Pop Culture – Teaching English Language Arts

AUTHOR PROJECT: Reading and Research

April 26, 2019April 26, 2019 by admin

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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…

Celebrate and Educate

January 5, 2019February 24, 2020 by admin

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Black History Month and Common Core In the United States, February is Black (African-American) History Month, a time when many teachers tailor lessons to feature the contributions of African-Americans. Since the oral tradition is significant in African-American history, and since oral language skill is one of the English Language Arts…

POETRY-African American History Month Project

February 15, 2018September 28, 2018 by admin

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Celebrate Cultures February is a great time to incorporate an oral language component into your lessons and invite students to memorize and recite a poem by an African American poet. This assignment lists several to get you started. To increase confidence and decrease apprehension, give the students the grading criteria…

Earth Day – Lyrics and Punctuation

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014 by admin

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Earth Day Inspires Writing April 22 is Earth Day as proclaimed by the United Nations in 2009. Here's an English Language Arts activity you can incorporate into your lessons that will raise awareness of some of the issues important to humankind and especially to Michael Jackson as expressed in…

Storytelling – What’s a Trope?

February 25, 2014February 25, 2014 by admin

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Periodic Table of Storytelling Periodic Table of Storytelling? What's a TROPE? Could be used at least two ways: Here's a new resource I've found that you and your students may enjoy this Spring for testing their story analysis skills, learning sophisticated literary vocabulary, and even for creating stories of…

Clever Cartoons by Grant Snider

July 30, 2013September 6, 2013 by admin

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Cartoons: A Clever Way to Teach New every Tuesday, clever cartoons like the one below will make evocative prompts for writing and talking about lots of issues seen in ELA classes. See others at the Incidental Comics website. The Story Coaster Drawing for the 7/14&#... from incidentalcomics

Monkey Bridge – Critique a Critique

May 8, 2013December 13, 2019 by admin

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Reading and Writing a Literary Critique Use the Nine Yardsticks of Value Chart to show how you rate the autobiographical novel Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao. Also, carefully read the following critique and use the chart to indicate what you believe to be the values of the author, "Monkey Bridge,"…

Athletic and Arts Experiences – Tap for ELA Lessons

November 27, 2012September 20, 2013 by admin

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Extra-curriculars? Tap Them Do hope your school year is coming along well. So many educators find schedules disrupted by athletic games and artistic events that draw students' attention away from day to day class activities. Don't fight it. Roll with it. Invite students to write about their experiences in connection…

Patterning Poetry with Hughes

January 26, 2012September 7, 2013 by admin

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Patterning Poetry Looking for a poem to evoke conversation and to practice patterning? “Dayrbeak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes is an excellent poem for any grade because it subtly addresses current social and political issues of diversity, it demonstrates the use of similes and an extended metaphor, and appeals to the…

Photo Essays – Caution

January 15, 2012July 30, 2012 by admin

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A powerful way to combine media literacy and writing is through the use of photo essays. At the same time, however, as I look at the photo sites available on line, an alarm bell goes up. We have the responsibility to select photos for our various units and must be…

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