The Mysterious Benedict Society – Book Study Ideas After it was recommended dozens of times, I finally read The Mysterious Benedict Society and I wish I had read it sooner!
Tweaks To A Character Study A teacher sent me a sequence of questions about the story My Father’s Dragon. Based on what you’ve read so far, what is one word you could use to describe Elmer? What from the story made you choose this word? Think of other books you’ve read. What character from another story you know is similar […]
Building Confidence in Speaking Skills When preparing your students for standardized tests, those little standards labeled Speaking And Listening can easily slip by the wayside. And yet, is there any skill more important in landing a job, surviving social engagements, or being a successful leader than confident oral language skills? Teach your students to analyze great speeches to become better public speakers themselves.
The Tragedy of the Commons Imagine that we all share a common resource, but no one is really in charge. How do we maintain order without an authority? This is a fantastically fuzzy situation for students to dig into.
A Christmas Carol – Study Guide Ideas Take your students through Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol this holiday season and expose them to a classic while exploring the Universal Theme of Change. And, hey, since this story’s in the public domain, you can print out a PDF or link to the text at Project Gutenburg. A Christmas Carol Summary Dickens has organized […]
Inductive Thinking in Spelling and Vocabulary Let's look at a couple ways to bring inductive thinking into word studies. We'll examine simple plural rules all the way up to etymology of foreign words in English.
A Depth and Complexity ELA Worksheet with Problems Here’s a Depth and Complexity worksheet I used to use with my students: I look at it now and shudder. I was making so many mistakes here. Let’s just zoom out and imagine that I asked the same questions at a book club with fellow adults. Me: What is this story’s main theme? Him: Oh, […]
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Book Study Ideas Here's how I'd wrap a big idea around our study of "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler". We'd investigate the paradox that people want to both fit in and be unique! A quote from the author, E. L. Konigsburg, will be our entry point.
From “Summarize” to “Synthesize” Even what seems like a low-level "summarize" task can become beautifully high-level when we climb Bloom's Taxonomy.
Patterns In Writing: Conflict Discussing types of conflict is a great first step towards building a strong narrative. Although the term conjures up images of ninja battles for many of our students, conflict can take on many more sophisticated forms than physical fights.
