english

  • Creative Comp - Older Final Exam

    This is a timed writing assignment. Students are to continue to write THE SAME story. Hide the next part on another web page or on a new page of a document. Students enjoy these and tend to write a lot.

    Get all three of my timed creative writing experiences here.

  • Creative Comp Final - new 1

    This assignment is a timed writing. You will use a prompt and then write for the time specified. When you are told, go on to the next part.

    I have two versions for the creative comp final here. Kids really enjoyed these. I always hid the next part on another page. Nearly 1000 of you got this cool lesson for free, but there are two more, just as awesome.

    Get all three of my timed creative writing experiences here. 

     

     

  • English Language Arts

    The creator of this website spent twelve years as an English teacher. The hope is that others will contribute to the English/Language Arts category over time, but even if others do not feel generous divulging their secrets, you have access to many pretty cool lessons, often in ACT or CCR or Common Core skills bands and mostly approved by department leaders. Even if the lessons do not fit perfectly into your world of pre and post tests, continual improvement, PDSAs and SLOs, you can quickly adapt elements to use in your own classroom.

    You are the ones who have to keep the hopes Americans SHOULD have of delivering a free, public, liberal arts education to ALL students in this country. Do not take that role lightly and do not conform to teach every lesson in order to produce higher test scores.

  • Film - Rebel Without a Cause Discussion Questions

    At some point, I may find my notes on the film and add more questions here. However, every year I kept thinking I would finish this list or even save my notes from the previous year, but usually I just watched the movie again and took notes again. In fact, I rarely used movie days to grade papers or take a nap, so I've seen some of the films I used over twenty times, maybe a couple over forty. Either you get really bored or really good at finding hidden moments to discuss.

    The questions here are for discussion and not formatted like a true quiz, though they could be adapted. If you've never seen Rebel Without a Cause, you should. Students respond well even with the early fifties production date. Thematically, it's too perfect NOT to use it with Catcher in the Rye.

  • Grammar - One Word or Two - Song Lyrics and Quizzes

    Separate Words (Words Apart)

    This is a parody of "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" by Journey. I wrote it as an educational song, and I've used it as a learning tool to teach the content used in the lyrics. However, I've also used it in a creative writing course as an example for students to follow in order to create their own educational song parodies. Also, it's worth your time to find the official music video for the original song, as well as some of the silly remakes.

    The list is of commonly confused one-word-or-two combinations, in alphabetical order. I was surprised that it wasn't more difficult to create matching lyrics that make almost as much sense as the original while maintaining such a strict rule in writing.

    I have also added some quizzes that I used with the words in the song. Good practice, even if you just show the song and quizzes to students.

    Here's the TpT link. 

  • Lit - Huck Finn Reviews

    If you're teaching Huck Finn, these reviews work well in order to show students how people once viewed the classic novel. Plus, these are short, so you can have students get into groups and read them quickly.

  • Lit - To Kill a Mockingbird - Southerntown

    I found this article and activity online a number of years ago. I did not create it, though I may have tweaked it a little. It is an excellent text to use at the beginning of the story, and the article could be adapted easily for skills-based questioning.

    Read the following article and then complete the assignment that follows.

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