Here is a link to the web search activity I mentioned in the post below!
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So, I'm starting TKAM again with my new crop of Freshmen and I'm mixing my lessons up a lot from last year. This year our first activity was a setting/time period activity to get kids to understand the time that the novel is set in, to give them a quick history lesson, and (most importantly) secretly have them help me make a wall display! I sent my kiddies on a webquest for information on the 1930s. The quest asked them to print one picture to represent any of their answers. And this was the result! The kids came up with great answers to my questions, and picked amazing visual representations for this decade! Now they can simply look at this display if they ever need to get in the mindset of the time period as they read the novel. I will have the webquest/worksheet available soon for purchase on my TPT store here!
I was reading this funny blog, purely for entertainment, and teaching inspiration hit me! ( I just cant turn off teacher mode!) This article gave me the coolest idea to use in my classroom. It has business cards for fictional characters should they ever open a business. My personal favorite is Voldemort, however it's totally (and sadly) not classroom appropriate. But some of these cards really get into the essence of they character they supposedly belong to. Hello! Great characterization practice! This would be such a fun and creative way for students to demonstrate they knowledge of who a character really is. It would be really cool if we could design them and get them made, but for now, I think I'll create a simple template for kids to fill out. I already have some creative activities for getting into character for my units (tweets for TKAM, post secret submissions for Freedom Writers...) but I'm dying to do this in class this year. Maybe I'll hold out and use it at the end of the year for Romeo and Juliet... When I make my template for my students ill be sure to post it here for all to use!
link:http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_449_29-business-cards-famous-fictional-characters_p29/#3 While teaching the Hunger Games, I spent a lot of my time looking for articles to teach along with the novel. We read about censorship, racism, slavery, child soldiers, media, education, WWII, and many other topics that could have served as Collins' inspiration for different aspects of the novel. Literally a week after I finished teaching the novel, I was shopping and spotted something that could have made my planning periods so much easier: The Hunger Games Companion. This book is amazing, in fact I don't think you should teach the novel without it. It is a great source for nonfiction articles that deal with the major themes of the novel. It's interesting and entertaining, and is so helpful to get kid s interested in reading nonfiction. The discussions we had in class were much deeper and more thoughtful after students had read excerpts from the book. I highly suggest buying it! You can buy it here. I've renewed my obsession with teacherspayteachers for the year and wanted to share some of my freebies! Here is a link so some free Hunger Games activities. And check out my other freebies while your're at it. Nothing better than free resources for the classroom! I have found that one of the ways I can be a successful teacher is using all of the resources around me. Instead of creating brand new worksheets and activities and reinventing the wheel every day I have amassed a cache of wonderful resources to go for lesson plans, primary documents, articles, activities, worksheets, graphic organizers and so much more! Here is my list of go to sites to get things I need to enrich my student’s learning! http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/preview/sadlierschoolproducts/index.html - They provide free downloadable samples of their workbooks on grammar and vocabulary. They also have a page with how their worksheets meet common core. You can request a hard copy sample through this site as well. Tolerence.org - This is an AMAZING site for anyone teaching history or language arts. I am using many of their articles to teach my students about the civil rights movement as we read To Kill A Mockingbird. The best part about this website? You can order FREE dvds, magazines, and lesson materials right to your school! It takes about 6 weeks to ship, so plan ahead! But its totally worth the wait. The video they have on bullying is especially relevant for our students today. Additionally, they have a whole section on lesson plans, and you can search by topic to find lessons and resources to suit your needs. Great articles about many different topics. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/ This is a librarian’s dream website! The Library of Congress offers amazing primary documents to share with your students. There is a whole page with lesson plans and ideas geared toward many different age levels. One thing I like to use in my classroom are the different photography collections. When setting the scene to read To Kill A Mockingbird, I found a collection of photos from southern towns in the 1930s. What a way to get students to step into the setting! They had a clear visual of what Maycomb, Alabama might have looked like! There was a great set of photos that compared the white parts of town to the black parts. Good reference for showing the disparity created between the races. http://www.fontspace.com/ This is more of a fun decorating resource. Fontspace is a place to find interesting and different fonts to create eye catching signs and displays for your classroom. Much cooler than those boring old fonts on Microsoft word! http://www.ca-in-sapporo.com/classes/mockingbird/websites.html#alabama Here are a list of reference sites teachers can use when teaching To Kill A Mockingbird. ( can you tell this is one of my favorite units?) Great visuals for your visual learners, and wonderful interviews and primary sources. I like to use these as supplemental materials to build my student’s prior knowledge before and as we read. http://www.museumoftolerance.com/ The Museum of Tolerance is another great place to find lesson plans and activities for your students. This is a wonderful resources for anyone teaching about genocide or the Holocaust. One thing I like to use with my students is the children of the Holocaust page. I make them choose a child to read about and find out their story. Did they survive? What happened to their family? How old were they? This is especially relevant since many of the children featured are young adults, and around my students’ age. Good way to open their eyes and make a long ago event more relevant. (http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/c.tmL6KfNVLtH/b.5759983/k.6B50/Children_of_the_Holocaust/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp) |
AuthorSecond year teacher who is always looking for ways to make learning interesting. Archives
May 2013
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