These range from traditional literature (the "classics) to poetry to fantasy to informational texts. The powerpoint provides descriptions, definitions, characteristics, and examples for each of the 9 genres, and also allows for a LOT of interaction/engagement from the students as they provide their own background knowledge and examples for many of these. The powerpoint is s

Handout with 8 common character roles in a story, including Protagonist, Antagonist, Sidekick, Skeptic, Tempter, Mentor, Emotional, and Logical characters. Accompanying powerpoint provides tons of pop culture examples of these roles from movies students are familiar with. To keep students engaged in the powerpoint, all they have to fill out on their handout is the examples they'd like to have to refer back to. When I did this, students also generated many more examples than what I had includ

This front and back document can be used with classic novels, short stories, YA novels, independent reading books....anything students are reading. I have also used it in conjunction with films I've shown in class. The Data Sheet scaffolds from "surface-level" literary elements such as "predictions based on title" and basic plot elements, to significance of elements such as irony, conflict, theme, and tone. Students must identify all elements of the text they're studying, but must also provi

This is a fairly large mini-unit exploring SAT (or other appropriately challenging) vocabulary words. I use it leading into state benchmark practice tests to expose students to a multitude of challenging vocabulary that is most likely to appear on standardized tests. Students create "biopoems" using their word as the "person" they are writing a biography about, explore etymology/origin/connotation/pronunciation/etc., create word "personifications" (ex: a short story about 'Mr. Omnipotent'), an

17 Songs, lyrics dealing with the 3 themes of Loneliness, Friendship, and The American Dream in conjunction with teaching Of Mice and Men. Artists include John Mellencamp, The Beatles, Journey, Queen, Green Day, and more.

This is a graphic organizer/space to compile research ideas that correlates to my "SAT Vocabulary and Linguistics Project". There is space to compile all information for the word posters, to write a rough draft of the Biopoems, to brainstorm what their "new" words will be (created using word stems), and to jot down ideas for their Word personifications. I require this to be done before final work starts on this project, and it comes in as a separate, preparatory grade. Below is a description

The word list I distribute to students to accompany my "SAT Vocabulary and Linguistics Project" and the correlating graphic organizer, also in my store. The description of the assignment itself is below: This is a fairly large mini-unit exploring SAT (or other appropriately challenging) vocabulary words. I use it leading into state benchmark practice tests to expose students to a multitude of challenging vocabulary that is most likely to appear on standardized tests. Students create "biopoem

This handout accompanies the Themes in Animal Farm powerpoint.