Middle School Expository Writing Rubric. Use with expository essays, and help middle school students focus on what they need to acheive in order to meet state standards. The standards based rubric has four categories: conventions of language, purpose and style, organization, and development and support of content. Standards-based grade: students will exceed, meet, approach, or fall below standard in each category. Students can self-evaluate their work. Editable for your classroom use. -Happyedugator

Coordinate Adjectives Handout and Practice Worksheet. Explains using commas and how to tell the difference between coordinate adjectives and cumulative adjectives. Coordinating adjectives are adjectives that must have a comma because they can have the word "and" put between them or their order can be reversed. Cumulative adjectives must stay in the order in which they are presented or they do not make sense, so therefore they do not need a comma. Handout will give students a reference to use, and worksheet has 18 practice sentences where students must determine if the adjectives are coordinate or cumulative, and place commas accordingly. Supports the common core standards. L.7.2a . No prep. Print and go.

Flowers for Algernon Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle. 30 Vocabulary words are hidden in the puzzle. Word list and key included. -HappyEdugator

Poetry Terms Crossword Puzzle. Terms include alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia, imagery, rhyme, rhythm, tone, mood, metaphor and simile...18 terms and clues. Key included. Fun review! - HappyEdugator

Rikki Tikki Tavi Comprehension Quiz. A ten question quiz on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," the short story by Rudyard Kipling. It can be used as an open book quiz. Vocabulary and comprehension questions. Explanations of why they chose their answer makes it a useful assessment tool. Key included. - HappyEdugator

Questions, Critical Thinking Questions and Journal Responses. This poem is often used at graduation celebrations because of the advice it gives. The writing prompts guide students to make connections and judge whether the poem is a positive piece of advice for today.

The Gift of the Magi Vocabulary TEST - Matching. Words from the short story by O. Henry. 12 critical vocabulary words. Students write the letter of the definition on the blank in front of the number of the word. Key included.

Brain Teaser Sheet - Critical Thinking. Fun Brain Workout. Letter equations. May be challenging, but students will love trying to figure them out! A letter equation is a common combination of letters and numbers that are abbreviated. The trick is to figure out what the abbreviation means. For example, 7 d. in a w. is 7 days in a week. 22 brain teaser equations and key included. Good activity to get minds working for test prep. Exercise for the brain. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Classroom Library Sign Out Sheet. This is a colorful classroom sign out sheet you can post in your classroom library to keep track of books checked in and out. I have a class "librarian" manage my checkouts. Students simply write in the title of the book they are borrowing, their name, and the date it was checked out. When the book is returned, they just put the date returned. I use the honor system with my class library, and most students return my books as soon as they finish with them. EDITABLE for your classroom needs. - HappyEdugator

Myths, Legends, Fables, and Folktales - Oral Tradition - Four Forms of Traditional Tales Handout. This handout will help your students understand myths, legends, fables and folktales by clearly defining them in a colorful graphic organizer, and then giving examples of each. A useful introduction to a unit on folktales, fairytales, or oral tradition stories. You may wish to project on a screen and have students take notes. Includes a note-taking page and a short quiz with key. Revised July 2014 - HappyEdugator

Poetry Concept Map. When introducing a poetry unit, this concept map graphic organizer will help your students understand the relationship of graphics, sound devices, and figurative language to poetry as a whole. Each of these are further broken down to show terms related to them. For example, sound devices are alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. I have used this as a transparency, projected on an LCD, or blown it up and made it into a poster to hang in the classroom. - HappyEdugator

Easter acrostic poem. Do you need a quick fun activity for Easter? This is a short 5 slide PowerPoint explaining how to write an acronym poem, also called an acrostic poem. This would be a good warm-up activity to use just before Easter or right before Spring Break. Included is a definition of an acronym or acrostic poem, two example poems using egg and Easter, an Easter vocabulary slide, and a slide prompting students to write their own poem. You could also print this last slide for students to fill in. - HappyEdugator

Christmas - Letter To Santa Writing Activity. Writing a friendly letter, students must tell Santa Claus the one thing they want, why they deserve it, and how they will use it to better the world. Letters must include compound sentences, complex sentences with adjective and adverb clauses, vocabulary words, figurative language, and the parts of an informal letter. 100 points, easy to grade. No prep. Print and go. Enjoy!

Dictionary Guide Words and Thesaurus Practice Worksheets. These worksheets are actually a real hands-on activity for students to use dictionaries. Students need to look up the words and find the guide words for each page. They will learn how guidewords are important to finding entries in a dictionary. Use with any dictionary. Key is not included since the answers will vary depending on the dictionary used. Includes one worksheet for dictionary guide words, and an addtional two page worksheet for work with a thesaurus. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.4e Use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.4d Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.4c Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.4c Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.

Shades of Meaning Verb Cards - LAUGH. Cut out and laminate these 16 different cards illustrating different synonyms of the verb "LAUGH." Helps students understand connotation. With guidance and support from adults, students acquire new vocabulary by defining word relationships and nuances in word meanings, sorting words into categories, choosing and acting out the different meanings. Aligns to Common Core Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.5b Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5c Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered). Additionally, words can be used for spelling practice, writing practice, and word walls. Includes definitions for the teacher.

Christmas Story Starters. 50 Christmas writing prompts that you can use to help your students get writing creatively around the holidays. A winter creative writing handout or resource that will help students find something to write about! Quick and easy December printable handout. 2 pages. Have fun with writing! - HappyEdugator

Annabel Lee Vocabulary Graphic Organizer. Graphic organizer for vocabulary in poem Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe. Students will match modern words to the old-fashioned words in the poem and explain their effect on the mood of the poem. - HappyEdugator

ndependent Clauses and Dependent Clauses handout will help your students understand sentence structure and how to make compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences. Explains how to form compound sentence using independent clauses with commas and conjunctions or semicolons,and also with semicolons and transitional words. Explains how to make a complex sentence with subordinating or relative pronouns, and how to use a dependent clause at the beginning followed by a comma. Also notes how to make a compound-complex sentence by combining a compound sentence with a dependent clause. Lists coordinating conjunctions (in FANBOYS order), common subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns. Concise, handy reference for developing writing skills. - HappyEdugator

Poetry - Writing a Parody Poem Activity - How Doth the Little Crocodile. What is Parody? Students will read the parody poem How Doth the Little Crocodile by Lewis Carroll (from the book Alice and Wonderland) and compare it to the original poem Against Idleness and Mischief by Isaac Watts. Includes guided questions comparing and contrasting the two poems, and a writing activity where students are challenged to write their own parody of a poem. They can then use the Parody Poem Writing Checklist to evaluate their writing. - HappyEdugator

Reading - Book Project for Independent Reading. This book project assignment is an alternative to a traditional book report. It gives students nine options for creating a project to demonstrate their independent reading. Better than a book report because students have to be able to convince their teacher that they have actually read the book, or be required to stand before a jury of their peers and prove it in five minutes!! Customizable for your needs. Also availale is an optional rubric for this assignment that you may wish to use: Book Project Rubric.