High Interest Summative Assignment
What We Learned! Collage OR Slide Assignment The Task: As a review of the study of literature this school year, you will be working with a group of your peers to present your impressions of ways your author uses various elements of the narrative: point of view,setting, characterization, conflict, symbolism…
Prompts for Writing Poetry and More
WRITING PROMPTS AND EXAMPLES My friend, Sarah J. Donovan, offered a POEM A DAY project in April 2019 and consented to share the links with you through me. See the kinds of prompts on the chart below, click on the chart to go to the prompts of your choice. Enjoy…
AUTHOR PROJECT: Reading and Research
Writing about Literary Favorites After introducing students to the Nine Yardsticks of Value, a good way to determine how well they understand the concepts and can apply them to an independent project, is to assign this author project. Each year, I'd choose to read one of the Nobel Laureates who…
Rapping with Romeo
TIMELESS AND TIMELY Sarah J. Donovan invited me to post prompts to celebrate APRIL POETRY MONTH. Here's one from her website: on ETHICAL ELA. INSPIRATION Many of you who accepted this “Poem A Day” invitation have read plays by William Shakespeare and may even have a favorite. One of my…
Converting Prose to Poetry and Patterning Poems A challenging but rewarding practice activity for processing reading and writing poetry is transliteration – the act of converting from one genre to another. (Young teens love knowing and using such sophisticated words.) You could give this assignment after reading together Gordon Park’s…
Ignite Writing by Patterning
“There’s nothing new under the sun!” True, but students can be inspired by the old to do something new for themselves. Sounds weird, but that’s exactly what can occur when we invite students to pattern the writing they read. Students soon learn that close reading, analysis and imitation unleash bursts…
Shakespeare’s Birthday
Happy 455th Birthday, Will! April 23rd is the day many celebrate the birth of William Shakespeare, one of the more widely read dramatists of all times.This year is his 455th! Prepare your students to understand Elizabethan society a little better. Have a go with your students and have them take…
Women’s History Month
The theme for 2020 is "Valiant Women of the Vote" 2020 HONOREES Here's a link with resources to plan lessons to complement those suggested below. What an opportune time to feature the writing of females and to encourage students who are doing research projects to choose women as their subjects. Consider making…
Getting to Know Harlem
Expanding Prior Knowledge with a Poem [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="166"] Image Scholastic Publications[/caption] Reading the classic novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison can be more interesting when students understand some of the historical and geographical references. An assignment that works well is to plan a one-period small group research project based…
Picture Books in Middle and High School
Picture Books for Older Students Plan now to avoid SPRING SLUMP. In many schools, May is the winding down month of the school year. Depending on where you are in the country, you may be assigning your final big project for which your students will demonstrate the breadth and depth…