For a classroom update:
I put one of these on the whiteboard for every test the kids take- it lets them know where they stand and how the class did overall. You can bet I was SUPER-proud of the kids this first test! Unfortunately, they are currently taking another test as I write... I just don't let them have a break! Hopefully the results for that test will be just as great!
English 9:
The freshmen are currently studying fiction literature. Soon we'll be studying descriptive fiction writing as well. Throughout the fiction unit, there are different literary elements they must memorize and implement into their writing. Things like plot structure, setting, metaphor/simile, character development, and irony. I LOVE teaching these terms. I think they are really fun to learn (but I'm a nerd like that)! A couple of my favorite days include learning the plot structure and learning about the types of irony.
For plot structure, we go over Freytag's pyramid, which is a chart of sorts that outline the plot structure of almost every story known to man. It includes things like Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution. I find it's easier for students to learn things when you first relate them to their lives- aka, teach it with a movie, show, or song. On pinterest (of course), I found this wordless 5-minute video that I used to teach students plot structure. If you know me at all, you know I'm
terrified of mannequins, creepy dolls, etc., so the kids like watching me squirm as we watch this video:
http://machoarts.com/15-amazing-animated-short-films *** I didn't know there were multiple videos on this site until I wrote this blog post! Yay! I used the one called Alma- it's about halfway down the page. Watch it- it's creepy!
After we watched the video, we went over the different stages of a story, and then began applying them to the literature we read. I like to think about how our stories follow this same pattern, whether they're small instances in our lives or the big picture of our overall lifetime.
When we study irony and its three types (situational, dramatic, and verbal), we use a song to do so. Any guesses on what it is? "Ironic" by Alanis Morisette. We have copies of the lyrics, we watch the music video on youtube, and we annotate the lyrics with the different types of irony. (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jne9t8sHpUc) After that, we split into groups, and the kids create skits to illustrate different types of irony. The small groups act, the rest of the class guesses the type of irony, and I laugh at their antics. That's pretty much a great class period!
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| A group of my girls singing "Hallelujah, It's Raining Men!" as part of their skit on verbal irony... |
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| Mourning the loss of a friend in a skit illustrating dramatic irony... |
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| This skit was HILARIOUSly acted out by my girls showing dramatic irony... |
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| They even went so far to illustrate the "rash" one of the characters received- it cracked me up! |
English 10:
We're still doing the grammar thing in English 10. We're actually in the most intense and difficult chapters right now: Phrases and Clauses. Some of these chapters are just plain difficult to spice up and make interesting! A few of the things I did that were semi-fun were studying verbals, clauses, and sentence structures.
During verbals, I found a lesson plan online that took popular band names, song titles, and movie titles, and used them to show how many verbals we use in real life (a verbal is a verb acting as something other than a verb... very confusing). I am forever indebted to this site:
http://newsletter.schoolbox.com/2011/02/21/rockin-through-the-verbals/ for teaching me how to teach verbals in an exciting way! And, I'm grateful to this site
http://prezi.com/tfjtdudrdqv1/verbals/ for giving an awesome powerpoint I could use rather than spending the time to create my own. I feel like most of my kids got it, however, some are *still* confused on the difference between verbals and gerbils. ;)
With clauses, I let them tap into their past and use construction paper and markers to create flip-books with definitions. On pinterest (yes, I find a TON of resources online- why re-invent the wheel?) I found this girl's blog
http://teachinginroom6.blogspot.com/2012/04/snowball-fightin-so-cal-in-spring.html?m=1, and she made flip books to teach clauses- I thought it was a fantastic idea, so I modified it to be age-appropriate, and we went after it! We also use some kinesthetic learning (fancy name for letting them go outside and be crazy and physically "build" sentences using simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence structures).
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| Two independent clauses joined together appropriately= compound sentence. |
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| One independent clause+ one or more dependent clause= complex sentence |
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| Two indpendent clauses + 1 dependent clause = compound-complex sentence... |
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| Complex |
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| Compound-complex |
