Room 2209

I don't know if I've said this before but I love TED Talks.  My kids watch one every Tuesday that relates to our main text.  Last six weeks we read A Midsummer Night's Dream , so here are the TED Talks I paired with it and why. 1.  Mandy Len Catron: Falling in Love is the Easy Part A Midsummer Night's Dream is filled with the idea of love: what is it, is it serious, or is it a flight of fancy? After falling in love using a questionnaire, Mandy Len Catron discusses the idea that it doesn't take much to fall in love, but staying in love takes work.  I use this talk at the beginning of the unit to hit the theme of love and to also get the kids thinking about what it means to truly love someone. 2.  Amy Adkins: Why Do We Dream? I love mixing facts with fiction.  The loss of reality and dreams are major themes in the play.  This video gives real-world theories as to why human beings dream.  I ask the students to choose one reason and use it as a de

I love reading A Midsummer Night's Dream  with my kids.  Over the years I've realized that a lot of them do not have the context to understand the first scene of the play.  I discovered the animated show Horrible Histories  while searching for a quick way to give them that context in a way that they'd actually pay attention.  To make sure that they did while watching, I created a guided questioning handout.  I also realized that the video wasn't going to be enough.  So I found an article on CommonLit that dissects the class system.  Because students need to understand Hermia's plight and why the mechanicals are the comedic relief (I use a subsequent lesson to drive this idea home), the assessment is two paragraphs where they have to use both resources to explain what life was like for women and the working class.   The lesson plan is below.  If you're interested in the handout I use, you can find it in my TPT store here . Groovy Greeks Introduct

I love teaching Harrison Bergeron.  I take a whole week to go through it.  And my kids seem to love it too... which makes me love it even more. Things You Will Need to Teach This Lesson: ·          Instructions ·          Harrison Bergeron PowerPoint  ·          Index Cards ·          Bill of Rights ·          Day 1 Opener Handout  ·          “Harrison Bergeron” ·          Harrison Bergeron Plot Points  ·          Harrison Bergeron Plot and Inference Chart  ·          Harrison Bergeron Plot and Inference Chart Answer Key  ·          2081  ·          Harrison Bergeron vs. 2081 Handout  Lesson: Activity One: What is your best quality? As the students walk into class, hand them an index card.  Using slides 1 and 2, introduce the story that you’re about to read.  Have the students write their best quality on the index card.  Once students have completed the task, split them into four different groups based on their best quality: ·          Th

Is everyone feeling it?  That current of tension that runs through the English Department right before the STAAR test?  I'm feeling it again, and I have to admit that, this year, it's getting to me. But this post isn't about that. This post is about something I created. I wanted my kids to understand the key term UNIQUE in the STAAR rubric.  And so I created a worksheet where kids can reflect on what made each of these 4s unique and how they can incorporate that uniqueness into their own writing.  Since we're all a little burnt out on the right vs. wrong mentality, I made this worksheet subjective.  As long as their answer is thoughtful and shows true reflection, they receive full credit. Click here for the worksheet.

Ok, so I cheated a little.  Not all of them are TED Talks. But... that's not the point.  I use TED Talks every week.  Some of the kids love them, some of them hate them, but every Tuesday for about 10 minutes at the beginning of class (sometimes they run a little longer) the kids watch a TED Talk where they have to identify the title of the talk, the speaker, the speaker's thesis, how it relates to whatever we're reading, and how the speaker uses ethos, pathos, and logos. So here are the TED Talks I use for Animal Farm, in no particular order: 1.  Karl Marx I like to start the unit off with this one.  It explains who Karl Marx was and his philosophy.  It also lightly touches on the Russian Revolution of 1917.  Just a note: the creators of this video use art to make their point, and some of the art is nude.  Use at your own discretion. 2.  Is Capitalism Bad for You? Wisecrack is amazing.  And this series takes heavy abstract theories and uses video game i

We had three weeks this month: the first week was taken up by STAAR retesting.  The third week was all about semester exams.  This left me with only the second week of December for anything instructional.  It also meant that December was going to be a themed WEEK instead of a themed MONTH. What better than the true meaning of Christmas!? [ DAY 1 AND 2: FREEWRITE AND ARTICLE ] I first posed the question:  What is the true meaning of Christmas?   I made sure to tell the kids that there was no right or wrong answer; I only wanted to know their opinion.  Then I gave them some guidelines: They had to write for 5 minutes. Their answers had to be thoughtful. They needed to write at least three sentences (I know… I know… but for some of these kids writing is torture.). Then we shared out.  And oh boy.  Most answers included presents, spending time with family, and getting time off from school.  I did have one kid explain that Christmas wasn’t about presents, but about char

One of the biggest issues we have in getting prepared for the STAAR is the writing portion of the test.  Lucky for us (or unlucky; the tides have yet to determine) they took the analysis paragraph away, so when it comes to writing, I can put all my energy into the persuasive essay. Before  ABYDOS , my students had written an essay for timed writing.  We had done a two week unit on over overcoming adversity and the essay was the conclusion.  I was worried about feedback, convinced I don’t dedicate nearly enough time on the idea, convinced that it’s probably the most important element in getting them to where I need them to be, convinced that maybe, just maybe, that was the reason they’re all horrible at writing. However, during ABYDOS, I went to a session where she explained that her Pre-AP students were having some of the same problems mine were.  She also expressed the power of visual learning and color. She has the students self evaluate using highlighters.  Yellow= trans

I love  Channel One . I think it’s a great way to get current events into larger discussions in the classroom. I also don’t use Channel One enough. Or like… at all. *background info* Our school has a program called PrimeTime, where kids can be requested for a class period’s worth of intervention once a week. Priority goes to the core instructors, followed by a period where elective teachers can request students. I’m still undecided on whether I’m completely in love with the idea or absolutely hate it. *back to what you came here for* So, I was tossing and turning way earlier than I needed to be one morning, trying to figure out what I was going to do for PrimeTime that day when I thought about relevancy, and then I thought about our current climate, and then I thought about Channel One all while thinking about my SCIOP kiddos. I struggle with those students trying to get them to just write a simple paragraph. It’s disheartening and frustrating and even harder to imagine than

The first week we have kids is always the hardest for me.  I’m nervous and anticipatory and all the things that you think would come along with meeting 150 new people all at one time.  That’s a crazy thought.  And it kind of puts things into perspective about why I feel the anxiety that I do. So anywho… Monday was Freshman Orientation, so since I was moved back up again to sophomores I didn’t have kids in my class.  It rained Monday, and I put the finishing touches on my classroom to the sound of it pelting the metal roof and fearing that I wouldn’t be able to get out of the parking lot. TUESDAY We spent a good two hours in Advisory so every class didn’t meet. But for periods 3-9, I had something planned as an introduction that I had never done before. Play- doh! I read  Teach Like a Pirate  by Dave Burgess over the summer and it gave me some serious renewed hope.  I’m going to write a review soon.  But he says that on the first day of school he has the kids play with