Language Arts

Details Should Lead To A Big Idea

Here are two questions I’d ask students about a story What are three important 🌼 details about the main character? What is the story’s 🏛️ moral? Now, details naturally lead to big ideas. But in this case, I switched topics from “main character” to “big idea, ” which broke the natural movement. If I ask […]

Analyzing Suffixes Inductively

The year opens with a vocabulary skill analyzing "Suffixes: -ful, -less, -ly." I adjusted this lesson to examine how these suffixes change the part of speech of words, rather than the meaning.

Garden Path Sentences

Garden Path Sentences seem to begin one way, but quickly fall apart, forcing the reader to start over and interpret words in a new way. A simple example is: "The old man the boat."

A Wrinkle In Time – Novel Study Ideas

Madeleine L'Engle’s 1962 science-fiction classic, A Wrinkle in Time makes for a fantastic classroom novel study.

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 […]

An Image for Divergent Thinking Practice

I think this is an interesting way to practice our students' divergent thinking skills. What else could this trash can's icon represent?

Using A Classic: Charlie Chaplin

Integrating a classic is a great way to pump up an otherwise simple lesson. It seems like a black and white movie is the last thing a kid would want to see, but classics are classics for a reason!

Finding the Fun in “It’s” vs “Its”

How do we differentiate a dull lesson like "its" vs "it's"? I decided to push it to an extreme (and include some unexpected novelty).

« Previous Page