Irony Maze

 

 

It took all weekend, but I finished my next lesson: an irony maze to assess students on the three types of irony.

 

 

 

Students make their way through the maze by making turns as they decide what type of irony is being shown: dramatic, situational, or verbal. 

 

~Mrs. Scott

Figurative Language Hidden Pictures

After posting my first Teacher pay Teacher item less than a week ago, I have already made 4 sales for a whopping $10.65! hehe 

 

Maybe not enough to retire on, but definitely an added bonus for something I had already done for my class anyways!  And what's nice is now that it is posted I don't have to do anything else but continue make a profit off of it.

 

If you don't have an account, you can join here.

 

I was so inspired by my first set of sales that I created another item and posted it today:

 

Do you remember how much you used to love color by numbers?

This is the same concept, but instead students color similes, metaphors, and personification examples making your English, Language Arts, or Reading class fun and relevant, especially for you kinesthetic learners!

The set includes two hidden picture sheets, along with their keys.  



 

*Even better, ALL of the examples on the first sheet are popular song lyrics from every genre and kids will LOVE it! Some artists included: Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Nas, Rhianna, and Elvis.

 

~Mrs. Scott

95 Illustrated Word Wall Posters for Language Arts

 

I am so excited to post my first item for sale on teacherspayteachers.com:





 

 

 

All the definitions included:

 

 

A few examples:

 

 

 

 

 

~Mrs. Scott

Online Games for Middle School Language Arts

I love having student computers in my classroom, but because there are only two, I have been at a loss with how to let students use them so that they are relevant for 8th grade English.  Anytime a student finished early the only website they knew to go to was coolmath.com, and while I am sure there are great math games, it just didn't feel appropriate for them to play during my class. 

I found tons of elementary-oriented website for helping with reading, spelling, and phonics, but secondary games are hard to come by...so I searched harder.

I have spent some of my free time  (hah!) during the past few weeks looking for games that are fun to play, but also address objectives my students need to know and may also struggle with.  I added my "finds" to my classroom website for students to access and thought some of you may want to use them as well without having to do the legwork. ;)

So, here they are...  If you know of more please share with us in the comments!





 

Freerice.com:
For each answer you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, and grades.

It's Greek to Me Game:
Identify definitions by using clues found in words' roots while playing in the Olympics.

 

 

Professor Garfield Reading Ring:
Wrestle your opponent by answering comic strip questions.

 

 

Professor Garfield Learning Lab:
Watch videos and play games from Garfield.

 

Superthinkers:
Interactive mysteries teach problem solving

 

Rooting Out Word:
Help Remainder the Dog gather enough mushrooms to sell at the market by uncovering the roots of words.

 

 

Plural Girls:
Twin sisters Pearl and Flora lost their friends in the bubble machine. Help them get their friends out by choosing the correct plural form of the given word.

 

 

Word Confusion:
Help Regan the Vegan make fresh salad. Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

 

 

Grammar Gorillas:
Our friends, the Grammar Gorillas, need help identifying parts of speech. If you click on the right word in the sentence, our friends get a banana. And you know, a gorilla with a banana is a gorilla with appeal.

 

Spell Check:
Can you check the misspelled word??

 

 

~Mrs. Scott

You Danger

I have recently discovered Scholastic Scope Magazine and LOVE using it to teach lessons in my language arts class!  While you are encouraged to purchase subscriptions for each student, Scholastic's website allows you to view issues and project the pdf in class.  (If your school has EBSCO access, you can also find printable versions there)  As an added bonus, they provide curriculum that accompanies each article that address junior high TEKS.

I recently used the above article for a persuasive writing lesson in my class that the students loved.  The article is about how kids risk their lives to video tape crazy stunts to post on youtube and poses a question about youtube's responsibility.

I started the lesson with a video clip from youtube that the kids found hilarious = the perfect hook:



Then we read the article as a class.  At the end of the article students are asked to choose a side on whether youtube should ban stunt videos and support their opinions with textual evidence.

 

As an extension Scholastic provides a step-by-step guide that walks students through writing an argument essay.  I didn't use these, but there is also a transition guide and an argument essay checklist.

The rest of the magazine is fabulous as well, so you will probably see more blogs in the future about other cool stuff I find in there.

~Mrs. Scott



Grant Ideas

Every year I exceed the tax credit the government gives back for classroom expenses along with the majority of my colleagues. Our wishlists are never-ending because amazing teaching ideas are created every day. Unfortunately, it may come as a surprise, but our salaries don't necessarily accommodate our creativity.

This is the reason I heart grants! Districts give money to purchase materials that will benefit our students and it is fabulous!

Never written a grant before? Have no idea what to write a grant for? Here are a couple of ideas! (Click the underlined title for the companies website)


Lonestar Learning:
I was planning to write a grant for these last year, but as luck would have it our school had some extra funds and was able to purchase it! The website has quite a few products, but my favorite are the Picture Vocabulary Cards. They take vocabulary words and turn them into images that demonstrates the meaning of the word. They are totally adorable and make an amazing word wall for kids to learn! Sets are around $30 each and are available for Language Arts, Math, and Science. (Hopefully Social Studies someday!) Here are a few examples:

Mainstay Math:

I came across this booth at my first teaching conference ever! I remembered it a year later and decided to make it my first grant. The lady who owns this small business was so nice and even helped me to write my grant by providing me her thesis which she wrote about the benefit of using literature to teach math. Her Literacy Libraries were created specifically for each grade level (PreK-8th) and even come with a label telling you which book to read for each objective. Each Library contains about 22-24 books and cost around $200, which is a lot cheaper then buying the books individually. These are the three kits I received with my grant money:

Math Songs:

It is crazy that I have a HUGE fear of public speaking, but have no problem talking (and singing) in front of a group of teenagers. I am such an auditory learner that I can hear a song once or twice and know all the lyrics. Many of my students are the same way so this was perfect for them! Can I sing well?? haha! Nope. Do my kids care? Nope. They laugh at me the first week or so, and next thing they know the songs are stuck in their heads too, reminding them of math concepts!

Anyways, last summer I was thrilled to attend CAMT! By far the best workshop we went to was Kay Smitherman's "Math Sing-a-longs." We spent an hour singing some of her tunes, and I was surprised that she had written a few that I already knew ("Mean the average, mode-most often, rang-subtract the smallest from the largest"). Her sets come with the cd and a binder with lyrics. I was planning to write a grant for this as well, but our school purchased this too!

~Mrs. Scott