22 Powerful Closure Activities. Too many university supervisors and administrators criticize the absence of lesson closure, a dubious assessment practice likely caused by the improper use of Madeline Hunter’s lesson plan model (PDF) as a de facto checklist of eight mandatory teaching practices -- anticipatory set, objective and purpose, input, modeling, checking for understanding, guided practice, independent practice, and closure -- a custom that Hunter decried in 1985 (PDF).
Although it offers multiple benefits, please don't view closure as a professional must-do. Teaching Allusion Megadump. The Literary Maven: 15 More Short Stories for Engaging Secondary Students & Teaching Literary Elements. I recently wrote about thirteen of my favorite short stories to read with middle school and high school students.
While those are my go to stories for teaching literary elements and pairing with other texts, there are so many other options out there. Here's fifteen other short story recommendations from middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers. 1. "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. What’s the Difference Between “Doing Projects” and “Project Based Learning”?
Why Listening to Podcasts Helps Kids Improve Reading Skills. English teacher Michael Godsey is an early adopter of podcasts as a teaching tool in his high school.
At first he used episodes of This American Life and Serial because he was impressed by the critical thinking and engagement he saw from students. He also liked that students were having deep discussions about the stories with other adults who were listening to the same podcasts. But recently, he noticed something else important: listening to podcasts makes his students want to read more. Listening to stories does not immediately seem connected to reading, and in fact, readers of MindShift stories about podcasts in the classroom have commented that they don’t offer enough rigor.
7 Assignment Ideas for Movie Day in the English Classroom. Movies days in high school classrooms have a bad reputation for being a waste of time or a teacher cop out, but English teachers show movies for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: Giving context to a novel unit (e.g. showing the Emmett Till biography during the TKAM unit).Helping students understand the authors behind their favorite works (e.g. showing the Ken Burns documentary on Twain before starting Huck Finn).Adding to a universal theme that will help students understand literature in a deeper way (e.g. showing an American Dream movie during the Gatsby unit).Helping emerging readers visualize the characters or plot (e.g. showing the 1968 Romeo and Juliet while going through the play).
Even when we have the very best of intentions, adding a student assignment is one way to make movie days even more productive. Below are 10 ideas for student assignments during movie days. We’d love to hear your questions, comments and suggestions in the comment section. How to Help Your Students Observe the 9/11 Anniversary. Whether it's with a moment of silence or an outpouring of service, schools across the country are considering how to help their students observe the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
A wide range of resources are available to assist educators as they seek learning opportunities around this emotion-charged date. Build Resilience Media coverage of the anniversary is certain to be intense, including graphic images of the terror attacks and interviews with survivors. Most of today's students are too young to remember the day the Twin Towers fell, but coverage may nonetheless trigger fear, grief, anxiety, and other strong reactions.
The National Association of School Psychologists recommends reinforcing children's natural resilience, and helping them "to see themselves as a positive force in their world, even in the face of adversity. " Explore Artifacts Learn through Stories Write to Learn Consider How We Remember Learn through Service Use the News Share Your Ideas. The Lost Art of Talk. Posted by Liz Prather on Saturday, 01/31/2015 One Friday two years ago, our school had an unusually long lock-down drill.
A lock-down is a drill, similar to fire and tornado drills, where teachers and students go through the steps they would take in the event of an active shooter or a hostage situation. Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding. What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately. " Unlike summative assessment, which evaluates student learning according to a benchmark, formative assessment monitors student understanding so that kids are always aware of their academic strengths and learning gaps. Meanwhile, teachers can improve the effectiveness of their instruction, re-teaching if necessary. "When the cook tastes the soup," writes Robert E.
Teaching Strategies that Use Sticky Notes. I have a large stack of post-it notes on my desk, and I’m not afraid to use them.
Most of the time I use these trusty notes to write down my to-do lists. I have my “What to Grade” to-do list, my “Contact These People” list, my “Current Projects” list, and many others, too. Share My Lesson - Free K-12 Lesson Plans & Teaching Resources. Common Core Lesson Plans (CCSS) Teaching Literature.