ELA

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Teaching Materials

Samples of ELA-based teaching materials

Vision

Lesson plans and class expectiations

Book Recommendations

Some of my favorite classics

Teaching Materials

Presentation Skills –

National History Day

This is a lesson I created to teach visual presentation skills. Students at Kopachuck Middle School used this for their National History Day Projects.

Evidential Artifact: Competency in Educational Technology to Engage Students –

A Collection of Words

I used Lightspeed to send links to students and monitor classroom computer activities for this lesson. The lesson started with watching a reading of the book “The Word Collector” on YouTube. Next, I sent students the link to Thesaurus.com, and they looked up words that are synonyms and antonyms for the word walk. Finally, we used Google Slides to make an anchor chart as a class. Students were asked to look for words that stood out during the read-aloud. We used those words to create an anchor chart and look up alternative words.

Future Modifications

Next time, I would prepare some simple words ahead of time. I would also have a more ordered system for students to collect Chromebooks. I might also try creating a Google Doc, which all students can add as they find information.

Doodle Notes

In my class, students will learn to create a personal “visual dictionary” which is not based on art skills but helps students remember thoughts, sentiments, and ideas. This is a more effective tool than simple note-taking or teacher-created worksheets.

Vision

Why I Love Teaching ELA

In ELA we get to stand on the shoulders of giants such as Jane Austin, Hawthorne, and JK Rowling. Caldecott and Newberry winning books add color, ideas and heart to the average student’s life. The future is going to need specific skills to shape a quickly changing world. I can help students learn skills for AI such as editing, asking good questions, and being descriptive. Learning should be fun and engaging for both students and teachers. Through ELA students find their passion in niche subjects. Growing up I watched Reading Rainbow where I internalized the idea that a book can take you anywhere and let you be anything. I love to be there when students find that perfect type of book that makes their brains light up. My ELA teachers have been an amazing influence on me. They taught me creative writing, a love for history stories, and how to refine my ideas. I attended a writer’s workshop one year where I polished my creativity skills. Another year, I learned all about Pompeii and how to dive into the world of historical fiction. I’m enthusiastic about new ideas, improving, and working together. I want to help students find their love of learning and expression through ELA.

Beliefs as an ELA Teacher

Learning should be honest, fun, social, project-based, and practical. Students need structure, and I continue to improve at that, but it is more important to be an adult who consistently shows up, keeps trying, and represents good values. I am a determined, compassionate, and engaged teacher.

Theoretical Basis for Beliefs

Ideal Learning Outcomes

I want to help my students learn to ask questions and how to find reliable resources for answers. If students learn to ask and research questions, they can learn to do anything. They won’t always have a teacher guiding them, but they can learn how to become their own teacher. I want to teach them how to take good notes; I like to teach about doodle notes. Doodle notes make learning more active by engaging more learning styles (listening, reading, kinesthetic). Another important outcome is learning to appreciate that everyone has something unique and special from which we can learn.

Instructional Strategies

Assessment Tools & Strategies

I use Exit Tickets to gauge understanding, support individual learners, and adjust lesson plans. The exit ticket is a simple task that allows students to demonstrate knowledge of the core standard.

Another tool I use is a self-reflection score. Students rate themselves in addition to the score they earned, which helps me determine their confidence levels.

Self-Reflection Rating System:

1 – I do not understand

2 – I’m starting to understand, I can do it with help

3 – I understand, I can do it independently

4 – I’m confident that I can teach someone else

Stakeholder Relationships

Parents are our children’s first and most important teachers, and communities are the beneficiaries of their education. I see my job as an opportunity to work with parents to support students’ values and growth. That is what we all do as a community: support the best family outcomes. All stakeholders contribute to the well-being of students and their ability to learn. Being an involved community member is important by showing interest in culture, interests, and events.

Classroom Management Plan

Future Class

One possible future class is a 6th-grade Language Arts class. The first instructional activity is a biography poster of the main character in a nonfiction book of their choice. The second activity is a create-your-own board game activity based on a fiction book. Students can select from The Book Thief, The Giver, or Howl’s Moving Castle.

Personal Philosophy

My philosophy is that if I love my students and I love the content, they’ll love to learn. My motto is “be honest, kind and brave”; if we can learn to consistently embody these three qualities we can go far. I will model positivity in student ability and praise honest effort, while encouraging them to keep trying. Students will feel safe with their ideas and promote the safety of others. The biggest thing students can do for themselves is to keep trying, no matter how slow, if they keep trying, they will be productive. All ideas are important and make us better people. There is a famous experiment, demonstrated on the show Brain Games, about the value of diverse opinions. In the experiment, 20 people are asked to guess how many gumballs are in a gumball machine. Not a single person came close to guessing the right score, but when all the scores were averaged together, they were within 20 gumballs of the right number. This demonstrates how including diverse opinions and perspectives helps us get to the best outcomes.

Three Goals

Students will be able to describe, recognize and demonstrate all three elements of the motto “be Honest, Kind and Brave”.

Teacher and students will be able to modify their viewpoints based on what they learn from others, including other students.

Teacher and students will demonstrate a “keep trying” work ethic.

Three Class Rules

Be Honest – Be Kind – Be Brave

Student Engagement

Students will be actively engaged by adding to our honest, kind, and brave poster. We will have a class discussion about what it looks like to portray these qualities. Students will help look for examples throughout the duration of the class. When a student needs help remembering the student will be referred to the poster and asked to provide in writing an example of how this could have been applied. They can ask others for ideas if they need help.

Classroom Rules to Support Classroom Norms

The major norm I want to focus on is, keep trying. Honesty supports this norm because we need to honestly evaluate what worked and what didn’t work, not feeling ashamed of mistakes, in order to keep trying. Kindness supports this norm because students grow best in a supportive environment. Bravery supports this norm because it takes intellectual bravery to persevere when things didn’t work out the way we planned in the first place.

Classroom Rules to Support Classroom Norms

Positive Reinforcers and Consequences

Positive reinforcement I will use is snapping. When someone does something positive, I will snap and encourage students to join in.

A consequence is, you break it, you fix it. Students will be accountable to repair damage done to equipment and make amends to people they’ve hurt.

Classroom Layouts

Two Routines and Procedures

Routine 1
the bell ringer:

Procedure:

Students come in and get out their study material (laptop, notebook, pens).

They will have their bullet journal open so I can see what tasks they’ve accomplished and what they see as a need to get done.

They immediately start work on the word puzzle bell ringer activity for the day while I take attendance and check notebooks.

Routine 2
time to go:

Procedure:

5 minutes before class is out students get out their bullet journal.

They mark the things they’ve accomplished during the day and note something new they’ve learned.

They make a list of what they still need to do.

I check the notebooks on their way out.

Communicating Procedures

I will have a poster with the procedures. We will also practice these, especially the first weeks of class. I will monitor to see that all students have meaningful information in their bullet journal.

Classroom Procedures

Entering Class

Take a card and find the spot that matches the card
You’ll be having new seat assignments every day so it’s ok if you don’t get your preference.
No trading seats.

Bullet Journal

First 5 minutes
Check your notes from the previous day
Cross off completed items
Write a priority list for today – include both your expectations and mine
At least weekly there will be a new visual dictionary item to add to your bullet journal. We’ll draw a simple picture and list meanings it can have
During the last 5 minutes we’ll update these again

Bullet Journal –

First 5 minutes

Check your notes from the previous day

Cross off completed items

Write a priority list for today – include both your expectations and mine

At least weekly there will be a new visual dictionary item to add to your bullet journal. We’ll draw a simple picture and list meanings it can have

During the last 5 minutes we’ll update these again

Attendance –

Voice level 0

We’ll learn our attendance order and students will call names when it’s their turn

Class Expectations –

Honest, Kind, Brave

During the first week we’ll make a list as a class of what that does and does not look like.

It’s always AND

Bathroom/Water/Nurse –

Don’t leave before attendance or you’re tardy.

1 person at a time, no sharing a pass

Sign out and take the pass – don’t ask.

I’m not repeating instructions so you’ll have to find out another way if you miss information.

We snap to show approval or encouragement

Bring Materials to Class –

Writing materials (pen/pencil, highlighters, markers/colored pencils)

Chromebook (charged)

Paper

Bullet Journal

Where to find:

Class storage spot (grouped by class)

Extra pencils

Daily work

Old assignments

Bell schedule

Calendar – during first week everyone is encouraged to add personally important holidays.

Assignment challenges (extensions)

Assignment supports

Bulletin for no name papers

Lost and Found spot

Uncharged Chromebooks

Students must stand the whole time where they’re charging (ie: at the back counter)

Voice Level Poster

0 – complete silence (think testing)

1- Whisper (practice whispering)

2 – quiet talking (think group work)

3 – Normal voice (think answering a question in class, or during attendance)

There will be a frame around the current voice level expectation. I’ll try to keep it at 2-3 as much as possible.

Food and drink is OK, until it’s not

Last 2 minutes is clean up

No trash

Materials in labeled bins

Chairs away (at end of day)

Sub Expectations

Outstanding behavior

Rewards – stickers, PBIS points, plastic flamingos

Negative – review class expectations

Book Recommendations

Presentation Skills –

National History Day

This is a lesson I created to teach visual presentation skills. Students at Kopachuck Middle School used this for their National History Day Projects.

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