Ye Olde Tutor

his assignment is great for novels or non-fiction. It works for any longer work and allows students to engage in the beginnings of rhetoric and the rhetorical triangle. It is a challenging assignment but is scaffolded in a way that allows them to really in-depth engage the work they read and think about the meaning and bigger picture ideas. The great part about this assignment is it is not too challenging. Please look at the preview of the assignment. It has a lot of questions that prompt studen

This is a excellent beginning of the year assignment. It allows students to reflect on who they are and where they want to go. I use this to establish culture in my classroom. I tell them that everything they want to achieve can be had as long as they are willing to work for it and that they need to look closely at who they are now to see what they need to do to get there. This assignment has directions and six different sections with ideas to help them think about what to write. The preview a

This is a PowerPoint presentation I made for my class and have even presented to my colleagues. I noticed that during the creation of text-dependent responses my kids were still neglecting a logical ordering. This really helped them and they loved the little ape. This model question and response is based on Native Americans and the Gold Rush, but the topic is not important. We are focusing on structure. Upon using this in my class, I then had kids read an article or excerpt and craft a short a

This is a terrific handout for me that I always give out on the first day of school It is a one page questionnaire that tells me a lot about my new students. I can read through them and get a feel of how the culture of the class will be. After a couple weeks in the classroom when I have had the chance to learn my new students names, I look at these again. I try to match up their interests with them when I talk to them. It really helps early on to build relationships that otherwise might take man

This is a basic calendar that allows you to fill in the month and the dates. Use it to draft out timelines for assignments, scaffold out your next unit, meet with your team to make sure your lessons are aligning. A lot of great uses for a blank calendar...and free!

Do you need students to come in and take a test. I have often had large numbers of students who come in and need to make up an exam or to retest and during class I get so busy that I forget to remind them. What I do is print these out and fill in names and the make up test date. I will appoint a student to pass these out to the students they belong to. This way they all come in and retest and I don't forget anymore. It is also great for students to have a hard copy reminder that they need to com

This is a word document with the essay "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell. This is public domain. I am posting it here for free as I have compiled a series of assignments and activities that may be used to teach this essay. Please note, I have added a section for annotations and have used this successfully in my classroom for several yearS. I always remind my students of the importance of annotations as we read. ENJOY! And please check out my other listings that may prove extra helpful a

This is a pass that teachers of all subjects and grade levels can use in the classroom. It is in a word document format and so it can easily be changed.