Friday Favorites

One of my favorite things about the teaching-blogging world that I've discovered during these months in which I have become involved is the willingness to share and support each other.  I love knowing that there are others, just like me, who love teaching - with all of its ups and downs - and have days so full that often things like sleep and time to exercise are sacrificed to fit it all in...yet are never too busy to share a tip or resource to make the days a little easier for others.  Whether it's a funny meme on Facebook or a poignient post communicating the real and troubling concerns about the path down which education is being steered, I love knowing we are negotiating the day-to-day challenges for teaching together!  For this Friday, I will be sharing with you some places to look for great resources to help with planning and creating fun and interactive lessons and activities for your students:

First up, you may have seen that one of my favorite blogs, Teaching Blog Addict, is celebrating its 2nd birthday this April!  Starting today, April 5th, you can go to this site and download literally hundreds of products that have been created for teachers - by teachers, and are absolutely FREE!  What a way to celebrate and share some love!  Lots of Middle School resources can be found within the 5th and 6th grade collection.  I've found some great things in the PreK- K and 1st-2nd grade collections to use with my little guy at home, too. Thank you, TBA, for such a fantastic opportunity to share.  Happy Birthday!!

Next, just in time for Poetry Month, Pam at Mrs. O's Rockin Resources has put together a Poetry Linky Party which already has tons of great materials and resources for all grade levels.  Take a moment to visit and check them out and/or share some of your products as well.  It will be time well spent, for sure! 

Lastly, I'm sharing with you a link to the Education section of today's New York Times.  In it you will find some fantastic ideas for teaching narrative, argumentative and informative writing - alligned with the CCSS - using baseball as a theme for this week's writing prompts.  

New York Times Writing Prompts

Common Core Practice | Narrative, Argumentative and Informative Writing About Baseball

The baseball season has begun, and our New Jersey classroom collaborators -- many of them passionate Yankees or Mets fans -- explored America’s pastime for this week's writing prompts.

Be sure to also take a moment to check out last Friday's post on Preparing for Testing and the Linky Party that is ongoing here.  There are a couple of great posts that have been shared, thanks to Erin at Miss Lifesaver and Kristy at 2 Peas and a Dog.  There's still time to share your ideas and tips as well.  Hope to see you there! :)

CCSS Aligned Close Reading Activity

Aside from the focus on nonfiction, the Reading for Literature standards within the Common Core State Standards encourage close reading of classic literature that is at a grade-appropriate level of rigor.  Close reading is the act of really reading like a detective.  It requires a careful reading, and often rereading, of a given text with the purpose of analyzing the structure of the text and the author's choices for writing as he/she did.  My newest product is an example of this type of reading using a classic poem.

"The Cremation of Sam McGee" is a poem written by Robert Service and is located in the Public Domain. It is a classic ballad telling the story of two prospectors as they make their way through the Arctic North looking for gold. A promise is made while on their journey, and to fulfill it is a challenge that is almost too much to bear. The mysterious ending of the tale makes this a fantastic poem to share for Halloween, but it is fun to read and analyze any time of year!

(Click the image to see a preview.)

This product includes:

- a PowerPoint prezi giving background information about Robert Service and includes slides of the poem itself to be used in close reading with the class

PLUS:

- a student packet that contains the poem, vocabulary and space to write responses to questions

-a Formative Assessment Sheet to be used for the "Do Now" activity, 2 focus questions that direct students to support answers to questions with details from the text AND the "Ticket Out" activity (This will be handed in at the end of class.)

-complete lesson plan with Teacher Directions section

-alignment to Anchor Standards and specific grade level standards as well

This contains all that you will need to roll once downloaded. I hope that you enjoy using this lesson with your students. My students truly love this poem every year! Any feedback that you can provide on this resource is greatly appreciated.  Once again, I hope this is a useful resource for you and your students.


***UPDATE:  I've had some great feedback on this lesson and I'm so happy that colleagues are finding it helpful!  Here's what some teachers are saying:

- "This was a very helpful resource to refer to while teaching this poem."

-"Great resources for a wonderful poem."

- "I've taught this poem for YEARS! Thank you for the fresh approach!!!"



Thank you so much for the kind comments!

Halloween Cinquain

Tomorrow's October 1st!  Wow, this year is flying by...and if the trend continues, you can be sure Halloween will be here before you know it!  If you're looking for a quick activity that follows the theme of the season and is, at the same time, a good review of the writing process and a little grammar, my Halloween Cinquain may be your answer.  Whether you are in search of a task for the whole class or an activity for a literacy station, this would work perfectly at the 5th and 6th grade level...and would be useful if differentiating for various skill levels in a 7th or 8th grade class.

This 2 page activity has an example of the poem your students will be writing and space for planning.

You will also find a guide for your students to use in writing their rough draft and questions to guide revising and editing.  The bottom half of the page above is for writing the final draft and, once separated from the top along the dotted line, can easily be used for publishing - sharing with an audience on a bulletin board or in a writing folder.

Click {here} to see more. :)