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Free Inference Cheat Sheet

Description

Do your students insert examples and quotes into their texts without properly analyzing them? Without proper analysis, an essay can sound like a long, drawn-out list written in complete sentences. We teach students to infer and to analyze, but they sometimes forget to incorporate this into their texts and essays.

I have created an “Inference Cheat Sheet” with key inferencing words and phrases to remind students that after inserting a piece of evidence, they need to explain its relevance.

Included are:

❒ Two different styles of the at-a-glance “Cheat Sheet.”

❒ An inference poster (8.5×11) – as seen on the cover.

❒ Two different styles of letters for an inference bulletin board.

❒ A copy of ALL the phrases used on the Cheat Sheet to create a bulletin board in class.

I hope that this resource will be helpful to students in your classes.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Analyze This!

English Grammar Cheat Sheet

Essay Writing Flip Book

Parts of Speech Grammar Circles

Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

Teaching the Essay Package

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
24 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


The Elevator Short Story Mini-Unit

Description

“The Elevator” Short Story Mini-Unit is a one-stop-shop for teaching the short story. Other than photocopies, all of the work has been done for you.

This mini-unit is suitable for grades 7 through 10 and includes:

❒a copy of the short story

❒questions for comprehension

❒a plot chart organizer

❒activity to help students discover the author’s purpose for writing

❒an instructional sheet on how to develop themes (with a practical example)

❒an instructional sheet on how to develop a theme in paragraph form

❒a graphic organizer to help students organize their paragraphs

❒an example of a completed graphic organizer to plan the paragraph

❒an example of a paragraph for “The Elevator.”

❒a comprehensive answer key for all handouts

❒a three-day lesson plan to accompany the story

You may also be interested in the following products:

ELA Literature Study Unit

Charles by Shirley Jackson

Rain, Rain, Go away Short Story

Seventh Grade Short Story

Short Story Bundle

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
16 pages
Answer Key
Included
Teaching Duration
N/A


Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

Description

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook contains everything a teacher needs to teach Bronte’s novel. Instead of the boring question and answer format, the Student Workbook prompts students’ ideas about characters, asks them to comment on significant quotes, and to notice some of the essential techniques used by the author such as symbolism, allusions, themes, etc. in each of the chapters. I have created this resource for my own classes, and students love the meaningful format. Instead of writing information about themes, symbolism, characterization, etc. on separate sheets apart from the chapter questions, everything is integrated in a simplified way.

In addition, a comprehensive answer key is also provided for the teacher. You now have all of the flexibility needed for your lesson plans with all of the work provided for you.

More specifically, the Student Workbook contains work on (42 activity pages):

❒ Important information from each chapter

❒ Setting description and symbolism

❒ Characterization (you can see the characters develop as the students’ read)

❒ Gothic elements

❒ Symbolism

❒ Themes

❒ Supernatural occurrences

❒ Significant quotes

❒ Narration

❒ Allusions

❒ Sociogram (to show characters’ relationships)

❒ Inferencing questions to further students’ understanding

❒ Family tree (to help students remember who is who)

❒ Conflicts

❒ Literary techniques used by the author

❒ Characterization chart

Please see the product preview for more information.

This resource includes 84 pages in total. Please see the preview for further details.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Thematic Poetry Unit: Editable
Brave New World Student Notebook

Death of a Salesman No Prep Unit

Frankenstein No Prep Unit

Hamlet No Prep Unit

Lord of the Flies No Prep Unit

Much Ado About Nothing No Prep Unit

Romeo and Juliet No Prep Unit

The Yellow Wallpaper No Prep Mini-Unit

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
84 pages
Answer Key
Included
Teaching Duration
2 months


Much Ado About Nothing Unit (Digital copy included)

Description

An editable version of this unit is available by clicking here Much Ado About Nothing Unit EDITABLE

“Much Ado About Nothing Unit” is a complete, no prep unit that is ready to teach the instant you download it. I love Shakespeare, especially his comedies, and I really want students and teachers alike to love it too. The activities and accompanying lessons in this unit demystify Shakespeare and makes it relatable to students. The unit included all lesson plans with 16 comprehensive lessons and a reading schedule (with learning objectives listed for each lesson), all student activities, evaluations, rubrics, comprehensive answer keys for all work and assignments, and fun bonus materials to suit your students’ interests.

The Much Ado About Nothing Unit is now distance learning ready. Send individual PDF activities to students OR share the work in Google Slides.

***NEW – all student activities are available in Google Docs and are completely modifiable.

The unit is appropriate for grades 9 through 12.

Take a look at the unit preview for more visual details. The unit includes:

A total of 100 pages in PDF and 12 PowerPoint slides are included in this unit.

Act and Scene Guide (Includes the characters found in the scene and the approximate reading time.)

Teacher Guide (lesson plans) – 16 easy-to-follow lessons, learning objectives, reading schedule, with included reading prompts, journal entries, and exit tickets (or closing activities.)

Students Activities include:

❒ Pre-Reading Activity

❒ Act 1 Comprehension questions

❒ Act 2 Comprehension questions

❒ Act 3 Comprehension questions

❒ Acts 4-5 Comprehension questions

❒ Who’s who in Act 1

❒ Literary Devices (Act 1)

❒ Characterization Activity

❒ Subplot Activity

❒ The Plan (conflict)

❒ Dogberry’s Malapropisms

❒ Much Ado About Noting (theme work)

❒ Activity on Symbolism

❒ Activity on Theme

Comprehensive Answer Key for ALL activities.

Evaluations include:

❒ Quiz on Acts 1 and 2 (With answer key and rubric)

❒ Beatrice vs. Benedick (oral presentation skits)- rubric is included

❒ Fake News – newspaper article (writing activity) – with rubric

❒ unit test – with answer key and rubric

❒ Song analysis Activity for theme review (optional evaluation or activity) – with rubric

Optional bonus activities are also included

❒ A love letter activity (Optional evaluation – rubric included)

❒ A Dear Abby activity

❒ Behind the Mask – an anti-bullying campaign (can be used as an evaluation – rubric included)

❒ Additional journal topics

To further student learning, a Guess Who? For Much Ado game is included. This is a fun way to learn about the characters in the play. And, as the play progresses, students’ questioning must change to keep track of character growth. (30 slides)

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Frankenstein No Prep Unit

Brave New World Student Workbook

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
98 Pages and 30 Slides
Answer Key
Included with rubric
Teaching Duration
1 month


Opinion Piece Bundle

Description

How to write an effective Opinion Piece Bundle includes:

❒ notes for students (What is an opinion piece? How do we write an opinion piece?…)

❒work process sheets to help students organize their ideas

❒ work process sheets to help students organize their ideastool for teaching)

❒ a student self-evaluation and teacher evaluation

You may also be interested in the following products:

ELA Literature Study Unit

English Grammar Cheat Sheet

How to Write a Paragraph

Opinion Letter with the Novel Holes

Sentences Grammar Circles For Easy & Effective Grammar

Spelling Flip Book

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
6 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Rubrics: Self Evaluation and teacher assessment rubrics

Description

Self-evaluation grids are a great way to guide students in their evaluations. Students will know exactly what is expected of them and will be made responsible for their own success. This package can also easily be changed to be used as peer evaluations.

Included within this document are over 20 different self-evaluation grids.

These self-evaluation grids are also very helpful to teachers:

Helps the teacher justify the final mark;

❒ Helps the teacher create meaningful evaluation grids;

❒ Helps to identify students’ weaknesses and strengths;

❒ Helps parents and students better understand the task required;

❒ Helps teachers create rubrics for the final evaluation.

This package was created in a Word document in order to be easily modified and changed according to the individual teacher’s needs.

This self-evaluation package contains self-evaluation grids for:

❒ Newspaper article

❒ Short story writing (intermediate and senior)

❒ Essay writing (various different types)

❒ Essay evaluation rubrics (for teacher –with and without sources)

❒ Independent study unit

❒ Research paper

❒ Skits

❒ Board game

❒ Group work

❒ Opinion piece

❒ Editorial

❒ Friendly letter

❒ Debate

❒ Movie review

❒ Journals

❒ Scrapbook

❒ Seminar

❒ Speech

❒ Riddle writing

You may also be interested in the following products:

Comment Bank

ELA Report Card Comments

Group Work Assessment Tool

Opinion Letter with the Novel Holes

Opinion Piece Bundle

Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
27 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


The Yellow Wallpaper Mini-Unit (Digital resource)

Description

NEW – This resource now includes a digital version on Google Docs to facilitate online and distance learning.

The Yellow Wallpaper Mini-Unit” is perfect for teaching students to analyze literature in a meaningful way. All of the prep work and thinking has been done for you. This truly is a print-and-go resource. The mini-unit includes 5 lesson plans, an interactive PowerPoint presentation to introduce the story’s historical context, student activities, as well as a detailed answer key. The mini-unit also includes a creative writing piece that allows students to play around with voice and situate themselves within the context of the times.

This lesson is suitable for grades 9 to 12.

60 pages and 19 slides total in this unit.

See below for further details.

The PowerPoint is an interactive presentation with information about the author, the context of the time, notes on feminist literature and its history, information about Weir Mitchell and the rest cure, experts form François Poullain de la Barre’s “The Woman as Good as the Man, and an excerpt from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Émile, or On Education” to help students understand women’s frustrations and the want for change.

The Lesson Plans contain 5 comprehensive lessons, which fully explore this work’s mastery and teaches students to think critically by annotating the work. The lesson plans include journal topics, class discussions, and exit tickets, as well as learning goals for each lesson for students to fully grasp the importance of this work.

The student Activities include an activity on symbolism, activity on the theme, a tutorial on how to develop themes in paragraph form (this is an important skill for ELA students), an example of a developed theme, and a paragraph organizer.

Two copies of the short story are included – a copy of the short story with space for students to annotate the work and an annotated copy for the teacher or for differentiated learning as the case may be. (Provided in Word as well as PDF format to allow you to add your own annotations.)

Two evaluations are also included: (All evaluations are available Word and PDF format to suit students’ needs.)

❒One evaluation is a creative writing assignment where students assume the voice of a man during the 1890’s responding to Mary Wollstonecraft’s views on women’s rights.

❒Also included is an analysis evaluation where students must develop one of the themes from the work. (A sample answer is provided with rubric)

A comprehensive answer key is provided for all work.

Please see the preview for a more visual explanation.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Brave New World Student Notebook
Death of a Salesman No Prep Unit

Frankenstein Bundle

Hamlet Bundle

Lord of the Flies No Prep Unit

Poetry No Prep Unit

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
60 pages and 19 slides
Answer Key
Included with rubric
Teaching Duration
1 Week


May 2022 Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern 

 

Welcome to our MayTeacher Talk.  All of us from the Teacher Talk collaborative would like to wish you a happy and prosperous summer. We have so many fab tips this month from fun activities, ELA and reading ideas, to high interest learning. You don’t want to miss reading these blog posts from some awesome educators.

If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here…The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, “Feel free to email me at deann.marin@gmail.com for any questions you might have.”
 
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Rejoice! It’s the End of the School Year

Rejoice, it’s the end of the school year. We’re so eager for summer that we sometimes forget about all the things we have to do for the last few weeks of school.  Hopefully, you’ll be celebrating a successful year with our students.  For those of you who didn’t have a great year, it’s time to cheer, you never have to see this group of kids again, at least not in your classroom. 

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Welcoming the Summer Slide
It’s an exhilarating time of the year! Testing should be over by now (Pleeeease tell me that’s true for you!), classrooms are getting packed up and summerized, and we’re celebrating all the learning that has happened for our students in this important piece of their childhood.
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Patriotic Karaoke

If your classes need a pick-me-up before the school year ends, consider patriotic karaoke for some rousing fun with educational value.

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Create a Focused Learning Environment using Feng Shui for the Classroom
Do you feel like your classroom needs an uplift, but you don’t have the time or money to achieve your goal? Consider making a few Feng Shui adjustments. Your classroom will go from stuffy to energized with only a few changes because the “chi” or the energy of the room, is happy to circulate.
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How to Correct Mixed Metaphor and Malapropisms

 

The use of mixed metaphors and malapropisms can be quite comical. Learn how to avoid them.
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Classroom Organization Ideas: What to Do Now to Reduce Your Workload Later

Check out these 7 great tips to learn what you can do now in your classroom to reduce your workload later.

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You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


Creative Writing Bundle

Description

This Creative Writing bundle has been created to teach students the basic elements of writing. It begins with a PowerPoint to introduce how students should approach creative writing and includes activities to help students create believable and interesting characters, how to build suspense, and basics of the elements of fiction and plot.

Check out the individual resources for more information.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Free Thesis Writing Activity

Paragraph Writing Activity (Frankenstein)

Parts of Speech Grammar Circles

Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

Superhero Themed Parts of Speech Posters

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
13 pages and 11 slides
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Poetry Unit EDITABLE

Description

This product is available at a lower cost. Click on the link below for more information.

Poetry Unit for Senior Students (Bundled) – Editable in Word

I love poetry! I love reading it, I love teaching it, and I love the discussions I can have with my students because of it. May students (and some teachers) dislike poetry because they think it’s too difficult. I once had a student tell me that poetry was like a “code” that needed to be unlocked. Cringe!! Some poems are meant to be analyzed. Some poems and meant to sound beautiful, and some poems are meant to be simple and enjoyed for what they are. This unit has a little of all of those things.

Students love this poetry unit. It is a complete unit with no prep required on the teacher’s part. This 2 week unit includes a student guide, 12 detailed lesson plans, a multimedia presentation (no internet connection required), a complete answer key with annotated poems (this is a teacher favorite!) , and an end of the unit evaluation with answer key.

Just print it and teach it. It really is that easy.

This bundle includes individual lessons devised to teach students the importance of:

❒ Figurative language (its uses and effects)

❒ How to read poetry

❒ The importance of rhythm

❒ The importance of tone and attitude in a poem

❒ Types of poetry

❒ How to analyze poetry

❒ How to appreciate poetry (even when you don’t understand it)

This unit’s focus is the analysis of poetry and teaches students how to make inferences, which is a skill they must learn for their other subjects as well.

Poems include authors such as Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker, Thomas Gray, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Alfred Noyes, T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Frost, and Walt Whitman.

The unit has been conceived to last 12 days – with 65 minute periods (although they are easy to modify).

The unit includes:

1 – The teacher guide (Contains 12 comprehensive lesson plans to teach the poems included in the unit. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO TEACH THIS UNIT HAS BEEN DONE FOR YOU. )

2 – The student package (Contains students’ notes, poems, and questions) (28 pages)

3 – The answer key includes annotated poems and answers to all student activities, as well as an example of paragraph developing a theme in poetry (saving you time).

4 – A multimedia PowerPoint presentation to introduce the unit (17 slides) – NO INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED

A total of 68 pages + 17 slides are included in this package.

This unit is complete and does all of the thinking for you. All you need to do is to print out and photocopy the student package, and you’re set.

Check out this sample lesson from the unit:

Free Poetry Lesson: Analysing Poetry (NO PREP)

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Inference Cheat Sheet

Romeo and Juliet No Prep Unit

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
68 pages
Answer Key
Included with rubric
Teaching Duration
3 Weeks


Thematic Poetry Unit – EDITABLE (Digital copy included)

Description

***EDITABLE RESOURCE****

**** A non-editable version of this resource is available at a lower cost. Click here to preview the unit. Thematic Poetry Unit

***A digital copy of the student activities in Google Slides is included as well for distance learning.***

The comprehensive poetry unit that teachers, as well as students, can enjoy. I want to demystify poetry, and I make it my goal for students to enjoy the reading and studying of poetry.

At the beginning of every poetry unit, I ask my students this question, “How do you feel about poetry?” My heart always sinks when most admit to disliking it. I make students this promise, and now I am making you this promise, with this unit, I might not convert you into a poetry lover, but I promise that you won’t hate it. (We need realistic expectations.) This unit includes a variety of poetry genres and activities to help students understand that poetry is not about finding the correct answer but appreciating someone else’s point of view on a subject (even if students don’t quite understand or like it). In short, this unit teaches students how to approach, think, and write about poetry. Each lesson focuses on an element of poetry that will further students’ ability to analyze, to read between the lines, and to become independent learners.

The unit includes:

❒Student worksheets and poems

❒15 complete lessons (with an introduction, transitions and activities, and conclusion). The lessons also include the learning goals for students.

❒A comprehensive answer key for all worksheets, annotations to all poems, examples of paragraphs for students.

❒A final unit test (PPT – editable) with the answer key. Includes student success criteria and an evaluation grid. The poem on the test is Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Masks.” For copyright purposes, the poem cannot be published on the test. However, I have left room on the editable test for the teacher to insert a copy of the poem.

A comment sheet for easy and meaningful retroaction on students’ test is also included. This will facilitate the marking process. (editable)

❒A Jeopardy game to review figurative language (PPT)

***All pages are editable in a PowerPoint document. The background has been secured to ensure proper formatting.

Summary of lessons included:

❒ Lesson 1: Introduction to poetry – Includes a journal prompt, notes on how to approach poetry, an activity to familiarize students with poetry further, and a review on figurative language (with notes.)

❒ Lesson 2: Figurative Language Review – The lesson includes a journal prompt (a creative poetry activity), students will play Figurative Language Jeopardy (PPT) to review figurative language.

❒ Lesson 3: Introduction to analysis – The lesson includes a journal prompt, students will learn to analyze poetry using Walt Whitman’s “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and “The Quiet Patient Spider.”

❒ Lesson 4: Fun with metaphors – This lesson includes a journal prompt, a “Fun with Metaphors” worksheet to help students further understand metaphors, students will analyze William Blake’s “A Poison Tree,” and will complete the worksheet on the poem.

❒ Lesson 5: Fun with allusions – This lesson begins with a journal prompt, a “Fun with Allusions” worksheet, students analyze Simon and Garfunkel’s song “The Sound of Silence.” (poem not included) However, a blank (editable) page is included in the document to paste the lyrics from the internet. This will help you create a more cohesive looking unit.

❒ Lesson 6: Tone and Attitude – Students will do a video (or song version) comparison analysis by completing the “Video Comparison” worksheet.

❒ Lesson 7: Symbolism – Students will complete the “Fun with Idioms” worksheet, will analyze Robert Frost’s poems “The Road not Taken” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” they will complete the worksheets for both poems, and learn how to write a PEEL paragraph using the notes provided.

❒ Lesson 8: Writing about poetry – This is a writing clinic of sorts where students will learn to identify strong topic sentences and well-developed paragraphs. An example of a well-developed paragraph is included.

❒ Lesson 9: Historical allusions: This lesson begins with a journal prompt, students will analyze Cara Dillon’s song “There were Roses” and complete the accompanying worksheet. (Please note that this poem is not included.)

❒ Lesson 10: Thematic connections – Students will work in collaborative groups on the “Thematic Connections” worksheet, which compares two of the poems studied in the unit. *An optional activity is included: Students will write a comparative paragraph comparing one similar theme in both poems. An example of a paragraph is included.

❒ Lesson 11: Allusions and analysis – this lesson begins with a journal prompt, The study of Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” by watching a Ted Talk, analyzing Mumford and Son’s song “The Cave,” and completing the worksheet. (Please note that the song lyrics are not included.)

❒ Lesson 12: Connections – students will learn to make important connections in poetry by completing the worksheets of the “Battle of the Pronouns” and “Cave vs. Cave” to further develop the themes in Mumford and Son’s song “The Cave.”

❒ Lesson 13: Theme review – Students will refine and review how to develop a theme in a poem (which applies to any work of literature) by completing the worksheet “The Cave – Themes and Meanings,” students will then write a theme in paragraph form.

❒ Lesson 14: Evaluation (test) – editable with answer key and comment sheet to facilitate marking

Check out the free sample lesson: Free Poetry Lesson on Metaphors

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Essay Writing Flip Book

Frankenstein Bundle

Hamlet Bundle

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
78 pages and 28 slides
Answer Key
Included with rubric
Teaching Duration
2 Weeks


Brave New World Student Workbook (Digital copy included)

Description

***NEW – This unit is now distance learning ready.

-Students may also complete the work using Google Slides.

Brave New World Student Workbook contains everything a teacher needs to teach Huxley’s novel. Instead of the boring question and answer format, the Student Workbook prompts students’ ideas about characters, asks them to comment on significant quotes, and to notice some of the essential techniques used by the author such as symbolism, allusions, themes, etc. in each of the chapters. I have created this resource for my own classes, and students love the meaningful format.

In addition, a comprehensive answer key is also provided for the teacher. You now have all of the flexibility needed for your lesson plans with all of the work provided for you.

More specifically, the Student Workbook contains (23 activity pages):

❒ An introductory activity and anAnticipation Guide.

❒ Chapter 1 with a focus on characters, setting, castes, and meaningful questions.

❒ Work page on Castes from the novel making connections with the castes in

Hinduism.

❒ Chapters 2 & 3 focus on historical illusions and important facts from the novel.

❒ A characterization chart.

❒ Chapters 3 & 4 with a focus on symbolism, religious allusion, characterization,

and important facts from the novel.

❒ Chapter 6 with a focus on conflicts, significant quotes, and important facts from

the novel.

❒ Review pages for chapters 1-6 with a focus on historical allusion, Huxley’s

warnings for the future, and the significance of setting and mood. (This is a

good quiz preparation)

❒ Chapter 7 with a focus on important facts from the novel and characterization.

❒ Chapters 8 & 9 with a focus on characterization, Shakespearean allusions,

flashback technique, important facts from the novel, and student inferencing.

❒ Chapters 10 & 11 with a focus on characterization, conflict, important facts from

the novel, and the different types of irony found in the novel.

❒ Chapters 12 & 13 with a focus on important facts from the novel, connections to

Shakespearean allusions, and characterization.

❒ Chapters 14 & 15 with a focus on important facts from the novel, making

connections to significant quotes, allegorical (archetypal) characters in the

novel.

❒ Connections from Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave to Huxley’s characters and

situations. (With directions to a Ted Talk for further explanation)

❒ Making connections to a modern song for further analytic connections to both

the novel and to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

❒ Themes and meaning activity to further the meaning of Huxley’s themes and

how they can relate to us today.

❒ Chapters 16 & 17 with a focus on the Pros and Cons of freedom, important

philosophical concepts from the novel, and allegorical messages in the novel.

❒ Chapter 18 with a focus on important facts from the novel and their significance.

Students have the opportunity to inference their opinion of the ending with the

possibility of discussing the importance of mental health in society.

❒ Shakespearean allusions activity page with a focus on making connections with

John’s feelings.

❒ The Noble Savage activity page with an explanation of the concept. Students

are asked to consider the Noble Savage perspective to develop important

themes and messages in the novel.

❒ Predictions activity page where students are asked to infer Huxley’s possible

messages for our society today.

❒ Themes in Brave New World activity page where students are asked to develop

important themes from the novel.

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Thematic Poetry Unit: Editable

Death of a Salesman No Prep Unit

Frankenstein Bundle

Hamlet Bundle

Lord of the Flies No Prep Unit

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

The Yellow Wallpaper No Prep Mini-Unit

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
46 pages
Answer Key
Included
Teaching Duration
2 months


Teaching the Essay Package

Description

TEACHING THE ESSAY – AN EASY TO USE GUIDE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

The Teaching the Essay package has been devised as a resource to help guide students develop their essay writing skills. This comprehensive package includes details on how to structure an essay as well as how to develop arguments. This visually attractive handout contains practical examples and guides students with revision questions to keep them on track.

The package focuses on: (Package contains 13 pages)

❒ Format (Introduction – thesis, development, conclusion)

❒ Developing arguments

❒ Tips for writing

❒ Practical examples

❒ Quote insertion and selection

❒ Comprehensive transitions list

❒ How to analyse

❒ Paragraphing and how to format arguments within the paragraphs

❒ A practical example of the paragraph

❒ Style and flow (transitions)

❒ Revision questions

❒ Practical essay analogy

❒ Strategies in writing

I have been using and revising this document for over 10 years and it has proved to be a most useful tool for teaching the essay.

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Analyze This!

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Thesis Writing Activity

Thesis Writing Poster

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Total Pages
13 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


English Grammar Cheat Sheet

Description

This “Cheat Sheet” was designed to help students while writing in English. This at a glance 2 page sheet is colorful and has an easy to find layout to help students remember certain important things while they write.

I allow my students to use this in class when writing a test. This is not a grammar lesson, but it will remind students about the grammar they’ve learned in the past.

Some of the reminders included:

❒ parts of speech

❒ transitional words

❒ quotation marks (how and when to use them)

❒ basic sentence structure

❒ spelling tips (plurals of nouns and IE rule)

❒ punctuation rules (apostrophe, colon, semicolon)

The other side of the page has comma rules:

❒ with coordinate conjunctions

❒ with introductory elements

❒ with other elements (dates, parenthetical expression, nouns in a direct address)

❒ with adjectives

❒ with appositives

It also contains tips on things to avoid, such as writing a paragraph shorter than 4 sentences. And, it contains a list of things to do, such as make sure that your paragraphs contain at least 2 pieces of evidence.

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Essay Writing Flip Book

How to Write a Paragraph

Inference Cheat Sheet

Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

Sentences Grammar Circles For Easy & Effective Grammar

Spelling Flip Book

Superhero Themed Parts of Speech Posters

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
2 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


April 2022 Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern 

Welcome to our April Teacher Talk.  All of us from the Teacher Talk collaborative would like to wish you a happy and prosperous spring.  We have so many fab tips this month from fun activities, ELA and reading ideas, to high interest learning. You don’t want to miss reading these blog posts from some awesome educators.

If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here…The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, “Feel free to email me at deann.marin@gmail.com for any questions you might have.”
 
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April Activities Just for Your Students
Some fun and engaging activities for you to do with your students during the month of April or whenever.
 
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Read Aloud Magic
Add a little magic to your read-alouds by taking your students through a portal inside the book.
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5 Ways to Up the FUN Factor at the End of the School Year
 

The end of the school year can be difficult at best and disastrous at worst. Your students are ready for summer, and you are anxious to close the year out without incident. Here are 5 ways to up the FUN factor at the end of the year

 
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Make an Old Story New Again
 

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Rework a plot from a story you’ve read or a movie you’ve seen and make it your own.

 
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Junk Art
 

One of the best things about teaching reading is that you can find anything to read about any holiday and make it teachable. When April rolls around, one of my favorite Earth Day activities is making art from junk and having students write stories about their creations.

 
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Let’s Play Bingo!
 
Learn 3 ways to use BINGO in your math class.

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The Best Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged During Tough Teaching Times
 

Learn some of the best strategies for keeping students engaged during the most challenging times of the year.

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You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


Free Inference Cheat Sheet

Description

Do your students insert examples and quotes into their texts without properly analyzing them? Without proper analysis, an essay can sound like a long, drawn-out list written in complete sentences. We teach students to infer and to analyze, but they sometimes forget to incorporate this into their texts and essays.

I have created an “Inference Cheat Sheet” with key inferencing words and phrases to remind students that after inserting a piece of evidence, they need to explain its relevance.

Included are:

❒ Two different styles of the at-a-glance “Cheat Sheet.”

❒ An inference poster (8.5×11) – as seen on the cover.

❒ Two different styles of letters for an inference bulletin board.

❒ A copy of ALL the phrases used on the Cheat Sheet to create a bulletin board in class.

I hope that this resource will be helpful to students in your classes.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Analyze This!

English Grammar Cheat Sheet

Essay Writing Flip Book

Parts of Speech Grammar Circles

Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

Teaching the Essay Package

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
24 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Free Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

Description

This is a nice visual to help students remember the process of developing themes.

Free Poster to help students remember the steps to take when developing themes in literature.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Analyze This!

English Grammar Cheat Sheet

Inference Cheat Sheet

Superhero Themed Parts of Speech Posters

Thesis Writing Poster

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
1 page
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Much Ado About Nothing Unit (Digital copy included)

Description

An editable version of this unit is available by clicking here Much Ado About Nothing Unit EDITABLE

“Much Ado About Nothing Unit” is a complete, no prep unit that is ready to teach the instant you download it. I love Shakespeare, especially his comedies, and I really want students and teachers alike to love it too. The activities and accompanying lessons in this unit demystify Shakespeare and makes it relatable to students. The unit included all lesson plans with 16 comprehensive lessons and a reading schedule (with learning objectives listed for each lesson), all student activities, evaluations, rubrics, comprehensive answer keys for all work and assignments, and fun bonus materials to suit your students’ interests.

The Much Ado About Nothing Unit is now distance learning ready. Send individual PDF activities to students OR share the work in Google Slides.

***NEW – all student activities are available in Google Docs and are completely modifiable.

The unit is appropriate for grades 9 through 12.

Take a look at the unit preview for more visual details. The unit includes:

A total of 100 pages in PDF and 12 PowerPoint slides are included in this unit.

Act and Scene Guide (Includes the characters found in the scene and the approximate reading time.)

Teacher Guide (lesson plans) – 16 easy-to-follow lessons, learning objectives, reading schedule, with included reading prompts, journal entries, and exit tickets (or closing activities.)

Students Activities include:

❒ Pre-Reading Activity

❒ Act 1 Comprehension questions

❒ Act 2 Comprehension questions

❒ Act 3 Comprehension questions

❒ Acts 4-5 Comprehension questions

❒ Who’s who in Act 1

❒ Literary Devices (Act 1)

❒ Characterization Activity

❒ Subplot Activity

❒ The Plan (conflict)

❒ Dogberry’s Malapropisms

❒ Much Ado About Noting (theme work)

❒ Activity on Symbolism

❒ Activity on Theme

Comprehensive Answer Key for ALL activities.

Evaluations include:

❒ Quiz on Acts 1 and 2 (With answer key and rubric)

❒ Beatrice vs. Benedick (oral presentation skits)- rubric is included

❒ Fake News – newspaper article (writing activity) – with rubric

❒ unit test – with answer key and rubric

❒ Song analysis Activity for theme review (optional evaluation or activity) – with rubric

Optional bonus activities are also included

❒ A love letter activity (Optional evaluation – rubric included)

❒ A Dear Abby activity

❒ Behind the Mask – an anti-bullying campaign (can be used as an evaluation – rubric included)

❒ Additional journal topics

To further student learning, a Guess Who? For Much Ado game is included. This is a fun way to learn about the characters in the play. And, as the play progresses, students’ questioning must change to keep track of character growth. (30 slides)

You may also be interested in the following products:

Poetry Unit for Senior Students

Lord of the Flies Unit – No Prep Required

Hamlet Complete No Prep Unit

Romeo and Juliet – No Prep Unit

Death of a Salesman – No Prep Unit

Frankenstein No Prep Unit

Brave New World Student Workbook

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
98 Pages and 30 Slides
Answer Key
Included with rubric
Teaching Duration
1 month


The Yellow Wallpaper Mini-Unit (Digital resource)

Description

NEW – This resource now includes a digital version on Google Docs to facilitate online and distance learning.

The Yellow Wallpaper Mini-Unit” is perfect for teaching students to analyze literature in a meaningful way. All of the prep work and thinking has been done for you. This truly is a print-and-go resource. The mini-unit includes 5 lesson plans, an interactive PowerPoint presentation to introduce the story’s historical context, student activities, as well as a detailed answer key. The mini-unit also includes a creative writing piece that allows students to play around with voice and situate themselves within the context of the times.

This lesson is suitable for grades 9 to 12.

60 pages and 19 slides total in this unit.

See below for further details.

The PowerPoint is an interactive presentation with information about the author, the context of the time, notes on feminist literature and its history, information about Weir Mitchell and the rest cure, experts form François Poullain de la Barre’s “The Woman as Good as the Man, and an excerpt from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Émile, or On Education” to help students understand women’s frustrations and the want for change.

The Lesson Plans contain 5 comprehensive lessons, which fully explore this work’s mastery and teaches students to think critically by annotating the work. The lesson plans include journal topics, class discussions, and exit tickets, as well as learning goals for each lesson for students to fully grasp the importance of this work.

The student Activities include an activity on symbolism, activity on the theme, a tutorial on how to develop themes in paragraph form (this is an important skill for ELA students), an example of a developed theme, and a paragraph organizer.

Two copies of the short story are included – a copy of the short story with space for students to annotate the work and an annotated copy for the teacher or for differentiated learning as the case may be. (Provided in Word as well as PDF format to allow you to add your own annotations.)

Two evaluations are also included: (All evaluations are available Word and PDF format to suit students’ needs.)

❒One evaluation is a creative writing assignment where students assume the voice of a man during the 1890’s responding to Mary Wollstonecraft’s views on women’s rights.

❒Also included is an analysis evaluation where students must develop one of the themes from the work. (A sample answer is provided with rubric)

A comprehensive answer key is provided for all work.

Please see the preview for a more visual explanation.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Brave New World Student Notebook
Death of a Salesman No Prep Unit

Frankenstein Bundle

Hamlet Bundle

Lord of the Flies No Prep Unit

Poetry No Prep Unit

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
60 pages and 19 slides
Answer Key
Included with rubric
Teaching Duration
1 Week


Rubrics: Self Evaluation and teacher assessment rubrics

Description

Self-evaluation grids are a great way to guide students in their evaluations. Students will know exactly what is expected of them and will be made responsible for their own success. This package can also easily be changed to be used as peer evaluations.

Included within this document are over 20 different self-evaluation grids.

These self-evaluation grids are also very helpful to teachers:

Helps the teacher justify the final mark;

❒ Helps the teacher create meaningful evaluation grids;

❒ Helps to identify students’ weaknesses and strengths;

❒ Helps parents and students better understand the task required;

❒ Helps teachers create rubrics for the final evaluation.

This package was created in a Word document in order to be easily modified and changed according to the individual teacher’s needs.

This self-evaluation package contains self-evaluation grids for:

❒ Newspaper article

❒ Short story writing (intermediate and senior)

❒ Essay writing (various different types)

❒ Essay evaluation rubrics (for teacher –with and without sources)

❒ Independent study unit

❒ Research paper

❒ Skits

❒ Board game

❒ Group work

❒ Opinion piece

❒ Editorial

❒ Friendly letter

❒ Debate

❒ Movie review

❒ Journals

❒ Scrapbook

❒ Seminar

❒ Speech

❒ Riddle writing

You may also be interested in the following products:

Comment Bank

ELA Report Card Comments

Group Work Assessment Tool

Opinion Letter with the Novel Holes

Opinion Piece Bundle

Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
27 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Creative Writing Bundle

Description

This Creative Writing bundle has been created to teach students the basic elements of writing. It begins with a PowerPoint to introduce how students should approach creative writing and includes activities to help students create believable and interesting characters, how to build suspense, and basics of the elements of fiction and plot.

Check out the individual resources for more information.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Free Thesis Writing Activity

Paragraph Writing Activity (Frankenstein)

Parts of Speech Grammar Circles

Poster: Developing Themes in Literature

Superhero Themed Parts of Speech Posters

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
13 pages and 11 slides
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Opinion Piece Bundle

Description

How to write an effective Opinion Piece Bundle includes:

❒ notes for students (What is an opinion piece? How do we write an opinion piece?…)

❒work process sheets to help students organize their ideas

❒ work process sheets to help students organize their ideastool for teaching)

❒ a student self-evaluation and teacher evaluation

You may also be interested in the following products:

ELA Literature Study Unit

English Grammar Cheat Sheet

How to Write a Paragraph

Opinion Letter with the Novel Holes

Sentences Grammar Circles For Easy & Effective Grammar

Spelling Flip Book

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
6 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

Description

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook contains everything a teacher needs to teach Bronte’s novel. Instead of the boring question and answer format, the Student Workbook prompts students’ ideas about characters, asks them to comment on significant quotes, and to notice some of the essential techniques used by the author such as symbolism, allusions, themes, etc. in each of the chapters. I have created this resource for my own classes, and students love the meaningful format. Instead of writing information about themes, symbolism, characterization, etc. on separate sheets apart from the chapter questions, everything is integrated in a simplified way.

In addition, a comprehensive answer key is also provided for the teacher. You now have all of the flexibility needed for your lesson plans with all of the work provided for you.

More specifically, the Student Workbook contains work on (42 activity pages):

❒ Important information from each chapter

❒ Setting description and symbolism

❒ Characterization (you can see the characters develop as the students’ read)

❒ Gothic elements

❒ Symbolism

❒ Themes

❒ Supernatural occurrences

❒ Significant quotes

❒ Narration

❒ Allusions

❒ Sociogram (to show characters’ relationships)

❒ Inferencing questions to further students’ understanding

❒ Family tree (to help students remember who is who)

❒ Conflicts

❒ Literary techniques used by the author

❒ Characterization chart

Please see the product preview for more information.

This resource includes 84 pages in total. Please see the preview for further details.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Thematic Poetry Unit: Editable
Brave New World Student Notebook

Death of a Salesman No Prep Unit

Frankenstein No Prep Unit

Hamlet No Prep Unit

Lord of the Flies No Prep Unit

Much Ado About Nothing No Prep Unit

Romeo and Juliet No Prep Unit

The Yellow Wallpaper No Prep Mini-Unit

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
84 pages
Answer Key
Included
Teaching Duration
2 months


Frankenstein Workbook (Digital copy included)

Description

***New – The Frankenstein Workbook is now distance learning ready. The activities are all available on Google Slides where students can insert their answers.

The Frankenstein Workbook was created as a different way to learn from Mary Shelley’s novel. (1831 edition)

The Student Workbook has 30 pages that focus on themes, symbols, important quotes, characterization, romantic and gothic literature, biblical and literary allusions, and elements of the plot.

The format includes symbols to help guide students in theme development and allow them to build on characterization, symbolism, and meaningful allusions in the novel in a clear and more visual way.

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PRODUCT CONTENT:

Student Workbook x1 (30 pages)

Answer Key x1

Copy of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner x1

Annotated copy of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner x1

Please note that this is a digital download in PDF format and that the pages are not editable.

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WORKBOOK CONTENT:

❒ Background information

❒ Anticipation Guide and Introductory Activity

❒ Letters 1-4

❒ Chapters 1&2

❒ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (allusion in the novel)

❒ Chapters 3, 4 & 5

❒ Chapters 6, 7 & 8

❒ Chapters 9 & 10

❒ Chapters 11 & 12

❒ An activity

❒ Supplementary activity – Nature in Romantic Literature

❒ Chapter 13 (activity)

❒ Chapters 14 & 15

❒ Chapter 16

❒ Chapters 17 & 18

❒ Chapter 19

❒ Chapters 20 &21

❒ Chapter 22

❒ Chapters 23 & 24`

❒ Activity on symbolism

❒ Activity on theme development

The activities are available in a booklet format or individually.

FOR MORE FRANKENSTEIN RESOURCES:

Frankenstein No Prep Unit

Frankenstein Activity

Frankenstein Bundle

Frankenstein Debate

Paragraph Writing Activity (Frankenstein)

You may also be interested in the following products:

Thematic Poetry Unit: Editable

Brave New World Student Notebook

Hamlet Scene Summary Visual Notebook

Romeo and Juliet No Prep Unit

Wuthering Heights Student Workbook

The Yellow Wallpaper No Prep Mini-Unit

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
88 pages
Answer Key
Included
Teaching Duration
N/A


Free Poetry Lesson on Metaphors

Description

This FREE lesson is a sample from one of my complete units on poetry. See the links below for more information.

❒ Lesson 4 (from the Thematic Poetry Unit) : Fun with metaphors – This lesson includes a journal prompt, a “Fun with Metaphors” worksheet to help students further understand metaphors, students will analyze William Blake’s “A Poison Tree,” and will complete the worksheet on the poem.

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An editable version the Thematic Poetry Unit can also be purchased using this link: ***EDITABLE Thematic Poetry Unit

Click here for a non-editable version of the unit Thematic Poetry Unit

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Description of the Thematic Poetry Unit – Summary of lessons included:

❒ Lesson 1: Introduction to poetry – Includes a journal prompt, notes on how to approach poetry, an activity to familiarize students with poetry further, and a review on figurative language (with notes.)

❒ Lesson 2: Figurative Language Review – The lesson includes a journal prompt (a creative poetry activity), students will play Figurative Language Jeopardy (PPT) to review figurative language.

❒ Lesson 3: Introduction to analysis – The lesson includes a journal prompt, students will learn to analyze poetry using Walt Whitman’s “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and “The Quiet Patient Spider.”

❒ Lesson 4: Fun with metaphors – This lesson includes a journal prompt, a “Fun with Metaphors” worksheet to help students further understand metaphors, students will analyze William Blake’s “A Poison Tree,” and will complete the worksheet on the poem.

❒ Lesson 5: Fun with allusions – This lesson begins with a journal prompt, a “Fun with Allusions” worksheet, students analyze Simon and Garfunkel’s song “The Sound of Silence.” (poem not included) However, a blank (editable) page is included in the document to paste the lyrics from the internet. This will help you create a more cohesive looking unit.

❒ Lesson 6: Tone and Attitude – Students will do a video (or song version) comparison analysis by completing the “Video Comparison” worksheet.

❒ Lesson 7: Symbolism – Students will complete the “Fun with Idioms” worksheet, will analyze Robert Frost’s poems “The Road not Taken” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” they will complete the worksheets for both poems, and learn how to write a PEEL paragraph using the notes provided.

❒ Lesson 8: Writing about poetry – This is a writing clinic of sorts where students will learn to identify strong topic sentences and well-developed paragraphs. An example of a well-developed paragraph is included.

❒ Lesson 9: Historical allusions: This lesson begins with a journal prompt, students will analyze Cara Dillon’s song “There were Roses” and complete the accompanying worksheet. (Please note that this poem is not included.)

❒ Lesson 10: Thematic connections – Students will work in collaborative groups on the “Thematic Connections” worksheet, which compares two of the poems studied in the unit. *An optional activity is included: Students will write a comparative paragraph comparing one similar theme in both poems. An example of a paragraph is included.

❒ Lesson 11: Allusions and analysis – this lesson begins with a journal prompt, The study of Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” by watching a Ted Talk, analyzing Mumford and Son’s song “The Cave,” and completing the worksheet. (Please note that the song lyrics are not included.)

❒ Lesson 12: Connections – students will learn to make important connections in poetry by completing the worksheets of the “Battle of the Pronouns” and “Cave vs. Cave” to further develop the themes in Mumford and Son’s song “The Cave.”

❒ Lesson 13: Theme review – Students will refine and review how to develop a theme in a poem (which applies to any work of literature) by completing the worksheet “The Cave – Themes and Meanings,” students will then write a theme in paragraph form.

❒ Lesson 14: Evaluation (test) – editable with answer key and comment sheet to facilitate marking

You may also be interested in the following products:

Free Thesis Writing Activity

Poetry Lesson: Analyzing Poetry

Poetry Unit for Senior Students

Teaching the Essay Package

The Yellow Wallpaper No Prep Mini-Unit

Much Ado About Nothing No Prep Unit

❒Brave New World Student Notebook

Essay Writing Flip Book

Frankenstein Bundle

Hamlet Bundle

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
7 pages
Answer Key
Included
Teaching Duration
55 minutes


Poetry Unit EDITABLE

Description

This product is available at a lower cost. Click on the link below for more information.

Poetry Unit for Senior Students (Bundled) – Editable in Word

I love poetry! I love reading it, I love teaching it, and I love the discussions I can have with my students because of it. May students (and some teachers) dislike poetry because they think it’s too difficult. I once had a student tell me that poetry was like a “code” that needed to be unlocked. Cringe!! Some poems are meant to be analyzed. Some poems and meant to sound beautiful, and some poems are meant to be simple and enjoyed for what they are. This unit has a little of all of those things.

Students love this poetry unit. It is a complete unit with no prep required on the teacher’s part. This 2 week unit includes a student guide, 12 detailed lesson plans, a multimedia presentation (no internet connection required), a complete answer key with annotated poems (this is a teacher favorite!) , and an end of the unit evaluation with answer key.

Just print it and teach it. It really is that easy.

This bundle includes individual lessons devised to teach students the importance of:

❒ Figurative language (its uses and effects)

❒ How to read poetry

❒ The importance of rhythm

❒ The importance of tone and attitude in a poem

❒ Types of poetry

❒ How to analyze poetry

❒ How to appreciate poetry (even when you don’t understand it)

This unit’s focus is the analysis of poetry and teaches students how to make inferences, which is a skill they must learn for their other subjects as well.

Poems include authors such as Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker, Thomas Gray, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Alfred Noyes, T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Frost, and Walt Whitman.

The unit has been conceived to last 12 days – with 65 minute periods (although they are easy to modify).

The unit includes:

1 – The teacher guide (Contains 12 comprehensive lesson plans to teach the poems included in the unit. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO TEACH THIS UNIT HAS BEEN DONE FOR YOU. )

2 – The student package (Contains students’ notes, poems, and questions) (28 pages)

3 – The answer key includes annotated poems and answers to all student activities, as well as an example of paragraph developing a theme in poetry (saving you time).

4 – A multimedia PowerPoint presentation to introduce the unit (17 slides) – NO INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED

A total of 68 pages + 17 slides are included in this package.

This unit is complete and does all of the thinking for you. All you need to do is to print out and photocopy the student package, and you’re set.

Check out this sample lesson from the unit:

Free Poetry Lesson: Analysing Poetry (NO PREP)

You may also be interested in the following products:

Thematic Poetry Unit: Editable
❒ Analyze This!

Creative Writing Bundle

ELA Literature Study Unit

Figurative Language & Poetic Devices Jeopardy Game

I Have, Who Has? Game for Teaching Figurative Language & Poetry

Inference Cheat Sheet

Romeo and Juliet No Prep Unit

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
68 pages
Answer Key
Included with rubric
Teaching Duration
3 Weeks


March 2022 Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern 

Welcome to our March Teacher Talk.  All of us from the Teacher Talk collaborative would like to wish you a happy and prosperous spring.  We have so many fab tips this month from fun activities, ELA and reading ideas, to high interest learning. You don’t want to miss reading these blog posts from some awesome educators.

If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here…The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, “Feel free to email me at deann.marin@gmail.com for any questions you might have.”
 
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It’s… March Let’s Go Fly a Kite
As an award for good behavior, my special needs class’s favorite activity was making & flying kites. When I taught sixth grade, my kids also loved this project.

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Starting with Scribble

Ideas for celebrating National Scribble Day!

 
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Study Practices
In spite of what many people think, there are some very common study practices that are not very effective. There are others that are somewhat helpful, and then there are several that research shows are very effective.
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What to Have in a Literature Circle Resource Center

By Marcy Howe of It’s a Teacher Thing

Discover the most important items to have in your literature circles resource center.

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Tips to Save Money on Groceries

Grocery prices are soaring. Here are some tips to save money on groceries.

 
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The Value of Project-based Learning -A Solid Gold Learning Nugget

The value of project-based learning goes beyond keeping your students actively involved in their own education. It teaches them cooperation, time management, and public speaking. Try this solid gold nugget in your own classroom.

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You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


Free Creating a board Game Assessment Tool

Description

Assess your students’ knowledge of literature with this fun and creative evaluation. Not only will your students learn by creating a game, but other will learn as well by playing it.

This is a self-evaluation (and teacher assessment) rubric to guide students and teachers in the evaluation process.)

This rubric was created to help students understand exactly what is expected of them for this evaluation. It is also an excellent tool to assess students’ progress and final product.

This self-assessment rubric is part of the bundle as well.

Self-evaluation grids are a great way to guide students in their evaluations. Students will know exactly what is expected of them and will be made responsible for their own success. This package can also easily be changed to be used as peer-evaluations.

You may also be interested in the following products:

Group Work Assessment Tool

Figurative Language & Poetic Devices Jeopardy Game

I Have, Who Has? Game for Teaching Figurative Language & Poetry
Rubrics: Self-Evaluation Bundle

Thesis Writing Activity

It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
3 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A


Brave New World Student Workbook (Digital copy included)

Description

***NEW – This unit is now distance learning ready.

-Students may also complete the work using Google Slides.

Brave New World Student Workbook contains everything a teacher needs to teach Huxley’s novel. Instead of the boring question and answer format, the Student Workbook prompts students’ ideas about characters, asks them to comment on significant quotes, and to notice some of the essential techniques used by the author such as symbolism, allusions, themes, etc. in each of the chapters. I have created this resource for my own classes, and students love the meaningful format.

In addition, a comprehensive answer key is also provided for the teacher. You now have all of the flexibility needed for your lesson plans with all of the work provided for you.

More specifically, the Student Workbook contains (23 activity pages):

❒ An introductory activity and anAnticipation Guide.

❒ Chapter 1 with a focus on characters, setting, castes, and meaningful questions.

❒ Work page on Castes from the novel making connections with the castes in

Hinduism.

❒ Chapters 2 & 3 focus on historical illusions and important facts from the novel.

❒ A characterization chart.

❒ Chapters 3 & 4 with a focus on symbolism, religious allusion, characterization,

and important facts from the novel.

❒ Chapter 6 with a focus on conflicts, significant quotes, and important facts from

the novel.

❒ Review pages for chapters 1-6 with a focus on historical allusion, Huxley’s

warnings for the future, and the significance of setting and mood. (This is a

good quiz preparation)

❒ Chapter 7 with a focus on important facts from the novel and characterization.

❒ Chapters 8 & 9 with a focus on characterization, Shakespearean allusions,

flashback technique, important facts from the novel, and student inferencing.

❒ Chapters 10 & 11 with a focus on characterization, conflict, important facts from

the novel, and the different types of irony found in the novel.

❒ Chapters 12 & 13 with a focus on important facts from the novel, connections to

Shakespearean allusions, and characterization.

❒ Chapters 14 & 15 with a focus on important facts from the novel, making

connections to significant quotes, allegorical (archetypal) characters in the

novel.

❒ Connections from Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave to Huxley’s characters and

situations. (With directions to a Ted Talk for further explanation)

❒ Making connections to a modern song for further analytic connections to both

the novel and to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

❒ Themes and meaning activity to further the meaning of Huxley’s themes and

how they can relate to us today.

❒ Chapters 16 & 17 with a focus on the Pros and Cons of freedom, important

philosophical concepts from the novel, and allegorical messages in the novel.

❒ Chapter 18 with a focus on important facts from the novel and their significance.

Students have the opportunity to inference their opinion of the ending with the

possibility of discussing the importance of mental health in society.

❒ Shakespearean allusions activity page with a focus on making connections with

John’s feelings.

❒ The Noble Savage activity page with an explanation of the concept. Students

are asked to consider the Noble Savage perspective to develop important

themes and messages in the novel.

❒ Predictions activity page where students are asked to infer Huxley’s possible

messages for our society today.

❒ Themes in Brave New World activity page where students are asked to develop

important themes from the novel.

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Total Pages
46 pages
Answer Key
Included
Teaching Duration
2 months


English Grammar Cheat Sheet

Description

This “Cheat Sheet” was designed to help students while writing in English. This at a glance 2 page sheet is colorful and has an easy to find layout to help students remember certain important things while they write.

I allow my students to use this in class when writing a test. This is not a grammar lesson, but it will remind students about the grammar they’ve learned in the past.

Some of the reminders included:

❒ parts of speech

❒ transitional words

❒ quotation marks (how and when to use them)

❒ basic sentence structure

❒ spelling tips (plurals of nouns and IE rule)

❒ punctuation rules (apostrophe, colon, semicolon)

The other side of the page has comma rules:

❒ with coordinate conjunctions

❒ with introductory elements

❒ with other elements (dates, parenthetical expression, nouns in a direct address)

❒ with adjectives

❒ with appositives

It also contains tips on things to avoid, such as writing a paragraph shorter than 4 sentences. And, it contains a list of things to do, such as make sure that your paragraphs contain at least 2 pieces of evidence.

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It’s teaching made easy!

Total Pages
2 pages
Answer Key
N/A
Teaching Duration
N/A