Help Needed Signs

 

HELP!!!

Don't you just love it when your students are working on essays? I mean, you're walking around the room, monitoring and offering help when needed. Everything is so calm and peaceful. Right? WRONG!!

I don't know about you, but it never failed. Practically every student would be sitting at his/her desk with a hand up needing my help. And none of them are working. They're just sitting there. Waiting. Wasting time. (Really wanting to have me tell them what to write, but that's another blog post. lol!)

A friend introduced me to the HELP NEEDED signs, and it was a life saver. Students can make them themselves out of plain paper, or you can print them up. Here's a link to the freebie I offer on my TPT page: HELP NEEDED SIGN

On one side, the sign says HELP NEEDED. On the other side it says KEEP WORKING. You fold the paper into a rough triangle so that the blank side sits on the table/desk top. Students who need help simply place the sign with the HELP NEEDED facing the front of the room (or wherever the teacher directs them). The KEEP WORKING side faces the student. Students know that while they wait for help, they need to continue working on their essays. Once the teacher has helped the student, the sign is folded and put under the desk or into their notebook out of the way. 

I tell my students they can only use the sign 2 times per writing session. This makes them understand that there are some things they are going to have to figure out on their own or else they'll have to come by after school for more help.

I can't tell you how much easier this made my life. 😎

Direct Grammar Review Minilessons

 

Ugh! Did you say GRAMMAR!!!!

Grammar is never fun to teach, but it's incredibly difficult to help students fix problems in their writing if they don't have a basic understanding of how it all works. Right? For a long time I struggled with explanations, but my students weren't getting any better. How could they figure out where to put commas if they didn't know what a compound sentence was or an introductory dependent clause? How could they make subjects and verbs agree if they couldn't even find the subject?  

To save my sanity (and theirs) I created some short, easy minilessons to review basic grammar for my ninth grade students. Since they were coming to me from two different middle schools and several different teachers, I never could be sure what they had or hadn't been taught. So I decided that I really needed to just start from the beginning. 

I dusted off my grammar books and went all the way back to the eight parts of speech. You would not believe the moaning and the groaning and the "We already know this" whining that I got. But guess what? They didn't really know it very well at all. Some of the worst grades I got were on the eight parts of speech quiz. 

The minilessons didn't take a lot of time...just about 10-15 minutes a day. We went step by step in a logical manner. And guess what? My students would tell me....this is the first time I ever understood how it all went together. 

So...if you've experienced something like this, check out my Direct Grammar Review Minilessons. They cover the following skills:

identifying the eight parts of speech

identifying the parts of a sentence

noun and pronoun usage

verb and modifier usage

subject-verb agreement (includes parallel structure and wordiness/redundancy)

phrases

clauses and sentence structure

punctuation

capitalization

There are enough lessons to last a semester. If you're on a block schedule, that may be all you can cover for the school year. If you are on a year-long schedule, the second semester is a great time to cover some grammar in context skills. You might want to try my On Target Grammar and Vocabulary Skills in Context. 

For the grammar review minis, you can use the whole bundle or you can pick and choose those areas your students seem to have the most trouble with. Keep in mind, this is intended as a REVIEW, so your students should not be encountering these for the very first time with these lessons. That is why they are so short. These lessons are also cumulative, meaning when students are looking for the parts of a sentence, they should already be very familiar with the parts of speech. They are in the order they are in for a reason. The lessons give a logical, step by step progression into an understanding of how grammar works.

By the way, these make great bellringers for the beginning of class.

I hope these lessons help you and your students have a better understanding of grammar and how a command of grammar helps to improve their writing. 

Student Summer Reading Book Recs

 

I have really mixed feelings about summer readings. You're not going to agree with some of them. That's fine. These are just my own personal opinions from my own experiences. Yours may differ.

First, I don't think regular students should be required to do summer reading. If you're trying to turn these kids onto reading, this is not how to do it. Students who sign up for accelerated/honors classes are making a commitment and are going to be moving at a much faster pace. It makes sense for them to get some reading done so they can jump right into analysis at the beginning of the year.

Second, I think more than two books for accelerated/honors summer reading is too much.

Third, I don't think summer reading requirements should begin for accelerated/honors students before 8th or 9th grade.

Fourth, I don't think requiring ridiculous amounts of work to go along with books is necessary. Small activities that help students understand what you want them to is better. No big projects please. We do want students to have time to actually enjoy their summer. Other honors/accelerated classes may also require summer work, and your students will probably be in additional honors/accelerated classes, so be kind and reasonable.

Fifth, I like the idea of testing students on reading comprehension the first week of school. It holds them accountable more than any project they may do.

Sixth, I think summer reading books should be short if possible, very readable, and interesting. (Not interesting to you, teacher. Interesting to the students.) If books are long, boring, or too difficult, students are just going to read online summaries or watch movies. REAL TALK.

Finally, I think teachers should actually teach units on the summer reading books. Otherwise, students tend to perceive it as a waste of time. And rightly so, IMHO. I've known teachers to assign incredibly difficult books for summer reading and never mention them once school starts and summer assignments are turned it. WTH???

So with all that controversial stuff said (lol), here is a list of summer reading suggestions I have had good success with.

ACCELERATED HONORS BOOKS

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kid

My Dog Skip by Willie Morris

Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

1984 by George Orwell

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The Alchemist Paulo Coelho

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

EASY MEALS: Crockpot BBQ Country Ribs

 

IT DOESN'T GET ANY EASIER THAN THIS!

2 lbs boneless country ribs

1 bottle BBQ sauce

 

DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING: 

Thaw ribs night before. 

Place ribs in bottom of crockpot.

Cover with barbeque sauce of your choice. I use the whole bottle!!

Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Fix some quick sides and you're ready to go!!