‘Would you rather’ questions are a great way to get your middle and high school students talking on the first day of school. This back to school icebreaker resource is an excellent** getting-to-know-you activity** that helps your students engage in relaxed and stimulating conversations about exciting and though-provoking topics.
The questions are designed to be appealing to teenagers and to get them thinking about different possibilities and choices. They are created to enable students to** think critically, explain their thinking in writing and discuss different opinions with their classmates.**
The combination of simple and more insightful topics enables students to think deeply and provide meaningful arguments for their opinions, while at the same time feeling relaxed and at ease.
This helps you create** a welcoming and inclusive classroom environment**, while simultaneously **setting the standard of academic rigor and critical thinking **from the very beginning of the year.
The resource includes:
28 question cards
reflection task cards for students to explain their choices
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These persuasive language posters are just what your English classroom needs!
In addition to being a beautiful addition to your classroom décor, they help students review the twelve most important persuasive techniques.
Each poster includes the definition of the technique, several examples (from everyday speech and literature) and the possible effects the use of the technique has on the reader (how it helps persuade the reader).
The posters are an excellent visual reminder that helps students review and revise the key elements of persuasive writing.
Included:
Alliteration
Anecdotes
Rhetorical questions
Imperatives
Personal pronouns
Exaggeration
Facts
Opinions
Repetition
Emotive language
Statistics
Triplets
If you like these posters, check out this great game for revising these persuasive techniques.
Thank you for downloading this resource.
Check out my blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more ELA content.
This murder mystery roleplay or collaborative writing activity is an open-ended discussion activity aimed at providing an engaging platform for students to collaborate, practice crime vocabulary and express their creativity.
The pack includes:
a background story
roles for students
teacher instructions for two different options on conducting the activity
This immersive discussion activity helps students develop:
critical thinking skills: students are presented with a complex problem that requires them to think critically, analyze evidence, and make logical deductions
communication skills: students engage in discussions, share theories, and collaborate with their peers, enhancing their communication and interpersonal skills
creativity: the activity encourages creative thinking as students try to piece together the story and generate hypotheses about what happened
problem-solving skills: students must work collaboratively to solve the mystery, fostering problem-solving skills as they try to identify the perpetrator
The resource pack offers two options for conducting this activity:
Option 1 is a collaborative writing activity. Students write a crime story based on the information given about the background story, characters and clues. This highly motivating activity enables students to work together to create a well-crafted piece of writing.
Option 2 is a roleplay activity. Students take on the roles of the characters in the murder mystery story. The student who is assigned the role of a detective questions other students and attempts to discover the killer.
This activity is a part of my large crime resource pack that offers various activities on the topic of crime (including vocabulary, discussion, reading comprehension and extended reading activities).
You might also be interested in this [crime vocabulary presentation]https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/crime-vocabulary-presentation-12913015).
Or, get it all at a lower price here!
For successful argumentative writing and analysis, students need to be very familiar with persuasive devices.
This fully editable 38-slide presentation offers an in-depth look into the most commonly used rhetorical devices, including:
alliteration, anecdote, rhetorical questions, imperative, personal pronouns, exaggeration/hyperbole, facts, opinions, repetition, emotive language, statistics and triplets/list of three.
The techniques are organized into a simple, easy-to-remember acronym:
A RIPE FOREST.
The presentation contains information about the definition, examples and effects of every technique.
This helps students understand:
what the technique is
how it’s used in everyday speech and literature
and how it helps persuade the reader to agree with the author
The pack also includes 8 pages of detailed teacher’s notes.
If you use the product and like it, please leave a review.
If you like this project, check out this great game for revising these persuasive techniques.
For more wonderful high-school ELA resources, follow my store.
Check out my blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more ELA content.
Do your students still describe a movie they watched as “good” or “bad”?
Reading the same **vague and bland **movie reviews over and over again is a problem we’ve all encountered at some point, but getting students to write better reviews can be a difficult task.
Writing a film review at a higher level requires students to know and use more advanced vocabulary for describing and evaluating movies.
This means knowing how to describe the main elements of the movie, including the plot, characters, cinematography, music and visual effects, and understanding how to **express positive and negative opinions **about different elements of the movie.
This 32-slide presentation helps students learn just that, without requiring any additional preparation by the teacher.
The presentation includes** easy-to-understand definitions and realistic examples **that showcase how the given words and expressions are used in film reviews.
The presentation focuses on words and expressions for:
movie genres
general film vocabulary
types of movies
types of characters
describing the plot
describing acting
describing visual effects and music
positive reviews
negative reviews
This hexagonal thinking activity will help your students engage in meaningful discussions and think deeply about the events, themes and motifs of Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Through this activity, students will make connections between themes such as oppression, language and power, propaganda, revolution and totalitarianism. They will gain a better understanding of the book and analyze the relationships between different aspects of society Orwell portrayed.
Hexagonal thinking is a strategy that helps students understand how different concepts are connected to each other.
It helps students think critically and analyze different aspects of a certain phenomenon or situation.
It can be used in a variety of different subjects to consolidate learning, foster higher level thinking skills and even assess what they have learned.
The resource includes:
hexagon cut-outs with terms from the book
instructions
reflection worksheets
arrow cut-outs for indicating important relationship between terms
free templates for other hexagonal thinking activities
This is an open-ended activity. There are no right or wrong answers. The students can come up with any arrangement of hexagons that makes sense to them, as long as they are able to explain their thinking and justify their choices by making logical and meaningful connections.
Instructions
Print out as many copies of the hexagonal thinking activity sheets as you need (students can work individually, in pairs or in groups)
Cut out the hexagons
Explain to the students that they need to arrange the hexagons in a meaningful manner to show the connections between the terms
Showcase some examples of finished hexagon networks to demonstrate what the final product should look like; there are no right or wrong answers, but the connections need to be meaningful and logical
Explain to the students that they need to choose three or six (as many as you want) connections which they will explain in more detail
Hand out the hexagons, arrows and explanation sheets
Monitor as your engaged students lead meaningful discussions, make connections and explain their thinking
After they’re finished, you can ask members of each group to present one or two of the connections they chose to explain in more detail
As an extension activity, you can ask students to engage in a class-wide discussion about the issue
This lesson, which includes both print and digital versions, is a no-prep activity for analyzing persuasive letters.
In the lesson, students analyze how writers adapt their letters to their target audience and how they use persuasive appeals (ethos, pathos and logos) and techniques (anecdote, alliteration, rhetorical questions, imperatives, personal pronouns, exaggeration, facts, opinions, repetition, emotive language, statistics, triplets).
The lesson includes:
an original persuasive letter
a set of worksheets for analyzing appealing to target audience, use of persuasive appeals and use of persuasive techniques (print and digital versions)
teacher instructions
detailed answer keys (print and digital versions)
This lesson is aimed at helping your** ESL students** learn and practice English vocabulary for describing statistical data, charts and trends.
The lesson includes:
an engaging video-based warm-up activity (What if the world was a village of only 100 people) - worksheet, short presentation, teacher’s notes
a presentation of words and phrases used for describing statistics
vocabulary worksheets
writing worksheets
listening and speaking worksheets
extension activities for fast finishers
an answer key
Getting high-school English language students to analyze long persuasive articles can be such a challenge!
This stations activity solves that problem by breaking the task down into manageable smaller chunks. The students are guided through the analysis through a series of questions that help them discover the layers of meaning in the text.
The questions are grouped into four categories (Content, Audience, purpose and tone, Form and structure and Language). This helps students understand how individual words the author uses are linked with whole-text elements like audience, purpose and tone and how all the individual elements work together to create a unified, meaningful whole.
The fact that the task is broken down into easy-to-understand sections enables even the most confused learners to make sense of what they’re reading and analyze it, and at the same time allows more advanced students to showcase their in-depth knowledge.
The procedure is simple: Divide your students into groups, hand out the texts and the question cards and start the stations activity!
A detailed answer key is provided, so no prep is needed on your part!
If you prefer to use a more traditional approach, I’ve also grouped all the questions into a simple, beautiful worksheet, and the best part is, you can use the worksheet or the cards for any article or text, not just the one given here! Use the questions to help students prepare for standardized exams or just as regular classroom practice and review.
If you enjoy this resource, please leave a review and follow my store!
Find me on YouTube: youtube.com/englilearn
Getting high-school students to analyze long persuasive articles can be such a challenge!
This stations activity solves that problem by breaking the task down into manageable smaller chunks. The students are guided through the analysis of the article through a series of questions that help them discover the layers of meaning in the text.
The questions are grouped into four categories ***(Content, Audience, purpose and tone, Form and structure and Language)***. This helps students understand how individual words the author uses are linked with whole-text elements like audience, purpose and tone and how all the individual elements work together to create a unified, meaningful whole.
The fact that the task is broken down into easy-to-understand sections enables even the most confused learners to make sense of what they’re reading and analyze it, and at the same time allows more advanced students to showcase their in-depth knowledge.
The procedure is simple: Divide your students into groups, hand out the texts and the question cards and start the stations activity!
A detailed **answer key **is provided, so no prep is needed on your part!
If you prefer to use a more traditional approach, I’ve also grouped all the questions into** a simple, beautiful worksheet, and the best part is, you can use the worksheet or the cards for any article or text, not just the one given here! Use the questions to help students prepare for standardized exams or just as regular classroom practice and review.
If you enjoy this resource, please leave a review and follow my store!
Find me on YouTube: youtube.com/englilearn
Using advanced words for describing how people look can be a challenge for ESL students. They often resort to familiar, but very simple words to describe appearance.
But now you have a ready-made solution to that problem!
To boost your learners’ vocabulary for describing appearance, use this bundle which contains revision and practice activities for a wide range of vocabulary for describing appearance, including facial features, skin, build, hair and hairstyles, clothes and accessories.
The bundle includes:
a presentation and matching cards game with high-quality photos that student can describe to practice the new vocabulary
a guessing game that will helps student practice target vocabulary, speaking and listening skills and grammar, all while having fun
The presentation
With excellent visuals and key words, this presentation will help your learners take that step forward and move away from simple, everyday vocabulary towards more nuanced and native-like expressions.
The game
This interactive game is an excellent way to combine vocabulary learning with practicing speaking and listening skills and grammar. The game is based on a ready-made inclusive presentation that presents high quality images of people from different backgrounds. Your students will ask and answer questions about the people in the photos, pay attention to even the slightest details and practice incorporating high-level, nuanced vocabulary into their everyday conversations and writing.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, with this bundle, you will be able to teach about describing people with a resource that promotes diversity by including people of different races, religions, ages and abilities.
If you like this product, please leave a review and follow my store.
Find me on YouTube: EngliLearn Youtube channel
Find me on Pinterest: EngliLearn Pinterest
Reviews are a challenging form of persuasive writing for many students.
There is a lot that goes into writing a review, and it can be hard to find
a comprehensive resource that covers all the basic elements of this type of text, include genre conventions and text features, language characteristics and typical review structure.
Well, this presentation might just be what you’re looking for!
With more than 50 slides, it provides in-depth information about various aspects of review writing.
The presentation helps student learn about:
Text features of reviews:
Audience (typical audiences for different types of reviews)
Purpose (why we write reviews and how they help people)
Tailoring the review to the target audience (how to adapt the tone, content and examples in the review to different audiences)
Register (formal, informal and neutral reviews and their characteristics)
Subjectivity (how subjective opinions shape reviews)
Facts and evidence (the need to corroborate opinions with verified facts and evidence)
Audience engagement (how to get and keep the attention of the target audience)
Language of reviews:
Descriptive language (how descriptive language helps improve the quality of the review)
Persuasive language (how persuasive appeals and techniques help improve the quality of the review)
Jargon and specialist terminology (when and why they may be used)
Vivid verbs and adjectives (how they help make the review more informative and persuasive)
Evaluative lexis (what types of evaluative lexis can be used to express opinions about the subject of the review)
Structure of reviews:
Typical review structure (title, introduction, evaluation and analysis, conclusion, rating)
Title (what is its purpose and what techniques to use to achieve that purpose)
Introduction (key elements of the introduction and their purpose)
Evaluation and analysis (key elements in the main part and their purpose:
Conclusion (the purpose and form of a well-written conclusion
Learning about these various elements of review writing helps prepare students for their future academic studies and career by helping them develop critical thinking skills, research and communication skills and opinion formation. These skills are crucial for their future careers as they help them form informed opinions based on solid research and articulate them in a clear and persuasive manner.
This phenomenal bundle provides you with the materials to teach and practice 12 different persuasive techniques, their definitions, examples and effects.
The bundle consists of:
presentation with detailed information about each of the 12 persuasive techniques (with detailed teacher’s notes)
matching cards that enable students to revise and practice what they learned in the presentation
Together, these two resources help your students learn about persuasive techniques quickly and effectively.
PRESENTATION
For successful argumentative writing and analysis, students need to be very familiar with persuasive devices.
This fully editable 38-slide presentation offers an in-depth look into the most commonly used rhetorical devices, including:
alliteration, anecdote, rhetorical questions, imperative, personal pronouns, exaggeration/hyperbole, facts, opinions, repetition, emotive language, statistics and triplets/list of three.
The techniques are organized into a simple, easy-to-remember acronym:
A RIPE FOREST.
The presentation contains information about the definition, examples and effects of every technique.
This helps students understand:
what the technique is
how it’s used in everyday speech and literature
and how it helps persuade the reader to agree with the author
The pack also includes 8 pages of detailed teacher’s notes.
MATCHING CARDS
Understanding the definitions, examples and effects of different persuasive techniques can be difficult and confusing. Students often struggle to grasp these concepts and apply that knowledge in their own writing and analysis. This set of matching cards that can be used for revision and practice is an excellent way to your students build a strong foundation in understanding how different persuasive devices work.
The set focuses on the following persuasive techniques (contained in the acronym A RIPE FOREST):
alliteration
anecdote
rhetorical questions
imperative
personal pronouns
exaggeration/hyperbole
facts
opinions
repetition
emotive language
statistics
triplets/list of three
The set consists of:
12 technique cards
12 definition cards
36 example cards (three for each technique)
27 effects cards (some effects can apply to several different techniques)
This big new persuasive writing bundle includes six excellent resources to help your students understand persuasive writing and using different rhetorical techniques and appeals and apply that knowledge in real life:
Persuasive techniques presentation
Persuasive techniques posters
Advertisement analysis project
Persuasive letter worksheets (digital and printable)
Speech analysis stations: Frederick Douglass 4th July speech
Guided article analysis stations
The bundle includes:
a 38-slide presentation with detailed teacher’s notes
an engaging interactive Kaboom! game with 60 revision questions
12 posters with definitions, examples and effects of different persuasive techniques
a motivating advertisement analysis project that helps student understand how persuasion works in real life
detailed ready-to-go printable and digital worksheets for analyzing a persuasive letter
a ready-made stations activity for analysing Frederick dogulss ‘What to the American Slave is 4th July’ speech
a ready-made stations activity for article analysis
PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES PRESENTATION
This fully editable 38-slide presentation offers an in-depth look into the most commonly used rhetorical devices, including:
alliteration, anecdote, rhetorical questions, imperative, personal pronouns, exaggeration/hyperbole, facts, opinions, repetition, emotive language, statistics and triplets/list of three.
The presentation contains information about the definition, examples and effects of every technique.
This helps students understand:
what the technique is
how it’s used in everyday speech and literature
and how it helps persuade the reader to agree with the author
The pack also includes 8 pages of detailed teacher’s notes.
PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES POSTERS
All 12 beautiful and informative posters include the definition of the technique, several examples (from everyday speech and literature) and the possible effects the use of the technique has on the reader (how it helps persuade the reader).
The posters are an excellent visual reminder that helps students review and revise the key elements of persuasive writing.
ADVERTISEMENT ANALYSIS PROJECT
This exciting infomercial analysis project helps students apply their persuasive analysis skills by analyzing infomercials featuring well-known celebrities and familiar products.
The project includes:
a step-by-step guide
a detailed graphic organizer for guided analysis
a curated YouTube playlist with 14 carefully-chosen infomercials
a grading rubric
PERSUASIVE LETTER ANALYSIS WORKSHEETS
With these worksheets, students analyze how writers adapt their letters to their target audience and how they use persuasive appeals and techniques.
The lesson includes:
an original persuasive letter
a set of worksheets for analyzing appealing to target audience, use of persuasive appeals and use of persuasive techniques (print and digital versions)
teacher instructions
detailed answer keys (print and digital versions)
A FREE BONUS:
My original videos on persuasive techniques: Persuasive techniques playlist
Each video contains the definition, examples from everyday life and famous persuasive texts and effects the technique has on the readers. Excellent as exam-prep or simple revision.
For more videos focusing on reading and writing skills and exam prep, subscribe to my YouTube channel.
If you like this bundle, please leave a review!
How many times have you seen your students using the same commonly confused words wrongly? It can be so frustrating seeing them struggle with the same problem again and again. This resource, consisting of a well-structured presentation and engaging worksheets, helps your students finally understand the differences between tricky word pairs such as effect/affect, lie/lay and accept/except.
Key Features:
**Presentation Power:
The 50-slide presentation focuses on 10 commonly confused word pairs. It provides the spelling, part of speech, definition and examples of each word. The words are explained in pairs, enabling students to compare and contrast the words in each pair. This is followed by further examples that help students use the words in real-life contexts.
**Interactive Worksheets: **
Our worksheets encourage active learning and practice. Each word pair is explored through different exercises, allowing your students to apply their newfound knowledge and reinforce their understanding. From fill-in-the-blanks to creative sentence creation, these worksheets cater to diverse learning styles and abilities. They follow the presentation closely and can be used later as useful reference material for further practice and revision.
**Versatile Usage: **
Whether you’re an ELA or ESL educator, this resource is adaptable to both settings. Its comprehensive approach ensures that students of varying language proficiency levels can benefit from a stronger grasp of commonly confused words.
Word pairs included in this resource:
lay/lie, lose/loose, compliment/complement, advice/advise, stationary/stationery, allude/elude, accept/except, further/farther, affect/effect, and principle/principal.
These beautiful posters help your students finally understand the differences between tricky commonly confused word pairs such as effect/affect, lie/lay and accept/except.
Key Features:
The posters focus on 10 commonly confused word pairs. Each poster provides the spelling, part of speech, definition and examples of each word. The words are explained in pairs, enabling students to compare and contrast the words in each pair.
Versatile Usage: Whether you’re an ELA or ESL educator, this resource is adaptable to both settings. Its comprehensive approach ensures that students of varying language proficiency levels can benefit from a stronger grasp of commonly confused words.
Word pairs included in this resource:
lay/lie, lose/loose, compliment/complement, advice/advise, stationary/stationery, allude/elude, accept/except, further/farther, affect/effect, and principle/principal.
This stations activity pack helps students analyze the literary and rhetorical devices in one of the greatest speeches Frederick Douglass’, his 4th July speech.
In this engaging activity, students collaborate to analyze the use of different persuasive devices and figures of speech in five extracts from Douglass’ speech.
In this collaborative environment, they are able to work together to do a rigorous in-depth analysis of some of the most prominent parts of the speech, examining how Douglass addressed his audience and modified his tone to persuade his readers that slavery is an abhorrent practice.
Included in this activity pack are:
A short presentation about Frederick Douglass and his 4th July speech
Five passages of Frederick Douglass’ 4h July speech in color OR in black-and-white for easy printing
Five full-color worksheets to accompany the passages OR five black-and white task cards
Station numbers (in color OR black and white)
Teacher instructions
Student instructions
Detailed answer keys for all worksheets/task cards
The materials are all ready to go, just print and you’re off to class!
Intermediate and upper-intermediate students often resort to simple vocabulary for describing people.
This presentation and matching card game will help them learn new vocabulary to describe people with easy and precision!
This fully editable no-prep activity includes high-quality photos of diverse people to engage students and help them improve their vocabulary and speaking skills-
Instructions:
Turn on the projector and you’re ready!
Show students the photo of a person and ask them to describe him/her using the vocabulary hey already know. Then show the next slide with the photo accompanied by new words and phrases. Elicit or explain the meaning of the phrases.
At the end, practice the vocabulary using the matching cards game or start over and have students describe people using the new words that they’ve learned.
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Knowing genre conventions is an important aspect of being able to write well. This comprehensive booklet offers detailed information about the typical features of newspaper articles, as well as practical exercises for reading articles.
This resource contains:
Text features of newspaper articles
Layout features
Dos and don’ts of article introductions
Language features
Article reading skills worksheet with questions that work with any article
Sample article + worksheet + key
Additional article resources
Writing, structure and resource tips
If you like this booklet, please leave a review.
If you have any questions, I’m always happy to help!
Find me on YouTube: youtube.com/englilearn
This resource provides free templates for hexagonal thinking activities that can be used in any classroom to help students make meaningful connections, engage in productive discussions and foster critical thinking skills.
Hexagonal thinking is a strategy that helps students understand how different concepts are connected to each other.
It helps students think critically and analyze different aspects of a certain phenomenon or situation.
It can be used in a variety of different subjects to consolidate learning, foster higher level thinking skills and even assess hat they have learned.
The resource includes:
blank hexagon templates that can be used in any class for virtually any lesson
arrow templates for students t indicate the most important connections
worksheets for students to explain their thinking
This is an open-ended activity. There are no right or wrong answers. The students can come up with any arrangement of hexagons that makes sense to them, as long as they are able to explain their thinking and justify their choices by making logical and meaningful connections.
Instructions
Print out as many copies of the hexagonal thinking activity sheets as you need (students can work individually, in pairs or in groups
Write the terms you want to include on the hexagons and cut out the hexagons
Explain to the students that they need to arrange the hexagons in a meaningful manner to show the connections between the terms
Showcase some examples of finished hexagon networks to demonstrate what the final product should look like; there are no right or wrong answers, but the connections need to be meaningful and logical
Explain to the students that they need to choose three or six (as many as you want) connections which they will explain in more detail
Hand out the hexagons, arrows and explanation sheets
Monitor as your engaged students lead meaningful discussions, make connections and explain their thinking
After they’re finished, you can ask members of each group to present one or two of the connections they chose to explain in more detail
As an extension activity, you can ask students to engage in a class-wide discussion about the issue
Check out other hexagonal thinking resources:
Environment - a hexagonal thinking discussion activity
School shootings - a hexagonal thinking discussion activity
Jobs and career - hexagonal thinking discussion activity
Health and fitness - a hexagonal thinking discussion activity