When students connect to text, they build deeper meaning both with the text, and with what they connect it to. By teaching how to make Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, and Text-to-World Connections we empower our students to take the messages and meanings of the text beyond the cover, linking it to meaningful experiences. Through connecting, students develop … Continue reading 1.11 – Connecting: Slide Deck (English Lesson)

Building students' literacy skills by focusing on Determining Importance and Summarizing allows them to read for meaning, and decode in an effective way that leads towards the sequencing of ideas for future use. Implementing these skills focuses on building metacognitive skills, as students must consider not only what they feel is important, but also how … Continue reading 1.10 – Determining Importance & Summarizing: Slide Deck (English Lesson)

Taylor Swift is a short story written by Hugh Behm-Steinberg and can be found online at Gulf Coast Magazine. It is a strange story about cloning, and sexuality, and drug use, and... it leads to a lot of questions. Some students understand it right away, others have a hard time getting to the point of … Continue reading 1.09 – Taylor Swift: Short Story – Questioning (English Lesson)

The Questioning slide deck follows the same framework that all the literacy skills slide decks do.  It starts by asking students what the skill entails, then it provides a definition for them to copy down. The slide deck then moves through the three question types (Literal, Inferential, and Evaluative).  For each of these pieces, students … Continue reading 1.08 – Questioning: Slide Deck (English Lesson)

Terry Bisson’s story, They’re Made Out of Meat, is a perfect way to put inferring into practice.  After reading the story aloud, students are asked to draw what it was about. Having been introduced to Inferencing through the prior slide deck, students will now have an opportunity to put those skills into practice, while providing … Continue reading 1.07 – Made out of Meat – Short Story Visualizing and Inferring (English Lesson)

This slide deck introduces students to the literacy skill, Inferring. It is designed to be moved through slowly, scaffolding an understanding of Inferring for students who are completely unfamiliar with the term or concept, while also strengthening the implementation of the literacy skill for those who already have a solid foundation. 1.06 - Inferring: Slide … Continue reading 1.06 – Inferring: Slide Deck (English Lesson)

The Drawbridge Character Monologue assignment builds upon the now-familiar text that was explored in 1.04 - The Drawbridge: PEE Paragraphs, asking students to consider the world of the text beyond the written page. Created by Katherine Pearce, the lesson invites students to choose a character, consider why they made the choices they did, and then … Continue reading 1.05 – The Drawbridge: Character Monologues (English Lesson)

The Drawbridge PEE Paragraph activity brings together all of the learning that has taken place so far.  The beginning of the lesson should be run in a similar fashion to Alligator River.  However, the main difference now is that students are ranking characters, not from best to worst, but from most to least responsible for … Continue reading 1.04: The Drawbridge: PEE Paragraphs (English Lesson)

Embedding Quotations is a necessary skill that students will use throughout their years in secondary and post-secondary education. This slide deck introduces the idea of Point, Evidence, Evaluation (PEE) paragraphs, building from a common-interest area of which video game system is best. Students are encouraged to answer this question before moving on, and then write … Continue reading 1.03: Embedding Quotations: Slide Deck (English Lesson)

Alligator River is a short story that will have your class yelling at each other, screaming at each other, becoming enraged at each other. And that's fantastic, productive learning. This story is about five characters caught up in a story that brings so many different assumptions to the forefront. It's a perfect way to address … Continue reading 1.02: Alligator River (English Lesson)