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.
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.
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.
This 32-slide lesson on how to spot fake news to become critical consumers of media includes 3 mini projects, a game, videos, infographics, activities and reflection questions at the end of the lesson. The activities are scaffolded, and step-by-step the students are introduced to the tips, tools, and websites on how to spot fake news and images on both print and digital.
There is a PowerPoint version in the attachment and a Google Drive link in Notes for the Teacher section. You can edit both of them to make adjustments according to the needs of your students.
Please do not start using the guide before you read Notes for the Teacher.
Thank you for buying this resource. If you liked it, please visit my shop at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/aysinalp58 .
This resource can be used with learners at all ages including ESL and ELLs. It includes two videos and a lyrics listening and gap filling activity. The writing activities will enhance both critical thinking and language skills of the learners. The journal writing activity is great for character education and teaching values.
This 21-page resource pack includes fun game-based activities and games for your students to recycle reading and writing numbers 1-20, count forwards and backwards up to 100, skip counting in multiples of 2, 5, and 10, count more or less from a number and place value (1-20). My students loved the games and the math superhero mouse that assisted them in some of the activities. You can use the pack to review numbers in class or assign it during the term break or the summer break. It can be used at the beginning of year 2 as well. ESL teachers can also use it if they are teaching CLIL.
If you are not allowed to use dice in the games, you can use number cubes. You can find a copy of a number cube in the pack that your students can cut and paste to play the games. Thank you for visiting my shop.
This resource can be used with learners at all ages including ESL and ELL . It includes two videos and a lyrics listening and gap filling activity. The writing activities will enhance both critical thinking and language skills of the learners. The journal writing activity is great for character education and teaching values. There is also a Google slides version with more detailed activities.
This 24-page Christmas themed pack includes game-based resources and activities on representing numbers 1-100 creatively, skip counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, comparing and ordering numbers 1-100, place value, addition, and subtraction with 2-digit numbers. You can use it to review these topics in class or assign it during the holiday break. My students loved the Christmas images and enjyed the games. I hope your students will love them, too.
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.
This 21-page resource pack includes fun game-based activities and games for your students to recycle reading and writing numbers 1-20, count forwards and backwards up to 100, skip counting in multiples of 2, 5, and 10, count more or less from a number and place value (1-20). My students loved the games and the math superhero mouse that assisted them in some of the activities. You can use the pack to review numbers in class or assign it during the term break or the summer break. It can be used at the beginning of year 2 as well. ESL teachers can also use it if they are teaching CLIL.
If you are not allowed to use dice in the games, you can use number cubes. You can find a copy of a number cube in the pack that your students can cut and paste to play the games. Thank you for visiting my shop.
This 24-page Christmas themed pack includes game-based resources and activities on representing numbers 1-100 creatively, skip counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, comparing and ordering numbers 1-100, place value, addition, and subtraction with 2-digit numbers. You can use it to review these topics in class or assign it during the holiday break. My students loved the Christmas images and enjyed the games. I hope your students will love them, too.
This 19-page lesson is a great opportunity for the 21st century learners to learn about and practice the art of asking questions based on a digital story. Students first answer the questions after watching episode 1. They then learn about asking read on the lines/between the lines/beyond the lines questions, watch episode 2, and ask different types of questions about it. In part III, they learn about higher order thinking questions, analyze the chart on questioning for quality thinking, watch episode 3, and ask lower and higher order thinking questions about it.
In the final section, they conduct research on one of the 3 countries used as the setting of the episodes they have watched. They learn about the tools they can use to research, to evaluate and narrow down the information they have found, and to cite sources. They also learn what a big question is and come up with a driving question to conduct their research. Finally, they learn how to share their findings with their peers by preparing a visual presentation and a speech. If you have a class blog or a school website, you can share their presentations with the entire world, which will be much more motivating for your students.
The pack also includes a 21st Century style KWHLQ chart adapted from Silvia Tolisano’s KWHLAQ chart http://langwitches.org/blog/2015/06/12/an-update-to-the-upgraded-kwl-for-the-21st-century/, a research guide for the students, detailed information on public speaking and presentation skills, self and peer evaluation sheets, and an oral presentation rubric. The entire unit is suitable for ESL learners as well.
If for any reason you are disappointed or not satisfied with this product,please contact me at aysin.alp1@gmail.com so I have a chance to make it right. Your suggestions are always welcome.
Thanks for visiting my shop
This inquiry unit on Malala is presented both on a 55- slide Power Point and a Google slide deck with tens of links to a variety of media for students to explore and create information. There are 16 graphic organizers, 2 posters and 3 projects in it which you can differentiate according to the abilities and interests of your students. You will find everything about differentiation in the 6-page UbD lesson plan, which also includes several external links and additional lesson ideas for the teacher, which will help you connect quality instructional content to the essential skills of collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity.
In the first part of the unit, students will watch videos, read and research various types of non-fiction, complete several scaffolded tasks, and participate into class discussions before they write their own version of Malala’s biography to inspire others. They will collect everything they have created in this part in a foldable lapbook. In the second part, they will research and discuss what makes a hero and our rights and responsibilities as digital citizens. They will use the information in written, speaking and visual presentations. The activities have been designed for classrooms where all students have access to technology but can easily be adapted for classrooms where only the teacher has access to technology. They include several opportunities for students to connect beyond the classroom, collaborate, create (and show what they know), share and reflect upon their learning at each stage of the learning process.
If possible, please use the slides version, which you can find here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Yad5O2GAV4cDq5PqPmLDx5CfUP7pBh3swEfCYodX7MY/edit?usp=sharing Please click on File>Make a Copy so that you can edit the resource. If you are using Google classroom, upload it to Google Classroom as an assignment and choose ‘Make a copy for each student’ option. This way, your students will have an interactive version of the lesson as well. Please don’t share it with your students before you read the lesson plan. If your students don’t have access to technology in the classroom, you can print the resources that you want to share with them.
Thank you for downloading this resource. Please visit my shop https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/aysinalp58 to see my other resources
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.
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
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.
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. This project requires 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.
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.
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.
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:)
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:)