KAS ELA Standard: RL.1.7

Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.

Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!

Starting with an old-timey photo, students will write from a particular item’s point of view.

Have you ever noticed that some stories have awfully similar problems? What if we looked for the most unusual way of solving a repeating problem?

Get your students writing some pretty darn impressive poetry based on Japan’s most famous artist.

Look closely at Twilight in the Wilderness. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

What is the Brick Pig’s philosophy? How would he apply it to the characters in Harry Potter?

Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.

What’s going on in this painting? Who is that guy? What’s his job? And where’s his other boot?

What’s going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let’s make some inferences!

What are these two women up to? What’s that thing she’s holding? Let’s make some inferences!

Let’s give our students an art history lesson while teaching them how to enhance their drawings using one-point perspective.

A passage from The Velveteen Rabbit to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?

A passage from The Wind in the Willows to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!

How do characters from novels line up with Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?

Nothing could possibly go wrong with a love potion on the loose!

The story of the Fabergé Eggs is heartbreaking. It’s also the perfect way to build empathy in your classroom.

Let’s write a summary. A very short summary. With VERY strict rules.

Take direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.

A typical student narrative includes plot and characters but lacks a larger idea to hold it all together. This is where a lesson on themes comes in…

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.