Movie posters are incredible media texts, because they combine both art theory, and advertising. They can be appreciated as pure visual texts, but also as media texts that demand a call to action - buying a ticket to a show. Having already taught a strong foundational understanding of Literacy Skills, and provided students with the … Continue reading 1.15 – Movie Posters: Slide Deck (English Lesson)

The Media Triangle is an important tool that students will use to discover the messages and meaning of any text. Rather than simply looking at what is literally presented in the text, students will assess what they know about the text, how the intended audience is targeted, and how the creator of the text impacts … Continue reading 1.14 – Teaching the Media Triangle (English Lesson)

Topic Journals are an excellent way to gauge students' Reading and Writing skills, through in-class writing opportunities. Topic Journals will focus on text-to-theme, as well as text-to-self or text-to-text connections. By providing students with in-class writing time, you will be honouring their efforts, while ensuring you have a strong demonstration of abilities. 1.13 - In-Class … Continue reading 1.13 – In-Class Writing: Topic Journals (English Lesson)

The Swan as a Metaphor for Love is a short story written by Amelia Gray and can be found online at Joyland Magazine. It is a story above love, and life, and... swans. Written as an extended metaphor, this story provides students with a large opportunity to practice identifying key details, and summarizing the text … Continue reading 1.12 – The Swan as a Metaphor for Love: Short Story – Connecting (English Lesson)

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)