DIGITAL ONE PAGERS
One pagers aren’t just for paper! When learning remotely or using devices, one pagers can be the perfect opportunity to help students both respond to reading AND acquire new digital skills. Whether students are analyzing literature or informational texts, this one pager bundle has a variety of tools to engage older learners visually and digitally.
If you use these reading response activities with distance learning, try allowing students choice in the literature or article they read, and give them a few days to complete the task so that you get to see their best work!
SELF-GRADING GRAMMAR
Self-grading grammar is wonderful for a few reasons:
- You don’t grade the material.
- You get instant feedback from students.
- You can immediately know what students need to review and where students are excelling.
- You don’t grade the material.
All joking aside, I’ve been using Google Quizzes for awhile now because the feedback is unbelievable. After students take the quiz (which you totally don’t have to assign as a quiz), Google will tell you who missed what questions, the class percentage, and who has not finished the assignment. With all of that data, I can differentiate so that each student is challenged. You can see a variety of self-grading grammar, and if you want to experiment, you can download an activity for free.
PLAYLIST WRITING REFLECTION
One way to capture students’ interest with writing is to incorporate music. At the end of the year, I like having students reflect on how they’ve grown. We use music to put together a thematic sound track for their year, and they write a response that incorporates some of the grammatical skills we have studied. However, you really can use this assignment (My Playlist) at any point during the year.
DIGITAL LITERARY ANALYSIS
I created over fifty digital pieces for students to build their own literary analysis. With student choice, you’ll be able to see where students need pushed for further analysis or prompted to analyze a section closely. If you use this activity for distance learning, you might give students only a few of the analytical questions (I’ve provided ten).
EMAIL ETIQUETTE LESSON
What better writing lesson for online learning than to teach students the etiquette of an eloquent email? This email etiquette lesson is one students always enjoy. Plus, I LOVE hearing teachers comment on how much they appreciate receiving well-articulated communication from students. With writing, students don’t always see immediate growth. Using this email etiquette unit, however, they DO! And, it’s rewarding for everyone involved. You can read the reviews for the original print version of the resource here.
GRAMMAR TEXTBOOK
After I wrote my book a few years ago, teachers requested a digital book that they could share year after year. I created a modern grammar textbook so that teachers had a home base for grammar lessons and so that parents could help students at home.
The grammar textbook covers the “nuts and bolts” of English language without jargon. You may share it with students on Google Classroom or through email, but you may not display it on the web for public access. It’s my way of making grammar accessible for all.
READING STRATEGIES
Keep students on their toes with reading! Yes, reading volume is important, but it’s also important that we encourage students to be active readers and to employ the strategies that will help them dig deeper in the text. These digital reading strategy graphic organizers are versatile. Use them with fiction or nonfiction. They’re succinct. Plus, you can offer choice and differentiate.
ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS
I teach ethos, pathos, and logos with argumentative writing, with public speaking lessons, with Julius Caesar. . .
Students should be aware that the media, specifically commercials, use tools to influence their beliefs and spending habits. By watching authentic commercials, students will see persuasive techniques in action.
VOCABULARY ORGANIZERS
Students can continue to build their vocabulary knowledge digitally. Allow them to select words that are meaningful to them, or pre-select some from whole-class texts. This free template will help students stay organized.
VOCABULARY PRACTICE
What are your favorite vocabulary words? What are your students’ favorite words? Working digitally is the perfect time to ask students for their favorite words and then build a unit from them. If you’d like to get started, you can can download this free vocabulary activity as a starting point.
Digital language arts activities can bring success to distance learning or the regular classroom. These are teacher-tested and successful lessons for our students.
TELL US! What digital tools do you need to get through the school year? We are currently modifying and adding to our products to give you all free updates!