Black History Month for the ELA Classroom

Black History Month is a great time to remind students of the contributions black men and women have made to the literary field. This is a great product to use in your ELA classroom. 

The following brief articles are designed to be used during Black History Month. There are four short articles about four black authors. Accompanying each article is a short literary piece by each author, either a poem, short story, or excerpt from a longer piece. The articles are in the forms of guided notes with blanks to be filled in as students watch the accompanying PowerPoint Presentation. A key is provided for each article if you do not wish to use the PowerPoint Presentation. Questions follow each literary selection. A key is also provided for the questions.

The four authors featured in this packet are as follows:

1. Matthew Henson-Henson accompanied Commander Robert Peary on his Arctic expeditions. He wrote a memoir about his experiences titled A Negro Explorer at the North Pole. An excerpt from this memoir is included.

2. Alice Dunbar-Nelson- An American poet, author, journalist, and political activist, Alice Dunbar-Nelson was among the first generation of African-Americans born free in the South after the Civil War. In 1895, her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published. A story from this collection is included.

3. Langston Hughes-Hughes is a renowned black American poet, novelist, and social activist. He was one of the major leaders of the Harlem Renaissance movement. His works are often included in student anthologies. One of his poems is included.

4. Alexandre Dumas-Dumas is the only non-American in this packet. His father was the son of a French nobleman and a slave of Afro-Caribbean descent. He is one of the most widely read French authors. His works include The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Man in the Iron Mask. An excerpt from The Count of Monte Cristo is included.

You can find this product here in my TPT store.

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: Dystopian YA Novels

 

Dystopian novels are very popular with our pre-teen and teen readers. Here is a list of dystopian YA lit that my students always loved. Some will probably be very familiar to you, but hopefully you will find a few to add to your classroom library.

1. Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

2. Divergent series by Veronica Roth

3. Maze Runner series by James Dashner

4. Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

5. The Selection series by Kiera Cass

6. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

7. The Giver series by Lois Lowry

8. Shadow Children by Margaret Peterson Haddix

9. Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve

10. Delirium series by Lauren Oliver

EASY MEALS: Crockpot BBQ Chicken

 

3-4 chicken breasts

16 oz bottle barbeque sauce

1/2 cup Zesty Italian Dressing

1/4 cup brown sugar

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Put chicken in crock pot. Pour mixture on top. Cook on low 4-5 hours. 

Then you have some options:

1. Shred with fork and put on hamburger buns for delicious chicken sandwiches.

2. Leave whole and serve with mashed potatoes and vegetable of choice.

Funny Teacher Story: I have to teach debate? Yikes!

 

So because I am an English teacher and can therefore teach anything with language 😜, I was assigned to teach our school's debate class. Now, I had never seen a debate, been in a debate, nor was I even remotely interested in debate. I begged my principal to give the class to someone else. He just patted my shoulder and said, "You can do it."  So of course I immediately went to the library and got a book on debate. It was like reading Greek. 😟

I did find a 9-week debate course workbook that I purchased. Unfortunately the class was 18 weeks. Oh well. At least I had the first nine weeks covered. (I'll think about that tomorrow-Scarlett O'Hara). 

The first day of class, I was so nervous and worried, figuring the students would know more than I knew. I was B*ll S*itting like nobody's business, pretending I knew what the h*ll I was doing. I was talking about possible topics and said, "For example, you might have to argue the pros and/or cons of a topic like Capital Punishment."

A student raised his hand and said, "Well, I personally think a parent should be able to spank his child whenever he wants to."

Okay. I think I got this. 😂😁😂

Tweeting a Theme

 

This is a fun and functional activity for students to practice writing theme statements. There is a definition of theme and guidelines for distinguishing between subjects and theme statements as well as a strategy for writing a theme statement from a subject. Students are then asked to write a theme statement for a text they are reading. They must be able to defend their theme statements with textual evidence.

After that, students take their theme statements and turn them into tweets of 140 characters or less.

Students can work individually or in small groups for this activity. You can find this product on my TPT store here.