ELA Lesson Plans: Online sources

In this 60 Second Book Hook, sixth grade teacher Bill Ferriter reviews The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Category: Education Tags: gnomes 60secbookhook License: Standard YouTube License

Called 60 Second Book Hooks, we've asked our students to generate short, persuasive metaphorical reviews of the books that they are reading.

IF you’d wanted to know which way the world was headed in the mid-20th century, you wouldn’t have found much indication in any of the day’s literary prizewinners. You’d have been better advised to consult a book from a marginal genre with a cover illustration of a stricken figure made of newsprint catching fire.

This collaborative effort between the language arts instructor and teacher-librarian (TL) transforms a traditional essay assignment into a creative, technologically rich activity. The project, in which students write stories about their “personal heroes” in a graphic-novel format, should take three to five class periods to complete.

Literature Circles provide an intellectual, rigorous, and authentic pathway into and through literature.  Each role utilized provides students interaction with stories in ways that will bring thoughtful and meaningful engagement as well as literary scholarship and sophistication.  Every discussion or seminar provides students opportunities to collaborate and develop sophistication beyond a superficial, contrived response. 

Here are some linguistic anomalies from the book “Crazy English” by linguist Richard Lederer

The real rule is this: You use the article “a” before words that start with a consonant sound and “an” before words that start with a vowel sound. For example, He has a unique point of view on the subject and talked about if for an hour. The “u” in “unique” make the “Y” sound—a consonant sound—therefore you use “a” as your article, while the “h” in “hour” sounds like it starts with “ow”—a vowel sound.

These works are warnings; feverish missives churned out by half-mad prophets and visionaries whose message is uniform and clear: If we do not change our ways, these wastelands and teeming urban slums will be our future

But in order to effect any such change, there has to be a spark—these writers have to force the reader to feel emotions powerful enough to disrupt our routines; to shatter thought patterns and leave us so shaken that we have no choice but to alter our lives.

In this unit students examine three dystopian short stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, and one dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

recently turned her lens on another incredible natural phenomenon - storm clouds above the American Midwest.

If you’re not impressed by THAT feat of literary genius, I hope you’ll at least give me an “A+” for putting together this list of 101 websites for English teachers. I did it by polling several of LinkedIn’s most prominent ELA groups over the course of a few months. As always, I hope you find something that’s new (and useful) to you

Cheat sheets have a bad rap as a way for students to succeed on tests without actually knowing the information, but now it’s time for them to have a more positive place in education. Cheat sheets can offer a succinct way for students to study their lessons and provide an excellent boost to what you are already teaching them in class. Cheat sheets can provide helpful information for teachers too. Browse through this selection to find cheat sheets for a variety of subjects.

This is because so much of aging is independent of lifestyle, diet, stress level or anything else that might distinguish some people from others—in particular, a great deal of the rate of aging is determined by the chemistry associated with oxygen consumption. In a nutshell, breathing is bad for you...but it’s rather non-negotiable."

Purpose: To promote the retention of knowledge through the use of engaging strategies designed to rehearse and practice skills for the purpose of moving knowledge into long-term memory

One of the best ways to get your students motivated about reading is to provide them with online platforms where they can meet other student readers and share their recommendations, reads, and book reviews. When students know that people other than their fellow mates or teachers can read and interact with what they post, they can show more engagement  and interest .