Free Resources for Secondary Teachers

I am happy to say that my free Thesis Worksheet resource is now available. Brain Waves Instruction, Literary Sherri, and Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy have compiled three free ebooks full of ready-to-print resources for secondary sellers. There are three ebooks, one for ELA, one for math and science, and one for humanities. My resource is included in the  ELA book, plus there is a link to it in my store at the bottom of this post. Each book contains 25 resources, plus a little bit about each seller and the kinds of resources he or she offers. Check them out here:

Here is a link to my resource that you can download for free in my store:

Apostrophe Police

Aargh! I just got done reviewing apostrophe rules with my college class, and I walked up the stairs and  encountered this:

 

Call me compulsive, call me whatever you want, but I could not leave it alone. I went into the faculty room and said, "Am I a crazy person if I have to fix the poster in the hall?" Lucky for me another English teacher was in there and he not only agreed I had to fix it immediately, but tried to help me find some white-out. I finally tore the corner off my role and taped it in place. We can't have Mondays running amok trying to own everything.

Paper Topic Brainstorming Activity

Coming up with a topic for a research paper is one thing, but figuring out a narrow direction to pursue is quite another, and one where students often get hung up. This activity uses the brainpower of the entire class to help find that direction.

Tape one large piece of paper for each student on the wall around the classroom. Give everyone a colored marker and have them stand in front of their papers. Ask everyone to write their topic in the center of the paper and circle it.

Now, have everyone rotate so they are standing in front of someone else's paper. Allow 30 seconds for students to write everything they can think of about the topic, using a mind-map style web. They can ask a question, add a subtopic, make a comment--whatever comes to mind.

Rotate again, and keep going until everyone has had a chance to respond to everyone else's topics. You will need to extend the time as the papers fill up, because it will take students longer to review what has already been written.

If you have a small classroom with no space for the paper on the wall, this activity works just as well using large paper (I used 11 x 17) passed along desktops. If you can, though, use the wall because it's  a great opportunity to get students up and moving, and if nothing else, it's fun to write on the wall.

At the end of the activity, each student can take their own paper and see what everyone else has to say. Perhaps they will find an interesting question or a direction they hadn't thought of before. My students find it very helpful, and some even switch topics to something else they found on the wall that seemed more interesting.

Facilitative versus Traditional Teaching

I've been working on an academic paper recently about facilitative versus traditional lecture-style teaching. Anyone who has studied teaching methods recently knows that facilitative teaching is widely accepted as the better learning method. Paulo Freire's writings on the "banking" method, where the teacher sees the students as empty vessels waiting to filled, and thus projects ignorance on students, makes it clear that this is not an ideal learning, or teaching, situation. I'm no extremist, and I think that traditional lecturing is appropriate under certain circumstances, as long as the power differential doesn't suggest "I'm all-knowing and you are not," but why do some teachers still rely heavily on lecturing rather than facilitating when circumstances permit?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and for me, there are a lot of reasons, but I think the time I fall back on lectures when I shouldn't is because facilitation introduces risk, and a lack of control in the classroom. If I'm lecturing, I have my notes; I know how long it will take; I can direct questions and answers. If I'm facilitating a group discussion, I don't have this control. I have to admit, that I am sometimes uncomfortable leaving a chunk of time to be directed by the students, because it leaves open the possibility of all kinds of risk and even "chaos" as some theorists call it.

Of course one of the great things about facilitation is that the teacher learns right along with the students, but sometimes this also, pardon my French, scares the crap out of me. What if I learn something that changes the way I think about the topic at hand? I'm not afraid to learn new things and change my thinking, in fact, I welcome it, but having this happen in front of an entire classroom makes me wonder if I'll have the wherewithal to be able to keep my wits about me, articulate what I mean, and not be a stuttering idiot in front of my students. I was never afraid to explore brand new thought processes out loud as a student, but as a teacher, it seems like there's much more at stake.

The times when I have taken the plunge for facilitative teaching when I've been tempted to lecture have all well been worth it. In fact, after a recent class period, I had several students comment on what a great class it was that day. I said "thank you," but the truth is, I hadn't said much of anything at all, or prepared much of anything besides a facilitative-type activity. They had done the work and had been fully invested. They were satisfied, and had a successful experience. So what I should have said, was, "No, thank YOU!"

Free Ethos, Pathos, Logos Handouts

 

I have always been a huge fan of Queen Elizabeth I's speech meant to encourage her troops to fight an inevitable invasion by the Spanish Armada in 1588. Besides being fascinated by the royal "we" and all that entailed, I found the speech a model for persuasive techniques. Take this example:

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“Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation or disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all."

What better example of ethos, or establishing yourself as a person of character, trust and integrity, could there be? She made herself appear strong, unafraid, loyal and at one with the people all at the same time. I used this example, and two other examples of famous speeches to demonstrate ethos, pathos and logos on these free handouts. Copy them and pass them out to your students, or use them as transparencies while teaching.

Click on the pictures below or the cover above to download the file.

Each one has an illustration (by the fabulous Brennyn Carmen), an explanation and example. These handouts are included in my persuasive writing unit, but they stand alone for many purposes. I hope you find them useful!

High Stakes Rough Drafts

Most of my students could get an A on their essays. Are they exceptional students? Gifted writers? Not necessarily. It's all in getting them to turn in a rough draft. A good number of my students used to skip this step, for any number of reasons, but most often nothing more than procrastination. I tried to convince them that the days of banging out an essay the night before it was due were over.

It wasn't until I raised the stakes and assigned a signficant amount of points to the rough draft that I started to see an improvement. I also devoted a day to group work with the rough drafts, meaning they missed out on participation points if they didn't have a draft. I still wasn't satisfied, though, because I had basically bullied them into turning in complete rough drafts rather than getting them to see the point and wanting to participate.

Finally, I remembered an exercise that I used to do when I traveled around as an author, visiting schools and talking about the writing process. When I pull the pipe cleaners out of my bag and start passing them out, my students wonder if they're back in first grade, but they also have big grins on their faces. Who can resist a bendable, fuzzy stick? The basic idea is they make whatever they want out of one set of pipe cleaners, and write instructions (words only!). Then they swap with a partner and try to make the other person's creations. (Download the complete instructions here). The writer is not allowed to say a word, just watch. Inevitably, it is impossible to stay silent. The writer always wants to clarify something.

And there's the point....you think you've been clear on something so simple, and yet you can instantly see that you could have explained it just a little better here or there, or that you left out something entirely and your reader is confused. Here's a fairly typical result. The original is on the left.



This exercise is valuable in a couple of ways: Students instantly understand the value of re-writing, and they are open to listening to me tell them about how important it is, especially when we're dealing with more complex ideas and themes than making a silly project. It also gets them interacting and laughing and it's nice break to do something hands-on in a writing class.
The complete FREE instructions for this activity are here: