Playing Cards in English Class [Sentence Structure]

Remember playing the easy, yet frustrating card game "WAR"? Almost everyone seems to know the rules. Highest card wins! If there is a tie, then you battle it out with 3 more cards and flip over the new card on top. Who wins the battle? The highest card!

I took this simple game idea and merged it with our current topic in class--sentence structure. Since there are four types of sentences, there are four levels of cards. Simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Obviously, the students need to be well-versed in sentence structure for this game, so it works wonders as a review for a test or a class activity.

The cards all consist of various sentence pulled from books out of our class library. Students works in pairs to identity the sentence structure as they flip over their top card. The teacher plays the role as referee--some of the cards are tricky! You can differentiate the game by allowing students to use their notes on structure, too!

If a particular class isn't quite ready for the card game, I also have the same cards placed into a digital review game with answers included on the next slide.

Feel free to check out this product on TpT:My TpT store (MClaSSy)    Sentence Structure Review Game

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Color-Coded Text Evidence Template  

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Fun with F.R.I.E.N.D.S. sentence structure activity!

Task Cards for Coordinate Adjectives (7th grade CCSS standard)

Simple Clip Art for Mystery Novels

End of Year Creative Writing: Showcase those writing skills! Write a group play which incorporates figurative language and other writing skills covered during the year!

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Fairy Tales: Writing with Dependent Clauses!

Everyone loves fairy tales, right? Get your students excited about adding some flair to their writing! Students begin by writing a short fairy tale--and they end with adding dependent clauses.
Students immediately put their knowledge of sentence structure and clauses into action with this lesson. Give it a try!

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Writing Complex Sentences with Fairy Tales Lesson on TpT

Word of the Week Program

word of the week display

On Mondays, as our bell work, the students are presented with the "Word of the Week". We do the typical dictionary hunt, discuss prefixes/suffixes when necessary, use examples sentences, and create our own examples.

However, I encourage students to use the WOW in their writing.  On our WOW sheets, there is a box set aside for a teacher signature. Students earn a point for successfully using a WOW in their major writing pieces. Several students are using the WOW in their journal entries, too!

As an added bonus--If students come across a WOW in their everyday reading, they fill out a word bubble with the word used in the sentence. See images below.

I selected the WOW list based on words that middle school students should know and words I've always found interesting.

Quarter One:

abominable

luminous

adroitly

camaraderie

rapscallion

jabber

barricade

charisma

egregious

Quarter Two:

uncanny

swagger

attentive

fastidiously

apprehensive

behoove

nostalgia

adversary

monotonous

Classroom Set-up 2014-2015

Hey All! I wanted to post a quick tour of the classroom this year. This should eventually lead to a few post that describe my W.o.W program as well as the "Breaking Dreadful Writing Habits" program, too!

Still stuck in the stone-age...no white board! I use dry erase markers to write on the chalk board. A "magic eraser" works well to erase :) 

This is our homework board! To the right of the day of the week is the homework for the night. To the left, we usually list important information about that day or if they should BYOT.

Learning Objectives: I teach 7th grade English--usually we work on the same standard for weeks at a time. 

Do you post learning objectives in your classroom? It is part of out OTES evaluation. We need to include the standard covered along with an "I can" statement.

Our writing folders. Students will keep their published writing in these folders during the school year.

We often go back to our own writing from the beginning of the year to reapply recent knowledge. For instance, the students will go back to their writing from 1st or 2nd quarter and revise their writing to include different sentence structure.

Dreadful Writing Habits (A year-long process of breaking bad writing habits)

The Dreadful Writing Habits are mini-lessons that we complete in our WNB a few times a quarter. Students learn how to fix these habits and go back to revise their previous writing. We post the habit on this bulletin board to remind them of the habits we have completed. Once we complete a habit, they are to avoid it for the rest of the year (in all their classes)!

Formal vs. Informal writing poster. We use this posted as reference when we start a new writing piece. We always discuss whether our writing should be formal or informal before we begin. Students have a similar copy of this chart in their WNB.

Become a Prepositional Phrase Detective!

Need an exciting, non-time consuming activity to help students master prepositional phrases? This is the activity for you! Students use their personal books to gather prepositional phrases instead of using the boring, dry sentences from grammar textbooks!


This is a two part lesson where students play the role of detective. First, they must find examples of phrases in their books. Then, they need to analyze their peers’ index cards.

This activity is CCSS aligned and ready for your 4-8th grade classroom!


Please check out this activity on teacherspayteachers!

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MClaSSy's Prepositional Phrase Detective Activity

Beginning of the Year 2013-2014: Classroom set up

My desk and teacher/student writing conference table

Grammar Info/Common Misuses of Words charts

Assignment board on the left, we have chalk boards and I despise chalk! Good thing Expo markers work :) 

Not sure what to do with the green board yet!

I still have so much to do but I figured I would snap this photo to remind myself that this room was once clean!

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Customized Assessment Die

Hello! I cannot take credit for this idea, I saw this in another classroom, she uses this to determine "how" to grade certain assignments.

This helps to keep the kiddos on their toes, you never know which way it will roll!

Will it land on the accuracy side? Trade and Grade? Completion? Student Choice? Teacher's choice?!

I used this during my first year in the classroom and I found that students worked hard on their assignments (especially if they knew the die was involved!) just in case it was graded for accuracy...or...da da dummmmm...in case in landed on teacher's choice!

I used old cardboard boxes to make this die. I cut out 6 square pieces of cardboard, taped them together with packing tape, then wrapped it with duct tape :)

Puzzle Piece Project for Literature Circles

This Fall we finished our first literature circles. I'd say it was fairly successful! This year was trial and error considering it was the first time for everything! I took this idea from another teacher and made it my own to tie in with the unit. Each literature circle completed a puzzle poster that tied elements of the story together. This is a great project that doesn't require all of the project to be completed in class, students simply take their puzzle piece home with them to work on it!

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Life as We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Requirements:

• title piece with author and group names
• plot diagram
• favorite quotes with explanation
• main character(s) bio
• essential vocabulary (works well with science fiction and fantasy)
• favorite scene with explanation
• figurative language
• student choice
• book critique

Paper Container

"Hall Pass" paper container

I never saw the purpose of buying paper just to scribble so and so to the library or please excuse so and so for being late to class...or for that matter to waste an entire sheet of paper to make a mini to-do list....so I made these containers with a 12-pack diet coke container and they work really well!

Supplies needed: 12x12 scrapbook paper(one sheet), diet coke 12 pack, mod podge, paintbrush, scissors, tape(optional)

First, take your cola 12-pack fridge friendly container and trim it down to about 3-4" tall..this is how tall your basket will be! I chose to use packing tape to reinforce the bottom.

Next, place your trimmed cola container in the center of your 12x12 scrapbook paper sheet (face down)

Use mod podge to glue that sucker :)

Draw a straight line from the corners of the box to the edge of your paper, just do this on two sides (opposite sides) and cut on the lines. Soak the side of the box and your scrap paper with glue...

Fold over the paper and tuck inside the box :) You can see my lines weren't "perfect" but oh well!

Now let's work on the other two sides of the box. I folded the corners over like so (above) so when I wrap them around the box it looks nice! Be sure to add a generous amount of glue to the box and scrapbook paper!

In this picture I have already folded one side and glued it to the box (the back side) notice that I have a little scrapbook paper leftover on top? I will trim it!

be sure to make small cuts in the corners so you can fold the paper over into the inside of the box!....THEN trim the extra paper!

Paper is trimmed and ready to be folded...it will sort of remind you of wrapping a present at this point...or maybe even a Chinese carryout container?

I use a paper-cutter to make scrap paper to fit into these containers...perfect size for a quick "note to self" or "to do list" or hall pass!

Pretty! Inexpensive :)

ELA Student Glossary 8th Grade Terms

Materials needed: colored paper for the cover, 10-15 sheets of notebook paper, stapler, and decorative duct tape :)

In the beginning of the school year I have my students make a mini student glossary. About once a week we add terms to the glossary relating to the topic we are focusing on at the moment. Each term is complete with examples we relate to our class novel or short stories we are familiar with. All the terminology will be useful for upcoming state tests, next year's LA class, and just to use as a quick reference guide.

Terms Used This Year:

• simile
• metaphor
• theme
• foreshadowing
• credibility
• open-ended questions
• inference
• connotation
• denotation
• plot structure (exposition, complication, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution)
• character types (protagonist, antagonist, flat, round, static, dynamic, etc.)
• alliteration
• symbolism
• oxymoron
• suspense
• irony (verbal, situational, dramatic)
• allusion
• idiom
• conflict in literary work
• tone
• mood
• ...more to come!

The Cay by Theodore Taylor

During a long term position I got to read The Cay as a class. It's a really good read (for the 6th grade) and there was something I thought I would give a try NEXT time I get the opportunity to do this book in class.

I would plan on dividing the class into "Teams" and doing "Team Activities" throughout the book. Here is a preliminary plan for this novel unit (just team signs and activities for now!)

This is the overview of the Team Challenges

Team Signs, I plan to Laminate these and place them on their desk/tables before we begin the novel

More The Cay activities to come! I love this book!

--Sarah

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

I got this idea while subbing at a middle school. The 6th graders were reading Roll of Thunder and their teacher played the role of narrator while assigning speaking roles to students. This works really well for this book! Later, I had the opportunity to use this in a classroom during a long-term subbing position.

Roll of Thunder "actor cards"

Students can either be randomly assigned a speaking role (using what I call their "actor cards") or volunteer for a speaking role. There are 12 chapters so plenty of opportunity for every student to have a chance to "act"! Simply place the "actor card" on the students desk during classroom reading. It helps to keep everything organized as well as keep the student on task!

Unfortunately I do not have these cards available for download, I lost the file :(
I do, however, have the list of chapters each character has a speaking role.

Stacey Logan: all
Papa Logan: 2, 7-12
Little Willie: 4,8
Little Man: all except ch. 5
Melvin Simms: 4, 10, 11
Mrs. Berry: Ch. 4
Sheriff: 11
Mae Turner: 4
Big Ma: all except 1 & 11
Mr. Granger: ch 7 & 8
Mama Logan: all except 5 and 11
Claude Avery: ch. 8
Mr. Barnett: ch. 5
R.W. Simms: ch. 10
Mr. Turner: Ch. 4
Kaleb Wallace: ch 4, 10, 11
Cassie Logan: all
Christopher-John: all except 5
Mr. Jamison: ch. 7,9,11,12
Mr. Grimes: ch. 3
Miss Crocker: ch 1 & 8
Mr. Morrison: 2, 4, 7-10, 12
Uncle Hammer: 6, 7, 10
Thurston Wallace: 11
Mr. Simms: 5, 8
Mr. Lanier: 2 & 9
May Lou: 1
Mrs. Silas Lanier: 2
T.J. Avery: all except 2 and 12
Jeremy Simms: 1,3,5,7-10,12
Mr. Avery: 2,3,9
Lillian Jean: 5,8
Mrs. Avery: 2, 11

I hope that covers everything :)

Reading Incentive Scratch Cards!

Anytime I was given the opportunity to scratch and win, I took it. I do not play the lottery, but I did not hesitate to buy a scratch ticket on my 18th birthday! Scratch and Win is ALWAYS fun and I wanted to bring this into the classroom. I got this idea from pinterest and made it my own.

These are my "Reading Incentive" scratch cards!

Just place contact paper OVER cardstock paper, mix acrylic paint with dishwasher liquid. It will take a few layers of paint to cover the words completely!

I plan to pass out the incentive cards when students are performing beyond expectations such as doing extra enrichment activities, exceeding the reading goals, and always being prepared for reading class.

My prizes range from: Stickers, a Supply Baggie (fun school supplies), Bag of Book Worms (we looove candy!), V.I.P. seating in classroom, extra credit points, a homework pass, and the gift of a free book! Naturally some options have a higher chance of being picked, but the student is a winner every time!

Pizza Pie Plots

I took this idea from a teacher at my old middle school. She is soo creative! I wanted to create an example of this plot pizza to keep in my files. I think this project is fun and will let students' creative juices flow!

There are 8 slices. Slices 1-5 are important plot points. #6 is dedicated to the setting. #7 is the recommendation slice. #8 can be the student's choice! I made a slice showing each family member's special savvy.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Mystery is my favorite genre! I reread this book last year and tried to think of fun ways to present the information in the book. This book has quite a few characters and I remember finding it difficult to keep everyone straight. Making character cards, doing a detective notebook or "sleuth" log, and displaying the clues as we learn them may help bring the story alive!

Character Cards for The Westing Game. The front (shown) is a cartoon-like representation of the character based on the author's description. Realistic Art, unlike my brother, does not come naturally to me. I intend to put additional information on the back of the card for quick reference checks.

I know of a few teachers who use character cards for this novel as a matching game. One card (shown above) is used with the character drawing and name. The other card has character information.Click here for the Character Card 3x5 index card template Be sure to check printer options to print in the correct format.

This is my detective notebook. Small columns used to collect information on the 16 "heirs".

Each column includes: detailed description, occupation, connection to Westing, Partner (in Game), Important Facts, and do you believe he/she is a suspect?
Click here for the Detective Notebook

The "clues" as seen in the novel. I printed each clue on an index card. I plan to post the clues on a bulletin board in the classroom as we collect them!