TEACHING IDEAS FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS
Last Revised April 2, 2000
An Assortment of Lesson Plans for Language Arts Teachers
Welcome!!! This is my first attempt at a web page, so be patient with me as I work out all of the kinks. Hopefully, I've cooked up a tasty menu of teaching ideas that will help you and your students. Most of my ideas are an amalgam of ideas I've collected over the past few years. Very few of the ideas are exclusively my own, so I'll try to give credit when it's due. I'm hoping this page will motivate me to develop more creative ideas that are my own. I hope you enjoy the ideas. DIG IN!!!
What's New?
As I make new additions to my site, I will list them below:
1. Wellsville Community World War II Memory Collection: For the past few months, myself, Todd Vincent, and several students at Wellsville High School have worked at creating this site. It's an attempt to preserve the memories, stories, and photographs of local World War II veterans. The students completed all the work on their own time, so if you have a chance visit the site and sign our guest book. Your comments, praise, and support will be appreciated.
2. Christopher Paul Curtis Links: I've assembled a collection of links connected with the author. Also included are lesson plans and worksheets that I use.
3. WebQuest for the novel The Glory Field. For my young adult literature class, I've created a WebQuest for Walter Dean Myers' novel. The novel spans 135 years of African-American history, so I set out to create a WebQuest that allowed students to interact with websites to gain an understanding of the history connected with the book.
Ideas for Teaching Literature
2. Young Adult Literature Links: A collection of sites that introduce students to various young adult book and writers.
3. Literature Circles: Visit this site for a primer on using literature circles in the classroom. It can be used to effectively organize a reading workshop where students read independently and interact on a collaborative project. The site provide many examples of handouts and rubrics that will get you started, but for a detailed overview of this practice read Harvey Daniels' book Literature Circles: Voice & Choice in the Student Centered Classroom
Ideas for Teaching Writing
1. Writing Quotations
4. Personal Philosophy Collage
5. Prewriting Activities: Writing about your childhood
6. Mini-Lessons for Teaching writing
7. Journal Topics: This collection of journal topics was created on Mrs. G's web site. If you enjoy these topics, you might like the other lists she has created.
8. Journal Topics for My Classes: Peek in on the topics my students have responded to so far this year.
9. A Writing Workshop Portfolio : This link will provide you with a brief description of the portfolio system I use with my students. You will also be able to access various forms that I use. Some of the forms are disgustedly fuzzy, but I am trying to remedy the problem. If you would like more information, please record your request, along with your email address, in my guest book.
10. Links for Young Writers: Students will find various links to reference, grammar, composition, and webzine sites.
Spotlight
I invite you to see what we're currently doing in the following classes. This section will contain current class schedules and links to specific lessons.
1. 7th Grade English: My 7th graders will be getting acclimated to a writing workshop environment and a junior high environment. I approach these tasks with a leisurely pace that focuses on nurturing and helping them stay organized. All of this will be attempted while teaching a short story unit.
Favorite Links
At times I feel overwhelmed by the number of links I encounter on the web. I have made a effort to limit the number of links on my site. I have tried to include the links that I use on a regular basis.
1. Lesson Plan Links: It's always nice to have access to the creative ideas of others. The following links offer a wide variety of practical lesson plan ideas.
2. Research Sites: I have assembled a short list of research links. This is a good place to start when searching for that obscure fact.
3. Just for Fun Links: This set of links reflect my hobbies and interests.
Please sign my guest book!!!
