Shameless Plug - One Shot Quick Activities

Never fear, dear fellow English teacher - your Daily Dose of EOC is just a scroll away.

 As we head into the fourth quarter, you find yourself in need of a one-day lesson.  You can get a couple of them from the XET Teacher-Pay-Teachers Store:

Writing Formal Emails - walks your kids through how to format and write an email for when they need to sound professional.  Good for leaving with a substitute since the students can walk themselves through the presentation.

Title Punctuation and Capitalization - by high school, they should already know this, but most do not.

Practicing Inference Using Proverbs - Three one-day activities - students can work together or on their own to figure out the meaning behind these sayings.

Context Clues Practice - American Flag Edition - can they figure out the meaning of these words used in the Pledge of Allegiance and the "Star Spangled Banner"?  

Of course, here at Extreme English Teacher, we are not out to take all of your hard-earned paycheck, you can search the tag LESSON IDEAS and QUICK LESSONS get some freebies over at https://extremeenglishteacher.blogspot.com/!

Shameless Plug - Awesome Lord of the Flies Survival Simulation Game

 Never fear, fellow English teacher!  You Daily Dose of EOC is still here - just scroll down.  :)

 I love this book with a passion!  As far as teaching symbolism, this book really gets reluctant readers to "get it".  The book has great characters, plenty of action, and lots of good, wholesome violence to keep teenagers happy.  The only problem is that it starts so slowly.

Anyone who teaches reluctant readers knows that if you cannot hook them immediately, you've lost them.

So, while sitting in church one day when I should have been listening to the sermon, I had an idea for a game to get my students into the book.  I made it all by hand with maps, cards, the whole nine yards.  As the years went by, I get tired of replacing lost cards or materials that were marked on by various students and started to take it online.  It took a few more years to perfect it, but I think I finally have it down pat.  It has by far been the most popular page on my class web site by other teachers and it is the most mentioned lesson of mine when other teachers contact me.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-_Lord-of-the-Flies_-Interactive-Survival-Game-6933163

I break my students into groups and each group represents 20 island-stranded kids.  The students decide how many rescue fires they will have, where they will be sheltered, who goes hunting, who goes fruit gathering, and if they want to go exploring.  Each round is a 'week' in the game.

First thing we do is have each group draw and Act of God card.  These cards sometimes bring good things to the group, have no effect on the group, or (more likely) bring bad karma to the group.  Then we draw cards to see what happens when they go hunting, fruit gathering, and exploring.  At this point we tally up the morale.  The morale goes up and down depending on many factors like having shelter for everybody, getting food, people dying (there are a lot of people dying), etc. 

If the morale goes below 10, then the group leader has to draw a Revolt card to see what happens.  Sometimes something good happens, but most likely something bad will.  Then it's off to see if you get rescued.  

For the teams that are left, they do it all over again for the next week with the remaining people they have left.

Sometime groups have everything perfect and it is more like a Gilligan's Island episode than a Lord of the Flies scenario.  Many groups get a good Lord of the Flies type experience, and some have so much bad luck that they make the book seem like a pleasant fairy tale.

Students are encouraged to think outside of the box and try things that are not expected. The teacher is the final say-so for what happens, so when students get creative, roll with it.

Whatever the outcome, the students experience situations that prep them for the action in the book.  Whenever I have used this game, I have found that students are more connected to the reading.

I always like it when teachers send me how their students came up with something new.  Sometimes I adjust the game to match it.  when my students started sabotaging the game to try and make their leader draw a Revolt card, I introduced a new element - Mutiny.  With some groups, that is very popular!

The game comes with the choice to either have it all online (in which case they would move objects on a screen), or to have printables for students to physically manipulate.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-_Lord-of-the-Flies_-Interactive-Survival-Game-6933163

Freebie - Ace the State Test

 Hello teachers!  Never fear, your daily question is just a downwards scroll away, but I wanted to give you a chance to grab the Last Minute EOC Tips presentation.  You can get it by going to https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Extreme-English-Teacher and grabbing the Free Download (should see it at the top right, but if not, just scroll the products until you see it).  I hope it helps!  If it does, please consider leaving a review.

Shameless Plug: Archetypes

 Never fear, fellow Extreme Teachers!  Your daily dose of state-test reading questions is still here - just scroll down to the next post for today's question.

Before you do, however, take a moment to check out this resource on archetypes:

There is no better way to unlock poetry to students who find it too esoteric than with archetypes.  These symbols worm their way into poems, novels, movies, songs, video games - you name it.  They are easy to grasp and open up potential meaning all around.  I have used the presentation in this lesson for regular level all the way to AP level with great success.  

It also comes with a lesson using a Keats poem if you wish to expand on it.

It is, by far, the most valuable lesson I have had in my 31 years of teaching.

Check it out!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/XET-Archetypes-11213013

Shameless Plug: Teaching ACES

 Never fear, fellow teacher - your question of the day is just a scroll below!

Teaching ACES step-by-step

You are using these questions to help prepare your kids for the reading comprehension multiple choice questions, but do you have a solid plan for getting them to answer the constructed response section?  If not, consider below:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/XET-Teaching-ACES-for-Constructed-Responses-12163122

ACES provides a formula for students to think about when formatting a constructed response or short answer question. It is the basic structure for organized writing and is often used to set students up for larger works that will require thesis statements and paragraphs. It is also often used on state testing.

The poem "Ozymandias" is used to break down each component in each lesson.

Teaching this basic structure can be time consuming and irritating for both student and teacher. This pack aims to alleviate some of that stress on both by scaffolding the process and having students practice one element at a time, building upon previous lessons until all elements are mastered.  It can be done in a series of four days or less, if needed, but I prefer to teach this one day a week over four weeks.

After going through the example, students get a chance to practice each part ( lesson one is only A, lesson two is A and C, lesson three is A, C, and E, and the final lesson is A, C, E, and S.

The primary text is "Ozymandias" by Shelley and students will practice on each section using passages from "Fire and Ice" by Frost, The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, Dune by Herbert, and Invisible Man by Ellison.

Each lesson has a student worksheet to let them practice with a small reading passage.

I created this last year for use with my inclusion class and it worked wonders.  It made it where they could grasp what we were asking for and by breaking it down into chunks, they were not overwhelmed.  I have an honors class this semester and will be using it with them as well.