Book Character Day Project is a great way to finish the year creatively and with great fun. The purpose of the project is to instill the love of reading in students as well as improving their literacy skills by allowing them to express themselves creatively. It is also a great way for the students to choose their summer books as their friends’ recommendations are much more important and effective for this age group. Take your students to the library and ask them to choose a book that they haven’t read before. Give them a month to read the book in their free time. Alternatively, you can ask them to choose a character from a novel they read during the school year. Then, give them the project task sheet in the attachment and two weeks to complete it to be ready for the day. In our school we use the hallway to conduct the project. We put tables in the hallway for the students to display their projects and decorate the hallway with posters on reading and student work (book reports, posters, etc. the students prepared previously during the year). Each class is given one lesson period to present their books and favourite characters. Their audience includes students from other classes at the same level, the parents, and the teachers. If you don’t have enough space in the hallway, you can do it in your classroom or in the library. The task sheet in the attachment includes information on how to prepare for the for the day and how to present the project as well as the tasks. It also includes some photos from the Book Character Day we organized at our school. The tasks include two graphic organizers, preparing a digital word cloud, a bio cube, and a (fake) social media profile page for the favourite character, writing a bio poem, a journal entry, a letter from the favorite character to another character in the book, creating a poster with visuals and all the task sheets, guidelines on preparing a book talk . There are also three rubrics - for the letter, poster and the book talk and a self assessment form for the students to complete at the end of the project. You can also prepare a feedback form for the parents if you are going to invite them. The rubrics have not been graded. If you are going to grade this project, add the marking scheme to the rubrics before you give them to your students.

This 19-page lesson is a great opportunity for the 21st century learners to learn about and practice the art of asking questions based on a digital story. Students first answer the questions after watching episode 1. They then learn about asking read on the lines/between the lines/beyond the lines questions, watch episode 2, and ask different types of questions about it. In part III, they learn about higher order thinking questions, analyze the chart on questioning for quality thinking, watch episode 3, and ask lower and higher order thinking questions about it. In the final section, they conduct research on one of the 3 countries used as the setting of the episodes they have watched. They learn about the tools they can use to research, to evaluate and narrow down the information they have found, and to cite sources. They also learn what a big question is and come up with a driving question to conduct their research. Finally, they learn how to share their findings with their peers by preparing a visual presentation and a speech. If you have a class blog or a school website, you can share their presentations with the entire world, which will be much more motivating for your students. The pack also includes a 21st Century style KWHLQ chart adapted from Silvia Tolisano’s KWHLAQ chart http://langwitches.org/blog/2015/06/12/an-update-to-the-upgraded-kwl-for-the-21st-century/, a research guide for the students, detailed information on public speaking and presentation skills, self and peer evaluation sheets, and an oral presentation rubric. The entire unit is suitable for ESL learners as well. If for any reason you are disappointed or not satisfied with this product,please contact me at aysin.alp1@gmail.com so I have a chance to make it right. Your suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for visiting my shop

You can use this 88- slide pack with any novel (or short story) you are teaching. It is suitable for both virtual and face-to face learning and includes everything you will need while you are teaching the novel. There are 23 graphic organizers, 3 projects, 1 Instagram template and 1 choice board with optional activities, which you can use either digitally or as hard copies. Each strategy is introduced on color-coded slides with information and activities. Students then use that strategy to analyze the novel they are reading by completing different activities. There is also a comprehensive Teachers Guide with detailed information on how to use this template, additional ideas, and links. The link to the Google Slides version of the Power Point template is in the Teachers Guide. Please don’t start using the templates before you read the Teachers Guide. Some of the activities may be too difficult or easy for your students. You can delete them as there are many activities in this unit or you can differentiate them by giving different activities to different students according to their reading and writing levels. You can also add more questions, delete some slides, or change some of the questions to make it work for you and your students. If you like this pack, please visit my shop at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/aysinalp58 to see the other resources. Enjoy:)

Do you want to create a supportive learning environment for struggling readers and extend the skills of confident readers? Reciprocal teaching is a student-led learning activity that empowers learners to take charge of their own learning. It is an excellent strategy to improve students’ comprehension and reading skills as well as their thinking skills. It encourages students to think about their own thought process during reading and helps them understand content better. It is also an ideal strategy to teach CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) to ESL and ELL students. Please read all the information in this link http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching before you start using the role cards.

Because growth mindset is a critical element of success in school, I strongly believe that it should be taught to students. This is the lesson I prepared for my students. If you have time, at the end of this lesson you can ask your students to prepare a leaflet or a video for younger students to teach them growth mindset. For more information on growth mindset, you can vist my Pinterest board. https://tr.pinterest.com/shine58/growth-mindset/

This resource for KS2 or KS3 is also ideal for ESL students. It comprises of 9 different worksheets aimed at teaching and practicing Simple Present, Simple Past, Past Continuous, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Progressive, Past Perfect and Past Perfect Progressive. It includes explanations on the usage of each tense, examples, several grammar exercises from fill in the blanks to transformations, reading and writing activities.

Close reading is a perfect strategy that will help you scaffold your students with challenging texts. Your students will find it very useful not only as a text-taking strategy, but also as a technique that helps them become better readers and critical thinkers. This bundle includes a lesson plan with a list of annotation marks, a list of steps that will guide the students, a text for close reading and questions.

Here is a complete unit based on a real life character to enhance your students’ viewing, listening, speaking and presentation skills while teaching them about global issues. The questions in the tasks are differentiated addressing both low order and higher order thinking skills and all the tasks have been designed to enhance your students’ critical and creative thinking skills. With one click, you can add or delete tasks/questions based on your students’ abilities or interests. Alternatively, you can assign different tasks to different groups of students to differentiate learning, and have them share their work with the rest of the class at the end of each task.

This inquiry unit on Malala is presented both on a 55- slide Power Point and a Google slide deck with tens of links to a variety of media for students to explore and create information. There are 16 graphic organizers, 2 posters and 3 projects in it which you can differentiate according to the abilities and interests of your students. You will find everything about differentiation in the 6-page UbD lesson plan, which also includes several external links and additional lesson ideas for the teacher, which will help you connect quality instructional content to the essential skills of collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. In the first part of the unit, students will watch videos, read and research various types of non-fiction, complete several scaffolded tasks, and participate into class discussions before they write their own version of Malala’s biography to inspire others. They will collect everything they have created in this part in a foldable lapbook. In the second part, they will research and discuss what makes a hero and our rights and responsibilities as digital citizens. They will use the information in written, speaking and visual presentations. The activities have been designed for classrooms where all students have access to technology but can easily be adapted for classrooms where only the teacher has access to technology. They include several opportunities for students to connect beyond the classroom, collaborate, create (and show what they know), share and reflect upon their learning at each stage of the learning process. If possible, please use the slides version, which you can find here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Yad5O2GAV4cDq5PqPmLDx5CfUP7pBh3swEfCYodX7MY/edit?usp=sharing Please click on File>Make a Copy so that you can edit the resource. If you are using Google classroom, upload it to Google Classroom as an assignment and choose ‘Make a copy for each student’ option. This way, your students will have an interactive version of the lesson as well. Please don’t share it with your students before you read the lesson plan. If your students don’t have access to technology in the classroom, you can print the resources that you want to share with them. Thank you for downloading this resource. Please visit my shop https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/aysinalp58 to see my other resources

This differentiated choice board will give your students the opportunity to learn about digital citizenship as well as practicing the 4 C’s (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication) . My students had great fun while doing this activity. You may do it in a different way but I allowed them to choose the task they want to work on and their partners to promote student voice and choice in the classroom. The activities in the first row (horizontal) are for groups of three, in the middle row for students who want to work individually, and the ones in the final row are for the students who want to work in pairs. You can assign the tasks in the middle row for a pair of low achievers in order to enhance collaboration as they are relatively easier and shorter. Please read the instructions to use this document which also includes the Google dRive link for the PDF document. Using the Drive link will give you the opportunity to share this document with your students digitally and edit it. On the second page there are discussion, vocabulary and reflection activities for the students to complete. I hope you and your students will enjoy it:)

Great print and teach vocabulary and writing practice for students based on the awesome video, The Present, which ran on over 180 short film festivals and won more than 50 awards. The activities include writing a summary, a tweet, a journal entry, a film review with a rubric, creating a word cloud, colour-coding parts of speech in a text, and filling in a vocabulary journal. The pack also includes some questions to enhance critical thinking skills and links that will help students write their film review. Suitable for ESL students as well.

The amount of information available on the Internet is astonishing, and it keeps growing. Therefore, students should learn this critical skill to determine whether the information they have found is relevant and reliable. In this unit based on evaluating websites students: * Read a text on website evaluation * Do a vocabulary activity on prefixes and suffixes * Answer the questions about the text * Visit a website and do the activities there to learn more about website evaluation * Choose a website among the ones given in the list and evaluate it by answering the questions in a graphic organizer * Prepare a 5–8 - minute oral presentation on it by using the information in the organizer and following the oral presentation guidelines * Evaluate their own oral presentation and their peers' by filling in the self and peer assessment forms * Prepare a leaflet on website evaluation for younger students. The lesson also includes two rubrics - one for the oral presentation and the other for the leaflet. This unit can be used with English Language Learners as well.

Are you tired of boring worksheets and traditional book reports? Do you want to integrate 21st Century literacies into traditional literacy activities to engage your reluctant readers in fun, creative, and challenging tasks? Do you want to create colourful and eye-catching bulletin board displays - all created by your students - to impress your administrators and parents? Do you want to save yourself money and valuable time in planning? If you answered “YES” to these questions, then this 39-page Value Pack is ideal for you and your students. There are 6 creative book reports in this pack and each report consists of different tasks that require different types of creative writing and design. Students are asked to write poems, letters, a news report, journal entries, a book review, a blurb, a proposal for a film project, an obituary; design a newspaper, ads, comic strips, a film poster, an alternative book cover; create book trailers, digital presentations, a social media profile page for their favourite character, an ABC book, crossword puzzles; prepare and give a persuasive speech to sell their ideas; decorate a box, and many more other activities. The pack includes rubrics for each project. There also links for letter generators, comic creators, movie makers, digital posters, copyright-friendly image and audio resources, book trailer websites, etc. I give this pack to my students at the beginning of the school year. We study two novels in class per term and students read a book of their own choice each term. After they finish reading each novel, they choose one option from the pack and complete it according to the due dates I give them. They are free to choose the book report they want for each novel they have read but they have to choose a different one each time. So, by the end of the school year, they complete all the book reports in the pack. We display them in our classroom and in the hallway. I also post their book trailers and digital posters on our class blog and school website. If your students have iPads, you can ask them to use apps such as Book Creator. If you haven’t tried book trailers below, the following links may be helpful: http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/How+to+make+a+book+trailer http://library.conroeisd.net/book_trailers http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=13228%20 http://www.slideshare.net/bibliokat/book-trailers

This resource can be used with learners at all ages including ESL and ELLs. It includes two videos and a lyrics listening and gap filling activity. The writing activities will enhance both critical thinking and language skills of the learners. The journal writing activity is great for character education and teaching values.

Are you tired of boring worksheets and traditional book reports? Do you want to integrate 21st Century literacies into traditional literacy activities to engage your reluctant readers in fun, creative, and challenging tasks? Do you want to create colorful and eye-catching bulletin board displays - all created by your students - to impress your administrators and parents? Do you want to save yourself money and valuable time in planning? If you answered “YES” to these questions, then this 39-page Value Pack is ideal for you and your students. There are 6 creative book reports in this pack and each report consists of different tasks that require different types of creative writing and design. Students are asked to write poems, letters, a news report, journal entries, a book review, a blurb, a proposal for a film project, an obituary; design a newspaper, ads, comic strips, a film poster, an alternative book cover; create book trailers, digital presentations, a social media profile page for their favorite character, an ABC book, crossword puzzles; prepare and give a persuasive speech to sell their ideas; decorate a box, and many more other activities. The pack includes rubrics for each project. There also links for letter generators, comic creators, movie makers, digital posters, copyright-friendly image and audio resources, book trailer websites, etc. I give this pack to my students at the beginning of the school year. We study two novels in class per term and students read a book of their own choice each term. After they finish reading each novel, they choose one option from the pack and complete it according to the due dates I give them. They are free to choose the book report they want for each novel they have read but they have to choose a different one each time. So, by the end of the school year, they complete all the book reports in the pack. We display them in our classroom and in the hallway. I also post their book trailers and digital posters on our class blog and school website. If your students have iPads, you can ask them to use apps such as Book Creator. If you haven’t tried book trailers below, the following links may be helpful. http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/How+to+make+a+book+trailer http://library.conroeisd.net/book_trailers http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=13228%20 http://www.slideshare.net/bibliokat/book-trailers

This 33-page cross-curricular pack is ideal for the teachers who want to prepare their students for the requirements and the challenges of the century that we live in. The activities cover all the 21st Century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, effective communication, and problem-solving skills. After the warm-up activities, students watch an ecological rock opera on extinction and answer questions about it. They then • write a journal entry on how the lyrics relate to the problem in the story and how they give a powerful message, • write the lyrics of a new song for the rock opera, design a comic strip to convey the message of their song, • create a video about an animal facing extinction or an animation on environmental issues, • write a letter to one of the world leaders about environmental issues, • prepare a 10-minute Ted talk style speech on environmental problems and their solutions for them using the information they have learned, • conduct a school-wide project on an environmental issue of their own choice. All the activities are guided and students are given several resources to choose from to make a video or animation, to write the lyrics, to design a comic strip, to give an effective speech, and to prepare an effective presentation. Most of the activities require group work so that the students can improve collaboration skills. The pack includes a brief guide on how to collaborate effectively and why collaboration is an effective skill. There is also a teamwork rubric that evaluates each student’s performance as an effective team member. There is a rubric for each activity, self and peer evaluation forms, a reflection activity, and a learning journal for the students to fill in.

This is a great reflection activity for the students preparing for exams. I have designed it for my students who are taking the IGCSE English exam but it can easily be adapted to any other exam such as SAT, IELTS, TOEFL your students are preparing for. It gives the students an opportunity to revise the key concepts they have learned throughout the year and to consider the rules, study tips, do’s and don’ts of the exam while they are working in groups to prepare a learning guide for the students who are going to take this exam prep course and the exam next year. My students told me that it helped them a lot to internalize all the rules and the expectations of the exam and get a good grade. This activity also helps to polish up students’ critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, multimedia and oral presentation skills. Since the students have been asked to prepare a digital learning guide, they are required to use tech tools effectively and creatively. The pack includes three rubrics for multimedia presentation, oral presentation and group work; self and peer evaluation forms; a list on different presentation tools with links; tips and links on public speaking, oral presentations, and group presentations. The most exciting part of this project for the students was the presentation as I took them to the classes of the students who are going to take this course and exam next year to present. If you have time and if you can arrange that, please do so as it becomes a real life experience and makes the project much more meaningful for the students. If not, you can publish the presentations on your class blog, the school website or share it in Google docs. Apart from the time allotted for the presentation, the students spent 8 (40-minute) lessons to finalize the project: • 2 lessons for brainstorming and outlining. • 3 lessons for preparing the guide • 2 lessons for bringing the pieces together and finalizing the presentation • 1 lesson on rehearsing for the presentation

You can find 48 creative writing tasks with picture prompts in these ppts. Unlike technical, academic, and other forms of writing, creative writing fosters imagination and allows students to have a voice. Therefore, it is one of the most effective ways to enhance creativity in the classroom. I share this ppt with the students at the beginning of the year and they choose one topic each month. It is one of their favorite tasks.