Category: Reading Comprehension

Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs with Wiesel’s Night

This lesson plan is for the third chapter of Night by Elie Wiesel when Elie and his family are either killed or processed at Auschwitz. Even if your class is not reading the entire text, Chapter three can stand on its own and show the horrors of the concentration camps. **I suggest getting the audio …

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Funny Essays to Use as Mentor Texts

Seriously – stories both you and your students will laugh out loud reading. Humor varies from person to person, so I have two very different essays in the hopes that you and your students will at least be able to connect to one. To make sure this is actually useful for everyone, I’m only including …

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3 Ways to Use Fake Receipts in the ELA Classroom

Fake Character Receipt Activity. Students guess the characters and then explain why they need each item. Fun and different way to check comprehension.

Fake receipts are a great way to change up your worksheets and increase engagement. I mostly use them for creative writing and comprehension assessments, but I’m sure you’ll come up with a few ideas as well. 1. Reading Comprehension Create fake receipts for various characters and have the students guess which character they belong to. …

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Mid-Novel Class Review

Tape character traits and events to a wall and have students correctly match them to character posters hanging around the room. Leave them up for review throughout the novel

Creating Character Maps

Keep track of all the ulterior motives, secrets, and Goodys with this interactive character map for "The Crucible." You tell students where to put each character or up the rigor and have students figure it out for themselves as part of an assessment for Act 1. Perfect for Interactive Notebooks!

A good character map can determine whether or not a student “gets” a story. I have some students who are unable to picture a story in their head. Imagine trying to keep track of half a dozen characters and you can’t picture what they look like or visualize what they are doing. Some students are …

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“Law and Order” and “Lamb to the Slaughter” Lesson

Reading “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl always leads to lively discussions in the classroom about the culpability of Mary Maloney. So of course I’m compelled to create a lesson where students battle out her guilt or innocence “Law and Order” style. The Perfect Episode You can’t just ask students to imitate “Law and …

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Teaching Tragic Hero Through Visuals

Here are all my visuals I put together in PowerPoints and worksheets when teaching students about tragic heroes. Students need a familiar model to reference before taking on whatever complex text we are currently reading. My go-tos are The Lion King and Romeo and Juliet. The Lion King Of Noble Birth/Highly Respected I love these visuals to emphasize …

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How to Isolate Images in PowerPoint

Isolating images to create your own clip art is a great way to professionally add interest and aid in comprehension when creating your worksheets. Here, I’ll show to do it in PowerPoint on my MacBook Air. I have no idea if this works the same with Windows, though I would assume it does. Drag an …

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Analyzing Author’s Style with “Night” by Elie Wiesel

“Night” is a staple in most high school English classes because of Mr. Wiesel’s amazing ability to so eloquently describe the horrific circumstances he endured and witnessed as a Holocaust survivor. The content itself is critical, but his writing is what sets it apart from other historical accounts. This is why I always include a …

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