Middle School English

Teaching current events via media

What is media literacy? "Media literacy refers to composing, comprehending, interpreting, analyzing, and appreciating the language and texts of...both print and nonprint. The use of media presupposes an expanded definition of 'text'...print media texts include books, magazines, and newspapers. Nonprint media include photography, recordings, radio, film, television, videotape, video games, computers, the performing arts, and virtual reality...constantly interact...(and) all (are) to be experienced, appreciated, and analyzed and created by students.

Great for memoir unit

Memoir

Reading Strategies

Emily Dickinson Rap

PDF file (also saved in our ELA folder on the server)

Feature Article Unit

"Lesson Plan Thoughtshots Can Bring Your Characters to Life!"

The Red Wheelbarrow Video

Author of short story--memoir--"Let's Go to the Videotape" in the book: Boys Read

memoir unit--author study

"What's a Feature Article?"

Feature article unit

Summarizing can be highly effective for helping students identify main ideas, generalize, remove redundancy, integrate ideas, and improve memory for what is read. It is especially worthwhile when used with other strategies such as generating questions and answering questions (NRP, 2000). Although sometimes considered similar to synthesizing, it is important to note that summarizing is more of a part of synthesizing. While creating a synthesis lends itself toward the achievement of creating a new perspective or thought out of what one is reading, summarizing provides more of an opportunity to understand and restate the text (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000).

Feature articles Video

This is a page dedicated to William Carlos Williams, a poet who had an immense influence on the course of 20th century poetry. He wrote in varying style and technique and was often radically experimental. His work is fresh and clear, rejecting sentimentality and vagueness. It also reflects emotional restraint and heightens the sensory experience with articulated common speech. Williams's work inspired many poets and many generations to follow. His work is both easy and enjoyable to read.

Poetry Unit 3

"FVR: Second Language Readers FVR is a way to achieve advanced second language proficiency. (Cho & Krashen, 1994) Reading books from one series, or of one type, not only allows the reader to stay with material he finds interesting, but also allows the reader to take advantage of background information to make the text more comprehensible. (Cho & Krashen, 1994)"

For commentary unit monologues

This would be a fun activity for writing feature articles! Fun with any kind of writing, really. . .

Mini-lesson: improving sentences with thoughtful prepositional phrases. We have this text in the middle school library: 398.5 MAC

"Using Literature the First Weeks of School"

"Write in the Middle: A Workshop for Middle School Teachers A video workshop for middle school teachers; 8 one-hour video programs, workshop guide, and Web site