I am a teacher, blogger, and teacher trainer with more than 30 years of experience in education. I like to explore new possibilities to engage learners and enhance their learning experiences. I am the author of the blog, Learning and Leading in the 21st Century http://aysinalp.edublogs.org / where I share my reflections and insights on learning and technology.
I am a teacher, blogger, and teacher trainer with more than 30 years of experience in education. I like to explore new possibilities to engage learners and enhance their learning experiences. I am the author of the blog, Learning and Leading in the 21st Century http://aysinalp.edublogs.org / where I share my reflections and insights on learning and technology.
This 15-page resource pack includes fun game-based activities and games for your students to learn or recycle addition with numbers 1-20 .The pack includes games and activities to understand and use addition and equal signs, mental math, to solve and create one-step addition problems. It can be used at the beginning of year 2 to review year 1 as well. ESL teachers can also use it if they are teaching CLIL .
If you liked this resource, please visit my shop to see the packs about numbers and subtraction for year 1. Thank you.
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:)
This four-page creative writing activity based on BBC's short video, 'The Supporting Act' is ideal both for ELA and ESL students. It includes two graphic organizers to scaffold writing a summary, before the creative writing activity. Play the video until 00:59 and ask your students to predict the rest of it. At the end of the creative writing project, you can also show this video https://vimeo.com/82282346 to your students for fun.
Here is a great resource for the refugee week. It includes texts, videos, games, graphic organizers, reflection forms, a creative writing activity and a project. There are two rubrics: one for the creative writing activity and another one for the project. You can use it either as a distance learning resource or in the classroom. I have added Word and PDF versions so that you can make changes in it if you want. I also gave the link to the Google document that you can share with your students at the top of the Word and PDF versions.
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 tasks for the students to complete. I hope you and your students will enjoy it:)
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.
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, color-coding parts of speech, 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 ELL and ESL students as well.
The activities in this pack have been designed to improve students’ confidence in writing, to enhance collaboration, critical and creative thinking skills, and to encourage independent thinking skills. Your students will have great fun while completing the activities in this pack.
As a warm-up activity, students will be directed to a website where they will watch five short videos on different superheroes and do the gap-filling task about each video. They will then:
• Complete a diagram,
• Make a word cloud,
• Write their own definition of a superhero,
• Create their own superhero by using an avatar and write a descriptive paragraph about it,
• Fill in a Venn diagram and write a compare-contrast paragraph,
• Write a journal/blog entry based on a quote,
• Work collaboratively to create a step-by-step “How to...” guide.
The pack includes a PowerPoint, a rubric, self and peer assessment forms on writing a compare-contrast paragraph. It also includes a video for the students to watch before they start doing their final project. It requires group work so that the students can improve collaboration skills. There is 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. Since each group will prepare their projects in different formats, there is not a rubric for the guidebook. Instead, the students have been given links that will help them prepare their own rubric after they choose their medium for presentation and plan the project. If you think it is too hard for your students, you can prepare a rubric with them together in class to help them get involved in the learning process instead of giving them one prepared by you.
Each activity in this pack is connected with the next one and they all prepare the students to complete the last activity, which is a collaborative project. This project requires the students to use tech in the classroom as they are asked to prepare a digital guidebook. Several links for the tools are available in the pack and the students are asked to choose the best medium to deliver their message in order to improve their digital fluency skills. One device per group will be enough to complete this project. If your students don’t have or aren’t allowed to use devices in the classroom, they can do the project with pen and paper.
The warm-up activity, preparing a word cloud and creating an avatar for their superheroes also require the use of tech in the classroom and the students have been given the links for these activities, too. If your students don’t have or aren’t allowed to use devices in the classroom, they can do these with pen and paper as well or alternatively, you can assign them to do these tasks at home and bring them to school the next day.
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.
This fun pack contains back to school activities that you can use while teaching virtually or face to face during the first weeks of school so that you can get to know your students better and build positive relationships with them.
A lot of these activities are adaptable to be completed independently or at home in case of virtual learning.
This fun pack contains back to school activities that you can use while teaching virtually or face to face during the first weeks of school so that you can get to know your students better and build positive relationships with them.
This is a fun beginning of the year activity to get to know your students and help them to readjust to the school system by doing a relaxing, fun activity. It is suitable for both virtual and face-to face learning. Including music in the activity will spice up your lesson while allowing your students to be creative. It will also allow them to reflect on their lives and share the turning points in their lives with the whole class and with you, which will help to you build positive relationships with them and build a positive classroom community. I posted the Power Point version here, and you can find the links for Google Slides versions in the Teachers Guide. Enjoy:)
Please visit my shop at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/aysinalp58 to see more resources.
I guarantee you that your students will love doing these activities during the first week of the school year and you will become the most popular teacher at the school. All you have to do is to design a Welcome Back to School cover page for the first activity with two cartoons. The questions on page 1 and 2 are about the cartoons that you are going to choose, so please read them before you choose the cartoons. If you follow this link http://tinyurl.com/z3vk5rb or this one http://tinyurl.com/hagfo3u, you will find several cartoons to choose from.
This fun activity will also help your students to understand media messages, learn how to analyze cartoons, and to think critically. Both activities require students to reflect on the meaning of education and learning and how they learn best. The journal entry they are going to write, the cartoon and the video they are going to make will not only enhance their creative skills but will give you lots hints about their expectations from you as their teacher.
Have a great school year!
There are two resources in this pack for the first week/s of school suitable for both virtual and face-to-face learning. I posted the Power Point versions here, and you can find the links for Google Slides versions in the Teacher’s Guide. Both activities will allow you to get to know your students better and build positive relationships with them. Since each student is going to complete them individually, they are naturally differentiated. Enjoy:)
There are two resources in this pack for the first week/s of school suitable for both virtual and face-to-face learning. I posted the Power Point versions here, and you can find the links for Google Slides versions in the Teacher’s Guide. Both activities will allow you to get to know your students better and build positive relationships with them. Since each student is going to complete them individually, they are naturally differentiated. Enjoy:)
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.
Here is a great resource for the refugee week. It includes texts, videos, games, graphic organizers, reflection forms, a creative writing activity and a project. There are two rubrics: one for the creative writing activity and another one for the project. You can use it either as a distance learning resource or in the classroom. I have added Word and PDF versions so that you can make changes in it if you want. I also gave the link to the Google document that you can share with your students at the top of the Word and PDF versions.
This 22-page interactive pack includes information, different activities, links to several websites about bullying and cyber-bullying, and ways to cope with them. At the end of the pack there is a project that you can do as whole school / grade level or as a class. The activities are differentiated and suitable for all types of learners from grades 3-6
Do you want to go global and raise awareness on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by bringing together a range of innovative ideas for teaching creatively and addressing these key issues? Here is a free resource for you to teach global literacy in your classroom! This 24-page pack will help you teach your students Global Goals for Sustainable Development published by the UN in 2016 to raise their awareness on global issues with a focus on Global Warming. The activities in the pack will enable you to differentiate learning. You can do the inquiry project at the end of the pack together with a partner school to increase student engagement.
Do you want to go global and raise awareness on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by bringing together a range of innovative ideas for teaching creatively and addressing these key issues? Here is a free resource for you to teach global literacy in your classroom! This 24-page pack will help you teach your students Global Goals for Sustainable Development published by the UN in 2016 to raise their awareness on global issues with a focus on Global Warming. The activities in the pack will enable you to differentiate learning. You can do the inquiry project at the end of the pack together with a partner school to increase student engagement.