These activities and resources are always free in my TeachersPayTeachers store. Click on the Thumbnail images below to find out more or download each of the resources.
Vocabulary Games & Tools
Word Part Jeopardy. This PowerPoint game is both a student and teacher favorite. Check out a full version for free by clicking on the picture at left. If your students like it, there are currently 11 other editions in my store; you can save money by buying the bundle, which also ensures you’ll get new versions for free.
Word Watcher. This activity brought a lot of joy to my classroom. The kids enjoyed the chance to earn extra credit and an occasional piece of candy; I enjoyed watching their engagement with words and their growing awareness of how words are used in the real-world—their other classes, television, outside reading.
Reading Response Tools
SPACE: Sentence Starters for Higher Order Thinking and Reflection. Have a few minutes to fill at the end of class? Have a little white space at the bottom of a worksheet? Here’s a way to put that time and space to good use with some higher order thinking and metacognition. Use these sentence starters with any text or lesson!
Poetry Analysis: Using Questions to Solve the Puzzle of Poetry. This list contains questions from my own experiences in the classroom, culled from trainings, conferences, professional books, conversations with colleagues, and anywhere else I have encountered poetry and teaching in the last 17 years. I hope you will find it helpful as you share the joy, the pain, the wonder, and the dictionary with your students!
For & Against: Organizing (and Analyzing) an Argument. This graphic organizer is a great way for you to introduce students to the process of analyzing an argument—or developing their own. The organizer itself is pretty straightforward, and will guide students as they search for evidence to support both sides of the argument.
Book Pass Record Keeping Sheet. This form will help your students choose appropriate books that match their interests and abilities. It provides you an opportunity to coach students to recognize the factors that will influence their success with a book and to know that it’s important to choose the right book—not just the shortest one!