I am SUPER excited about this new tool I developed for my classroom. The Writing Desk is a reference tool to be used during Writing Workshop, such as writing a draft, peer revising, and/or editing.
I took two manilla folders and overlapped them to create a 3-way standing ‘desk’ or divider. Then I created the printouts that are glued on the 3 inside surfaces. It’s designed to look like a cork board with lots of helpful ideas and ‘post its’ tacked up. The ideas include:
* Commonly Misspelled Words
* Introductory Elements – AAAWWUBBIS
* Transition Words
* How to correctly quote
* The Do’s and Don’ts of Peer Revision
* A publishing checklist (for final drafts)
* Compound Sentences – FANBOYS
* Appositives
* Other Ways to Say ‘Said’
* Our 6 Traits CCSS writing rubric that we use for all of our expository writing
* A TEL-Con sandwich graphic organizer. If you aren’t familiar with TEL-Con, it’s an organizational structure we use in our school for writing body paragraphs. You can learn more about TEL-Con through any of the following links:
I kid you not with this story: I have a high school ‘helper’ – a former student who volunteers in my classroom, and she is helping me make these writing desks. I explained the project to her, and the first thing she says is, “No fair! I wish you had thought of this when I was in 8th grade!”
I’ll be working hard for the next week or so to create a whole classroom set. If you’d like to purchase this for your classroom, click here!
This week is our first chance to go to the Library. I make a point of bringing my 8th graders to the Library every Monday. This year, however, I knew things would be a little different with the iPads. For starters, our Library is now offering ebooks on loan. For some ebooks, we have only a few licenses, meaning only a few students can ‘check out’ the ebook at a time, and for other ebooks we have unlimited licenses. The students can download the ebook from our Library app (Destiny), ‘rent’ it for a couple of weeks, and then on the due date, **poof** it disappears! This means you can check out a book without ever stepping a foot into the library! This is great for kids who are absent a lot, who go on vacation, or who devour books at a breakneck pace.
To better utilize the iPads for reading purposes, I created this handout to help my students discover new and exciting digital reading materials. There are also some fantastic tips for finding your next great reading book. You can download the entire 3-page PDF file here: How To Find a Great Book KD. Enjoy!
An activity that I always use to start the year is ‘Why we Read/Write.’ I like students to really think about the purpose of Language Arts class and the many benefits of learning to read and write effectively.
I started by reading them a children’s book – this year it was Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. I ask the students to relax, enjoy, and transport themselves back in time to when they were wee and loved to snuggle and read books with their parents.
You’d be surprised – 13-year-olds love to have children’s books read to them. Afterward, I asked what they enjoyed about the book. They loved that it was humorous, colorful, and simple; it brought back many nostalgic memories. Next, I asked them, “When reading this book, what might a small child accidentally learn about?” They were surprised at their own long list: farm animals and the foods they provide us, farm life, vocabulary, letter writing, and negotiating skills. Wow – reading really has many benefits, huh?
Then I passed out a stack of post-its at each table and asked the table groups to write down as many reasons as they could generate for why people read. What they came up with was creative and insightful!
Some of my favorite post-its read:
“Find answers”
“To escape your reality”
“entertainment”
“Keep informed”
Then I shared Kelly Gallagher’s 10 Reading Reasons and asked the students to compare their list with his. For the most part, they got all of the reasons besides ‘Reading Helps us To Fight Oppression’ and ‘Reading is Financially Rewarding.’ I challenge the students to name a single job where reading is not required. Bottom line: It can’t be done!
After Reading Reasons, I ask the students to think about why we write. I again distribute post-its, and we repeat the activity on the board. Here are there amazing answers:
My favorites are:
“Express yourself!”
“To let out your feelings”
“To understand things better”
“For fuuuuuuuuuun!”
“To capture memories”
Our discussion afterward focused on using writing to sort out our feelings and to communicate and be heard by others. The students also seemed to get the connection between reading and writing, and that they are mutually beneficial.
I was so proud of the students for being positive and enthusiastic throughout this whole activity. I didn’t hear one single student gripe, “I haaaaate reading. Who cares?” Etc. I am so glad we set a positive tone right at the beginning, and I look forward to referencing this great list that we made during the year as we expand our knowledge and skills.
It is a 77-page exciting student-friendly instructional manual and workbook for writing an argumentative paper – perfect for grades 7 – 10. This Common Core Aligned unit addresses writing, reading, and language. These are reading and writing techniques that can be used for cross-curricular writing in Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education… you name it! I have provided professional development at my school for these writing techniques, and the entire staff at my middle school now uses them. It’s great to be on the same page.
By using the instructional workbook, students learn how to read and write argument/persuasive papers step-by-step. The following topics are addressed:
* Argumentative Writing
* The Paper Chain: Overview
* Argument Writing: Flow Chart
* Practice Identifying the Argument
* Effective Argument (word choice)
* Practice Generating an Argument
* Generating your own Argument
* Practice Identifying Claims
* Claims and Supporting Evidence
* Generating Claims: Supporting the Argument
* Practice Identifying Evidence
* Organizing Evidence
* Claims and Supporting Evidence
* Quoting Evidence
* Credibility
* A Search for Evidence
* Collecting Evidence: Internet Search
* Is this Website Credible?
* Practice Determining Credible Evidence
* Homework: Find Your Own Evidence
* Counterclaim
* Adding a Counterclaim
* Deconstructing a Counterclaim
* Writing a Body Paragraph: Organization
* Reasoning / Links: Explaining Evidence
* The Whole Paper = A TERCon Sandwich
* Citing Sources: Avoiding Plagiarism
* Other Ways to Say ‘Said’
* Bibliography / Works Cited
* Peer Revising
* Peer Revising Sample
* Revision Checklist
* Rubric
* Model/Exemplar Paper
* How to get an Advanced Score
* Sentence Fluency: Appositives
* Why Appositives Are Important
* Appositives Practice
* Commonly Misspelled Words
* Editing Shortcuts and Practice
* Publishing
* Glossary
* Answer Key
My favorite part about the workbook is that it is filled with models, examples, and practice, as well as easy-to-follow visuals and charts. You can print out the manual as a hard copy workbook for students or – as I do in my one-to-one iPad school – email it to my students as an ebook to reference all year.
I am hoping to have this available on iTunes University soon! In the meantime, you can purchase a version from Teachers Pay Teachers here. Happy Teaching!
Do you do warm-ups or journal entries in your classroom? This is SUCH a good idea for so many amazing reasons:
1. Your students need time to center themselves and transition their thinking between subjects.
2. It insures that you will do some writing every day.
3. Routine, routine, routine!
4. Students enjoy them. They can be creative, personal, inspiring, etc.
5. It’s a great way for students to track their own progress throughout the year.
6. It’s a great place to start generating ideas for longer writing pieces.
7. You can use it to introduce the big idea or topic of the day. Students can active their prior knowledge.
8. It can be used as an opportunity to review concepts from the previous day.
9. It provides immediate feedback (informal assessment) on your students’ state of mind. You can see who’s on task, who’s having a rough day, who needs a writing utensil, and how students are progressing toward your various learning targets, etc.
10. It gives you some time to do attendance and circulate your classroom to observe students.
I aim to do a warm-up or journal entry every single day. The type of warm-up / journal changes throughout the year, of course. But I always begin the year with ideas from my favorite teacher author, Kelly Gallagher. Though I am pretty sure I own all of his books, this one is his most recent, and my current favorite 🙂
Not to brag or anything, but I did get to meet him in person. He hugged me. And he signed my book.
But I digress…
Anyway, this book is filled with some phenomenalwarm-up or journal ideas. The reason I love to start the year with these is because I also want a chance to get to know my students personally. Here is a list of my favorite warm-ups from “Write Like This”:
* Six-Word Memoir
* Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
* Favorite Mistakes
* The Bucket List
* Childhood Games
* A Watermark Event
* A Treasured Object
* Top 10 Lists
* Unwritten Rules
* How Does ___ Work
His book is designed around different purposes for writing, including Express and Reflect, Inform and Explain, Evaluate and Judge, Inquire and Explore, Analyze and Interpret, Take a Stand/Propose a Solution. It’s a great reminder to us as Language Arts teachers that we must make sure to tap into each of these kinds of writing equally (I’m sure we all have our favorite, but… ). And I like to remember that each of my students (and myself, too!) have different strengths and weaknesses with each kind of writing. It’s important to explore and develop our writing skills in multiple ways.
Some other great sources for warm-up or journaling ideas are:
* Visit the “Writing Prompts” website. There are some very thought-provoking questions.
* Check out the “National Geographic Photo of the Day“. Have students write what they think is happening, a story based on the photograph, etc.
* Purchase “Descriptive Creative Writing: Show Me!” This is a complete writing workshop unit CCSS, lesson plans, discussion / activities, handouts, and rubric.
Do you ever get the urge to be creative? I know some people are just creative all the time, but I like to think that I’m a healthy mix of practical and creative. Unfortunately, the creative side doesn’t get as much face time as I would like. The result is that every once in a while, I get the ‘creativity bug’ and I go on a major binge. I’ll stay up late painting a mural, spend all afternoon knitting a hat, or find a new Pinterest project to occupy my weekend. A lot of these projects sit unfinished (shhh… let’s not talk about that…)
Well this weekend, I just felt like drawing. I love to draw. So I sat down and started drawing zoo animals. (I really desperately can’t wait to have my own kids so I can decorate their nursery!) Well after a while, I had a pretty great collection going! I made 25 total. Here are some samples, and some ideas of how I would use this in an elementary classroom, if I had one. These would be some really fun activities to do before a field trip to the zoo!
In Art, explore different art materials to create texture and shading.
Or, create a cool graphic design!
In Science, label the parts of the animal. Draw the animals habitat.
Write details in or around the animal about the lifestyle and eating habits.
In Language Arts, write a story or poem inside or around the animal.
Use the animal as an illustration in your own book.
Do a research project on the animal and use the printable as a note-taking sheet.
For Math, take a poll to see which animal is the class favorite. Use the animal printouts to make a giant bar graph. Use multiple printouts to represent proportions and ratios (ex. 1 lion to ever 5 elephants).
For Social Studies, research the current topics around an animal. Is it frequently in the news? Being used to help society in some way? Endangered? Create a large mural with several habitats, and allow students to place each animal correctly.
In Foreign Language, use the printables as posters with the target words (ex: name of animal).
For your classroom, determine each student’s favorite animal, write his/her name on the animal, and place it on the desk as a name plate.
There are TONS of ideas! I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments section. If you’d like to download the Zoo Animals printable templates, click here! Thanks, and Happy Teaching!
Being a middle school Language Arts teacher means reading LOTS of adolescent fiction. I do my best to stay on top of what is current and popular amongst my particular demographic of students. That way, I am able to make book recommendations to students and parents.
Even though we do SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) for at least 45 minutes each week, it’s still difficult to find the time to read all of the books I want to read during the school year. I am able to read (and enjoy!) many more books during the summer by spending countless lazy hours suntanning in the backyard with the dog. My other favorite activity is to download the audio version and listen while I run. I have an account with Audible (through Amazon), and I also download a free YA book each week from http://www.audiobooksync.com.
This summer, I was able to read 7 books on my list:
1. Divergent by Veronica Roth
In this science-fiction dystopia, humans are divided into 6 groups or ‘factions’: Erudite (intelligent), Amity (peaceful), Abnegation (selfless), Dauntless (brave), and Candor (honest). Once a person reaches the year of his/her sixteenth birthday, he/she must take a test to determine which faction to join permanently; this may mean leaving their own family. Beatrice Prior takes the screening exam, purported to determine one’s aptitude for a particular faction, yet the results come back… inconclusive. Since Beatrice is intelligent, selfless, AND brave, she must choose a faction for herself. But this means deciding who she really is inside – a tough journey for all teens. Beatrice, or Tris as she is known amongst her new faction, is definitely an underdog that you will root for.
This novel is filled with romance, violence, secrets, mystery, suspense, conspiracy, technology – it’s got it all! I would recommend it to any student, male or female, who likes a futuristic adventure! It is also being made into a movie, which I know increases its appeal to many students.
2. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Having read Divergent, I simply had to keep going with Insurgent. Tris continues to find herself – no, put herself – in harms way as she works to protect the ones she loves. She is the perfect combination of brave, selfless, and intelligent, but she is becoming reckless with her erratic, unilateral decisions. Throughout the novel, Tris is in constant peril and struggles with loneliness, grief, doubt, and identity. There are definitely some shocking, compelling scenes that took me by surprise. I enjoy Veronica Roth’s ability to give descriptive detail as well as paint a realistic picture of the characters’ inner turmoil.
What a shocker of an ending! I can’t wait to read Allegiant. I’ve already pre-ordered it 🙂
3. Born at Midnight by C. C. Hunter
The protagonist, Kylie Galen, is a teen struggling through a rocky time; her parents are divorcing, her friends are engaging in illegal activities, and her boyfriend doesn’t have honest intentions. While grappling with these issues, she is caught attending a party where drugs and alcohol are present. Her mother, exasperated and looking for help, sends her to a camp for troubled teens at the recommendation of Kylie’s therapist. Reluctantly, Kylie heads off to camp for the summer, expecting the worst. She soon discovers, however, that the camp is one for teens with supernatural abilities. Despite her plans of a quick summer of keeping to herself, Kylie makes some true friends, finds romance, and begins to search for the truth behind her own unique abilities.
I would not be able to recommend this book to my 8th grade students. Not only because it would likely not be found in our middle school library, but also because some parents would object to the topics of drugs, alcohol, and premarital sex.
4. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Cinder is not your average Cinderella story. In this futuristic science fiction novel, humans, androids, and cyborgs co-exist. There is no glitter, singing rodents, or fairy godmothers. Cinder is described as a homely girl with mousy, stringy hair, no curves, and robotic appendages. She is extremely gifted and slaves away at the family mechanic shop, the only source of income for her step-mother and two step-sisters. One day, Prince Kai, heir to the throne of New Beijing, comes to visit the renowned mechanic Cinder for help fixing a broken android. Their paths now crossed, Cinder and Kai will soon find themselves in a dangerous and forbidden human-cyborg romance. Furthermore, their society is threatened by the brutal Lunar society who wish to engage in an intergalactic power battle. Cinder’s mysterious past is the key to saving the future.
This is a fun read for anyone into romance, steampunk science fiction, suspense, and new twists on a classic. It is a fun mental challenge to compare and contrast the various Cinderella stories I have read and try to anticipate what will happen next – except you won’t expect the twists and turns of this story!
5. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, inspired by Siobhan Dowd
I had no idea when I picked up this book that it would affect me so deeply. Based on a quick flip-though, it appears to be a children’s book with pictures and prose-like text. Don’t be fooled. This book deals with some heavy issues of grief, loss, and inner turmoil. The main character, Connor O’Malley, is a teen boy learning to be independent in the face of his mother’s battle with cancer. To add insult to injury, he is mercilessly teased by bullies at school. Every night, Connor has the same nightmare filled with spinning, darkness, and screaming, One evening, at 12:07, a nightmarish monster comes to life and marches straight up to Connor demanding the one thing Connor is afraid of most… the truth.
I would recommend this to my students who are willing to read something more emotionally demanding. This book really forces you to face your own monsters – fears – and I think it is an excellent soon-to-be classic young adult book. It is a very quick read, probably one or two evenings. The pictures are absolutely breathtaking.
6. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
I fell in love with Cashore’s Graceling last year, and I was very excited to read the other two books in the series. I loved that Katsa made a reappearance in Bitterblue. This book takes place 8 years after Graceling, and Bitterblue is now Queen of Monsea. The realm of Graceling, Bitterblue, and Fire is one in which some are born with special skills or ‘graces.’ These special skills could range from telepathy and sword-fighting to a photographic memory. The beginning of Bitterblue is very slow, carefully laying the groundwork and establishing the setting. Queen Bitterblue is completely sheltered in the castle, mired with boring paperwork, longing for an adventure beyond the castle walls. At night, she begins sneaking out in disguise, assuming a new identity, and getting herself into trouble. She meets new friends that help her to see the evil legacy that her father, King Leck, left behind.
I would recommend this to students who enjoy longer books (547 pages!) love puzzles, strong female leads, and a touch of romance.
7. Fire by Kristin Cashore
Fire is by far my favorite in Cashore’s series. Fire, who’s hair is the colors of flame, has an irresistibly beautiful appearance. Humans are stunned by her beauty, but fear and hate her for her ability to control minds. The fierce monsters of the realm are attracted to her blood and hunt her. Because of her special abilities, the royal family summons Fire to their castle to help King Nash defend against the traitors who would have his throne. Because of the awful, unspeakable deeds of her late father, Fire is loathed by Nash’s son, Prince Brigan. It turns out that relationships that start as one of pure hatred, then grow into respect and much more, are the steamiest of romances. This is a gripping love story, intertwined in a fantasy adventure. My biggest criticism is that Fire, for a strong female heroine, definitely has some ridiculous and annoying weaknesses. It becomes nauseating how many times the author mentions that Fire has her period and is defenseless against the blood-thirsty monsters. Fire and Prince Brigan also have a more mature, adult relationship. The slow burn is excruciating at points; you just want Fire and Brigan to be happy together!
As you can probably tell from my list, I really enjoy reading YA literature. I gravitate toward fantasy, science fiction, and strong female leads (a la the Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins). I really owe it to my male students to catch up on more novels with male leads – that was my project last summer when I read Bruiser by Neil Shusterman, Peak by Roland Smith, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.
So what will I read next? Here is a list of YA book recommendations I have received from students:
1. The Host by Stephanie Meyer
2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
3. Matched by Allie Condie
4. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
5. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
6. The Unidentified by Rae Mariz
You can follow me on GoodReads –> Click the widget on the right 🙂
I set up a new interactive bulletin board today that I am very excited to start in the fall! The idea came from the ‘Life is Better Messy Anyway‘ blog. The Reading Graffiti Board is an interactive board in which each student can post one quote per book that they read. This encourages them to make very thoughtful decisions about THE BEST quote from their book, since they must choose only one. I can see a lot of my students getting very excited to write on the wall deface the classroom. 8th graders think they are so bad 😉
I am also looking forward to using this opportunity to teach my students how to correctly quote a source. I will require the following:
Copy the sentence(s) exactly as they are found in the book
Put “quotes” around the entire sentence/passage
Cite the author and the title of the book
I bought 2 silver sharpies, which I will be keeping in my desk. Students will have to have their quote pre-approved first, and I think this will help eliminate any possible shenanigans. If time permits within the class period, I’d love to invite students to read their quotes out loud and share why they chose it as the best quote. I will encourage students to choose quotes that are though-provoking, dramatic, interesting, and rich with word choice and imagery.
In addition to encouraging students to reflect and share their own reading, I hope this is an inspiration to other students who are looking for the next good book to read. I can just see students crowding around the board, reading a really juicy quote, and thinking, “Hey – I’d love to read that!”
To set the example, I started by adding the very first quote. It is from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. “Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
If you are interested in the Reading Graffiti banner, you can download it for free here:
Have you heard of Blackout Poetry? This is a really simple, effective, fun way to introduce poetry. EVERYone can do this. As I tell my students, you don’t have to create something from scratch – the something is already there. It’s up to you to liberate the poetry from page – find the secret message and reveal it.
Laura Randazzo, one of my favorite sellers on TpT, created a FREE Blackout Poetry product that my students have classroom tested and approved. We began by watching the free Prezi that she created. If you aren’t familiar with Prezi (nickname for Presentation), it’s basically like an online Powerpoint, but way more fun. You don’t need any special equipment – just Internet access. This Prezi walks you through the process of creating Blackout Poetry.
Teacher Tip: I warned them the day before our lesson to bring dark markers to class (and I rustled up as many as I could find in my teacher stash as well) as well as scissors (in case they wanted to trim their poem).
To prepare for this lesson, I chose several dozen of my favorite classroom novels. I hauled my pile to the copy room, opened each book up to a random page, and copied it. That way, we aren’t destroying any books. Since my students sit in groups in my classroom, I placed a pile of copied pages at each table group and asked them to pick a page that ‘spoke to them.’ Warning: advise your students NOT to read the page. This will put an unshakable idea into their head about what the page should be about. BIG mistake! It’s best to just skim the words, like scanning the food in your refrigerator, for a basic idea of what you want. There was a lot of discussion and paper-passing, but my students settled on their final decisions within a few minutes.
After we watched the Prezi, I asked my students to start with a pencil and look for a special word (anchor word) from which they could build a message. “But Mrs. D., what should the message be about?” Great question. I asked them to think about themes we have learned through our novels and short stories throughout the year. Think about universal messages about life, truths, or observations about humanity. That seemed to be a great place to start for the vast majority of my students. The more advanced poets didn’t need as much direction and just dug right in.
Once they had a potential poem sketched out in pencil, I directed them to try out their poem on a classmate. Ask for a reaction and feedback. Make any necessary revisions, then finally go for the marker and start blacking out what isn’t needed.
As an extension for some students, I invited them to insert a blackout image that complimented the poem. As you can see in the sample images below, the students rose to the challenge!
The beautiful results were then displayed for the remainder of the poetry unit 🙂
A real challenge in middle school is getting an increasingly large group of apathetic students excited about reading. I don’t mean to say ALL of my students – I definitely have some voracious readers – but there is always a hefty, vocal group that seems proud to proclaim indignantly, “I don’t read.” Well, harumpf. What’s a teacher to do with that kind of attitude? I understand that as an English Language Arts teacher, it is my job to get students excited about reading. Confetti, cartwheels, iPhone giveaways – whatever it takes! Okay not really. I’m not a performer, I’m not rich, and I don’t work miracles. I do my best to give students authentic, fun, motivating reasons to pick up a book (aaaaaand actually read/finish it). Of course I have to give a nod to my favorite teacher-author, Kelly Gallagher, who writes about just this topic in his book Reading Reasons. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it!
One of the ways I try to motivate students to read is through my DVD Case / Movie Poster project. It is a project with reading, writing, language, expression, and art – a great way to hit multiple Common Core standards at once. This project has lots of elements that get kids excited: technology, critical thinking, creative writing, photography/images, and the critical elements of publication and display. Here is a glimpse of the final project, which is explained in more detail below:
You are looking at the display cases in the front lobby of our middle school. Each and every student got a chance to have their final DVD case (or movie poster) on display for the entire school. In addition, my students got some one-on-one time with 6th and 7th graders to share their project. They read their summary and review quotes on the back, explained the layout and image choices, and answered any questions their audience had – all in hopes of inspiring the student to go and read the book for themselves.
Here is a closer look at a DVD project:
And a collage of my students’ work:
Students begin by selecting an interesting book (can either be a novel or a biography) that is at their appropriate reading level. I introduce this project about 6-8 weeks ahead of time to get students enough warning to finish the book.
After reading the book, students will write what I call a ‘Review Quote’ (a book teaser summary that discusses the theme/message) to promote the book. To do this, we look at the backs of many books, even visit http://www.rottentomatoes.com and http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews to get a feel for the rich language of a teaser/review.
Next, the students will create either a DVD Case or a Movie Poster to promote the book through images as well as words. They really love this part, and I’m not just saying that. Rarely do I hit the money with a project where every single student is working, but this is it. And everyone is working at his/her own pace and area of expertise – artists, techies, writers; they all find their niche and even help one another.
On the day where I introduce the project, I bring in dozens of DVD covers and movie posters for students to view. We discuss similarities and conventions such as the size of the font, placement, purpose of images, etc.
After introducing the project, I wind up giving students 3-4 more days of in-class work time. Now that students have their own iPads, I may cut down this time and expect them to do more homework. On the 5th day, we do the printing and final touches, such as laminating the movie posters or putting the DVD covers in to the cases (I bought 100 from Amazon for about 25 cents each, totally worth it!). The 6th day is for presentations.
I am excited to do this project with the iPads this year, because students can actually go out and take their own photographs. Their goal is to match the mood of the book through color, layout, font, and images. They really do quite a bit of critical thinking with this project.
One of the only problems I have run into is that if their book has already been made into a movie, some students rely very heavily on the movie images. I had to make a rule outlawing this. The results were great, as this ultimately pushed students to be original and dig deeper into their own interpretation of the book.
Something that I learned last year, and will be repeating this year, is that some students like to make their own movie poster / DVD case from scratch, and others need a template to get started. Here is a template I created in Pages for the DVD Case. Students can ‘drag and drop’ their own images:
The final product can be displayed in your classroom, hallway displays, or as part of a gallery in which you promote the books to other students. The Library Media instructor at our school asked if she could display them in our Library, too!
If you want to purchase and download my DVD case / Movie Poster unit from TpT, the following items are included: * Common Core Standards for grades 8-12 including English Language Arts and Literacy in All Subjects * Suggestions for modifying and differentiating this lesson for students at all levels, from heavy support needed to extension ideas. * Essential Questions * Rubric * Project Description Student Handout * Sample Writing ‘Review Quotes’ with “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen and “The Giver” by Lois Lowry * 2 Sample DVD Cases with “Peak” by Roland Smith, and “Graceling” by Kristin Cashore * 1 Sample Movie Poster * Word Spectrum – ‘interesting’ to ‘boring’ – 65 synonyms students can incorporate into their writing * 5 Pages of detailed lesson plans and teacher tips including guided writing, peer review, modeling, small and whole group discussion.
I loved teaching this unit and collaborating with our school’s Art and 21st Century teachers. We found that this unit hits on a LOT of Common Core Standards and curricular goals, which was a huge plus! By working together, we strengthened student learning and participation. Students have told me that this was their favorite project all year!
