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.

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.

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 21st century research guide contains information on the Super3 and Big6 research skills, links to safe search sites and to videos on plagiarism, copyright, paraphrasing, citation for beginners, , Web 2.0 tools to conduct research effectively, graphic organizers, rubrics, checklists and a song on Super3. There is 1 ppt for Super3 and another one on the Big 6. Once your students master Super3 research skills, they can move on to the Big6 research process. You can use this guide to teach your students age-appropriate research skills. You can also post this guide on your school website or classroom blog.

Digital literacy is more than knowing about how and when to use the tools. It is the ability to process information by locating, understanding, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and sharing it using digital technology. In the past, we used to do it with printed materials, but now technology provides access to a much wider range of learning resources available at all times and allows us to communicate information in a variety of media beyond word and text; so, looking up information in the library in traditional ways is obviously not enough. To be literate today requires navigating a connected world offering students endless information with which they can interact in many different ways. Our students are familiar with technology but they use it for social purposes. They know how to copy and paste but they don’t know how to process information with the help of technology. They should master the critical skills to conduct research effectively and come up with creative projects instead of copy-pasted ones. For more information, you can read this post http://aysinalp.edublogs.org/2015/08/05/how-to-integrate-the-new-literacies-into-our-curriculum-part-3-information-literacy/ on my blog. This 21st century research guide contains information on research skills, links to web research guides, alternative search engines other than Google, Web 2.0 tools to conduct research and to present effectively, information on evaluating the quality of content and websites, academic integrity guidelines with emphasis on plagiarism, copyright, summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, and citing appropriately, tips on preparing and giving effective presentations. You can use this guide to teach your students A-Z 21st century research skills. You can also post this guide on your school website or classroom blog.

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!

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 dont’s 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, group work; self and peer evaluation forms; a list of different presentation tools with links; tips and links for 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

This 10-page interactive end-of-the-year reflection activity gives the students an opportunity to revise the key concepts they have learned throughout the year. Students are asked to think critically and creatively while they are preparing a learning and survival guide for the students who are going to be in the same grade the following year. In order to add more fun to the activity, they are asked to complete tasks that will help the students next year understand what to expect of that grade level both academically and socially. The activities include making a visual collage of the year and a mind map of the important concepts they have learned, writing a poem/rap and a letter, designing a list of top tips or golden rules for their grade level, creating a comic strip, a cartoon or a short graphic novel showing the key points they have learnt this year, finding a title for their guide and assess their work. The links provided are differentiated for students at different levels. The pack also includes a rubric for the letter and a self-assessment rubric. I didn’t grade this activity as it was the end of the year. I gave oral and written feedback to my students, instead. I asked them to grade themselves after they completed the self-assessment rubric.

Improve your students'/child's grammar skills with this fun and engaging bundle. This bundle is ideal for all ESL and ELL students and for the students who are preparing for PET and FCE exams. It includes 8 detailed worksheets on Gerunds and Infinitives, Reported Speech, Passive Voice and Conditionals with: *detailed explanations of the rules * gap-fill and sentence transformation exercises * sentence completions * reading response activities *creative writing activities based on videos. This is intended for use by one teacher. It is not to be redistributed to an entire school or district. It may not be redistributed or sold online. Enjoy! Thanks for taking the time to stop by my store! @aysinalp1 Follow 21st Century Literacies Shop

This 21st century research guide contains information on the Super3 and Big6 research skills, links to safe search sites and to videos on plagiarism, copyright, paraphrasing, citation for beginners, , Web 2.0 tools to conduct research effectively, graphic organizers, rubrics, checklists and a song on Super3. There is 1 ppt for Super3 and another one on the Big 6. Once your students master Super3 research skills, they can move on to the Big6 research process. You can use this guide to teach your students age-appropriate research skills. You can also post this guide on your school website or classroom blog.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Visible thinking is a broad and flexible framework for enriching learning in all content areas and fostering students’ intellectual development at the same time. My experience in teaching with visible thinking routines showed me that it fosters greater motivation for learning and a shift in classroom culture toward a community of enthusiastically engaged thinkers and learners. You can check Harvard Project Zero website for more information. https://pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines This inquiry and project-based pack on climate change has been prepared with an interdisciplinary approach, so you can use it either in an English , or a Citizenship class. There are 92 slides with many texts and videos. There is a response activity after each of them and a project at the end of the unit. Students are asked to prepare a TED talk after learning how to prepare one, analyze cartoons and news reports, create a cartoon and write a news report afterwards. It includes a Quizlet activity, links for games on sustainability, links to websites for research, rubrics, self and peer evaluation forms, and reflection activities. Students are provided with choices and all activities are based on their voice to differentiate learning. As there are multiple exposures o content, you can also differentiate learning by assigning different tasks to different groups of students. Apart from the Power Point in the attachment, I included the Google slides link in notes to the teacher section which will enable you to delete or change the content according to the needs of your students. Your students can complete all the forms on the slides version and send it to you if you are using Google classroom, which will save paper. If not, all of them are printable. The entire unit will last for 4-6 weeks depending on the number of hours you are teaching per week.