Depth & Complexity Icons

Creating Challenging Learning Experiences by Michael McDowell in Edutopia - When teachers leverage inquiry, students use critical thinking skills to examine multiple perspectives and find ways to improve our world. Includes questions for critical thinking (“what”), criticality (“so what”) and call to action (“now what”). Criticality is "the idea that we must connect critical thinking with varying contexts (past, present, and future situations) and perspectives to the human condition."

Discussing literature as at the heart of what we do in class. The discussion tools page contains questions, sentence stems, fillable forms and guidelines to help you have a positive and engaging discussion.

Writing is a fundamental activity in this class. The writing workshop section includes information and resources for both academic writing and creative writing.

This page has games and play resources that can be used for introducing or reviewing concepts covered in class.

Lesson plans focused on research and preparation for podcasting.

Lesson plans focused on portfolios.

Lesson plans focused on publishing.

Publishing Opportunities webpage.

Literary Magazine webpage, including submission guidelines.

Lesson plans for class sessions focused on research and inquiry-based learning projects.

1. Ask students to respond to 2-4 questions that preview and introduce the topic that will be explored in the new unit.

2. Have students use post-its notes to record and share their responses on anchor charts or posters. 

3. Invite students to circulate the room and read other people's responses.

4. Consider adding resources around the room (books, quotes, photographs with captions, artwork, a video, etc.) that introduce the topic and pique students' curiosity.

5. Journal writing reflection: What did you find most interesting in your tour around the room? What thoughts do you have? What questions does it inspire?

Reading aloud is not just for young children! Older students can also benefit from being read to and reading their own work aloud. Hearing literature read aloud is engaging and brings to life the rhythm, sounds, meaning and flow of language in a literary work.

Reading literature aloud to students:

• "Reading Aloud With Secondary Students" by Lauralee Moss in the blog Language Arts Classroom 

• "5 Reasons I Read Aloud to High School Students" by Emily Cash

Students reading their own writing aloud:

• "How the Spoken Word Shapes the Written Word" by Sarah Bahr in The New York Times

Audio Recording:

• Audio Writing Reflection - classroom assignment

• Option for students sharing their writing on the class discussion board: use the microphone feature in the discussion board to audio record yourself reading your work aloud. Consider also including commentary and/or reflection at the end. Include the audio recording with the post of your written piece. 

From 4 Review Activities That Promote High-Level Thinking and Student Discussion About Your Content by Meredith Akers

Need anchor chart paper & task 

Example Student Rankings & Justification Anchor Charts 

From the Instructional Strategies Playlist by Lead4ward; good for reviewing what was learned the day before.

1. Display 4 images; 2-3 images should represent examples of a concept that was covered in a recent lesson, while the other image does not.

2. Ask students to discuss the images with a partner and to determine what each image represents.

   • “Yesterday we learned a lot about ______ and I want to see what you remember and understand. I’m going to put up a few items and I’d like you to work with a partner and decide which are examples of _____ and which are not, and for each one you should be able to explain why.”

3. As a pair, students must decide which images are examples of the concept, which are not, and why.

From the Instructional Strategies Playlist by Lead4ward; a variation on the JigSaw strategy, good for introducing new ideas or background information.

1. Choose 4 images that represent concepts or ideas.

2. Assign each student in their small group to one of 4 groups. Have the students in each of the 4 groups go to a different corner of the room and discuss the image and learn everything they can about it.

3. After 10 minutes, students return to their original small groups and teach the other 3 people in their small group about the image 

4. Once students have shared their information with their small groups, each small group must decide which of the images/concepts is the odd one out.

5. Jigsaw Discussion:

Jigsaw: Choose one of the following _____ to study (each person in your small group should choose a different _______).