Gotta Catch Them All (Emily Dickinson Poems, of Course!)

 

As we go toward the end of the year, we may find ourselves with some awkward pacing.  You can't always test on the last day (and that provides some headaches when students are absent and now have to wait until January to be tested on material they have forgotten) and you don't want to start something new just to have a two week interlude.

Here's a lesson that can be in about half a period.  It's fun and it is content relevant.

If I were teaching American Lit, I would just do this when I get to Emily Dickinson.  But as a British Lit teacher and an AP Lit teacher, we still talk about meter, iambic pentameter, and the effect these have on the poetry.  This especially works well after trying to teach a Shakespeare play if you focused any on how iambic pentameter works.

This presentation has students read three Emily Dickinson poems.  Feel free to go into whatever detail about Emily Dickinson's life you would like to add (she had a killer cake recipe and if done her way is coated with brandy and lasts quite a long time!).  Have the kids experience the poetry and get their thoughts.  They are short and different from what many kids are used to, so can be quite fun for discussions.

Then hit them with the common meter lesson.  This will seem boring until they get to the next slide - 

 I've taught this to standard and inclusion kids and they really perk up to this part.  Once you explain to them that all the above poems can be read to this song because of common meter, they are awed.  You are the cool teacher!

Want more cool points as a teacher?  Break out the karaoke machine and have the kids sing the poem into the microphone.

I provided slides to encourage the re-reading of the poems Pokemon-style.  Then we hit them with a few more songs they may be familiar with to wrap it up.  This can take you anywhere between 15 minutes to 30 minutes (maybe more) depending on how conversation goes.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lFyBrFx8ejMu3_1w4l8SvcPVZ91M8k5SsLpVHY8ENhI/edit#slide=id.p

Have fun with it!  

If you want something to help with your iambic pentameter lessons for Shakespeare, look here!

Shameless Plug: One Shots

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 EET 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!

Reading a Play in Class? Try this Quick Sound FX Tip!

 When students get into the parts they read, reading plays in class can be super fun.  One way to do this is props.  Students love putting on the crowns and witch hats for Macbeth.  Another easy way to get students into it is to assign someone to be the Sound FX specialist.  The Sound FX part looks for places where noises should be made (think old radio dramas) and quite simply they should make those noises.  Did someone enter or exit the scene, have them make walking sounds with their feet and door sounds.  Did Lady Macbeth say she heard an owl?  Hooting should be coming from the Sound FX person.  

I've had some people get so into it, that they became legends in the class.  One girl would go home and search ahead in the play and have computer sound fxs ready to go.  One boy in particular was not a great reader (especially not aloud), but he could make sounds.  The sillier the person gets, the more fun for the class.

Got anymore in-class play tips?  Share them in the comments or shoot me an email!

Introducing Shakespeare to your students?  Try this resource from the Extreme English Teacher TPT store.

Macbeth Fun - Lady Macbeth's Sassy Gay Friend

 Another teacher shared this with me.  Not class appropriate, but fun for those of us who teach Macbeth.  I leave it here for your viewing.  Have a great Thanksgiving! 

Freebie: Macbeth Background Slides

When I teach Macbeth, I like to use as many things as possible to make it immersive.  We have crowns, witches' hats, and sashes for nobility.  For atmosphere, the fog machine comes out and we always add a Sound FX role to the parts list.  The Sound FX person just makes ambient sounds (people walking, owls hooting, thunder, etc.).  

I also have a background for each scene that I have displayed on the screen in the front of the room that I will share with you here.  None of these are my own artwork or photographs and when I made these long ago,  I had no intention of anyone seeing them but my students, so artwork attribution is absent.  

Be that as it may, you may find it useful and you may find other images that work better (if so, please send them my way!)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1utcairdoqPiqPd7qmmuyX6htFUI7WCQc6eMYJ5NbGlY/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p

If you have other things you do the make play reading fun, share it in the comments!

Shameless Plug - Curious Incident of the Dog Chapter-by-Chapter Breakdown and Unit Bundle Pack

Currently on the Extreme English Teacher Store!

There is no book that I have found that generates student interest than The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. You know the students I teach - seniors who have given up on the thought of enjoying a book, struggling with reading, generally ready to be done with school to start a life that will never ask you to find the symbolism in that chapter - yet, this book has them reading ahead on their own time, jumping into class discussion, and getting passionate in class.  If you don't know why you should be teaching this book, read this and come back.  I'll wait.

What I have done is to break down this book chapter-by-chapter.  This is not a book summary. This is a guide to how to teach it.  Each chapter has my what-to-look for moments, what to emphasize, a heads up on what may throw off a student, how long it takes to read it aloud, which chapters work best read aloud, and along the way, I throw in fourteen activities - some in class, some for students to do on their own.  The students will immerse themselves into the games that Christopher plays, find the constellation he looks at, make predictions, read parts, and learn a quite a bit about how to treat others who are different.

It is exactly how I have taught this book for years, tweaking and adding along the way.  If you teach high school kids, especially ones who do not believe reading can be an enjoyable experience, YOU NEED TO TEACH THIS BOOK!  And this guide will help you to do it.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-Chapter-by-Chapter-Guide-for-Curious-Incident-of-the-Dog-in-the-Night-Time-7621144

And, in case you want the whole deal, you can get the Unit pack that includes:

• Chapter-by-Chapter Guide (with the 14 activities)
• Pre-Reading Activity
• Questions for every chapter
• Tests (both paper and online)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-Curious-Incident-of-the-Dog-in-the-Night-Time-Unit-Pack-7621196

Using Han Solo vs. Greedo to Teach Author's Purpose (or HtRLLaP Violence Chapter)

Students often have a hard time understanding a text from the author's perspective, a question type that appears on many standardized reading comprehension checks.  The following lesson works well to teach that concept and it also works well to teach Chapter 11 "More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence" from How to Read Literature Like a Professor (for you AP Lit teachers out there).

First, start with this clip from Star Wars: Episode 4 - A New Hope.  This is part of the first time we meet the character Han Solo.  The only background needed at this time for the non-Star Wars fans is that they are in space at a bar and this guy we just met gets stopped by a bounty hunter (the green guy).  

This scene serves as our introduction to this character.  What does this tell us about Han Solo?  Various answers will be given, but most will center on how calm and collected he was in the face of death and how clever he was kill Greedo without Greedo knowing he was in danger.'

Things were all fine for a while in Star Wars fandom, but then the director, George Lucas, kept toying with the scene - specifically the shooting scene and more specifically with Greedo's role in the shooting.  Now show them all five shooting scenes and ask they why would George Lucas want to change the scene? 

There will be various answers, but help them focus on that Lucas wanted the character of Han Solo to be more heroic.  Having Han not just shoot first, but to be the only one shooting when Greedo had made it clear that he was going to take Han in alive, shows Han to be more of the Byronic hero type.  If Greedo is shooting, then Han is shooting back in self defense.  Changes the character just a bit (and drives old Star Wars fans insane).

This is a rare opportunity for us to see how an author (director) changes things up.  Everything is done on purpose with a specific rationale.  For a reader to move from what the plot means to how the author reveals it is a major step in advancing reading comprehension.

As far as AP Lit goes, this is an excellent way to show how this violent scene reveals character and how small changes in the scene reverberate out into changes to the characters as well.