Using Holiday Ads in the Classroom

During the holidays, advertisers ramp up their advertising, luring buyers to their stores. They'll use colorful, vivid words to snag new customers, which actually works in YOUR favor, English teachers! You can use their ads to teach a number of lessons.

1. CHANCE (or DADA) POEMS: Cut up the words and use them for an impromptu poetry writing session. I like to store the words in little plastic baggies and use them when we have time left at the end of the period. I'll have students work in groups and prompt them to create a poem based on the lesson we just practiced (or the book/story/character we are reading). Or if there is a fun event coming up (a holiday, a dance, etc.), have them create a poem related to the event. Give them a limited time to create a poem, then have each group share with the class.

2. PARTS OF SPEECH REVIEW: Have students cut out the words themselves*, only with a twist--require students to find an example of each part of speech (noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection). You can make it a contest and see who can come up with the most (and the most interesting). *If the words are already cut out, they can just each take a baggie full and sort them by part of speech.

3. REVIEW IDIOMS AND CLICHÉS: Ads are perfect for containing overused idioms and clichés. Introduce and/or review the figurative phrases with your students. Have them find their own in the ads, old magazines, or in newspaper headlines.

4. ANALYZE THE MERIT OF MARKETING: Have students look over the ads, analyzing the marketing techniques used, including the word choices and design/aesthetics (colors, font, and placement of words and products on the page). Which phrases stood out to them? Which did they pay little attention to? Were others more effective? Why?

5. ANALYZE TARGET AUDIENCES: As students look over the ads, ask them to evaluate who might the target audience be for the ad. How did they come to that conclusion? Which words and/or phrases did they use as clues? Do the ads stereotype?

I've been using ads and newspapers in my classroom for years. If you do not have access to a newspaper or magazines, check with your media specialist to see if she/he has older copies that can be saved for you. Also, your school may be eligible for Newspapers in Education. It's a wonderful program that supplies classrooms with copies of newspapers, which are paid for by donations from local businesses.

My Magnetic Poetry Kit is also an option for activities #1 and #2 if you don't have access to newspapers or magazines.

You can keep collecting the ads through the spring: Valentine's Day ads are perfect for love-inspired poems; there's also President's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and so on... Each holiday will offer different flavors of language to suit the occasion.

COMING SOON: Handouts for each of these activities, which will be included in my POETRY BUNDLE (a bundle of ALL of my poetry-related resources...past, present, and future!)

Back to School Sale: Secondary Teachers Blast From the Past Yearbook

  Oh, remember the days of middle and high school? How much simpler life was back then? Join your fellow secondary teachers for a blast-from-the-past celebration as TeachersPayTeachers kicks of its Back-to-School sale early this year!

  Life can be simpler for you using resources made by teachers.  The TeachersPayTeachers back-to-school sale is August 4th and 5th (yes, this coming week!). Use the code BTS14 at checkout to get the best savings.

  Stock up on tons of back-to-school/beginning of the year resources, classroom decor, Common Core-aligned lessons, activities, lesson planning, and so much more.

Special thanks to Danielle Knight who compiled all the secondary teacher's pictures and made the *totally awesome* photo above. Comment below with your graduation year (if you dare!) and attach a link to your favorite photo from school (optional...but it's so fun to see all the old pics!).

Here's mine (well, probably not my favorite, but it's my senior picture):

It took me hours to crimp, curl, and tease that hair. I hope big hair is never back in style... 

You'll find everything you need for a successful school year in these secondary stores:

2 Peas and a Dog 

21st Century Math Projects

4mulaFun 

A Space to Create

Addie Williams

All Things Algebra 

Charlene Tess 

Connie 

Created by Mr. Hughes

Danielle Knight

Darlene Anne 

FisherRena Education

For the Love of Teaching Math

James Whitaker

Juggling ELA 

Kate’s Classroom Café

Live. Love. Math

Liz’s Lessons

Making it as a Middle School Teacher

Margaret Whisnant

Michele Luck’s Social Studies

Miss Math Dork

Mrs. S

Pamela Kranz

Science Stuff

Secondary Solutions

Teaching FSL

Teaching High School Math

Teaching Math by Hart

The Career Ready Teacher

The Classroom Sparrow

The Creative Classroom

The SuperHERO Teacher

The Tutor House

Tracee Orman

Who Needs Common Core Resources?

If you've been wondering what happened to my blogs this summer, well...I've been a little bit busy. But the time spent was well worth it! My fellow online teacher-authors at TeachersPayTeachers put together these fabulous back-to-school eBooks chock full of tips for implementing the Common Core State Standards. Not only that, each page includes a link to a free download that is aligned to a specific standard (or standards). If you need additional materials, there's more links to priced products and each page states which standards they practice.

It can't get any easier than this for finding all the Common Core resources you'll need this school year. 

So click on the links below to start downloading some fabulous materials:

Common Core English Language Arts: Free Back-to-School eBook for Grades 6-12

Common Core Science: Free Back-to-School eBook for Grades 6-12

Common Core Social Studies: Free Back-to-School eBook for Grades 6-12

Common Core Math: Free back-to-School eBook for Grades 6-12

Common Core English Language Arts: Free Back-to-School eBook for Grades 3-5

Common Core Math: Free Back-to-School eBook for Grades 3-5

Common Core Math: Free Back-to-School eBook for Grades K-2

Common Core English Language Arts: Free Back-to-School eBook for Grades K-2

Special thanks to all the contributors to the eBooks and the clip artists, as well.  

We hope you all have a great school year!

Seven End-of-the-Year Writing Prompts for High School Seniors

As your seniors begin the last few weeks of their high school careers, they will probably be experiencing many emotions. Excited to graduate, stressed for finals, anxious to begin a new life. To help ease their anxiety, carve out a little time for a meaningful writing assignment. Try one of these short prompts:

1. "Remember when..." - Who doesn't like to reminisce once in a while? Have your students write as many "Remember when..." statements about their school days and classmates. Allow them to share with their classmates. You could also collect their writing and make copies for each student. For a paperless option, create a Google Document and share it with them. Each student can contribute their own "Remember when..." statements.

2. "My Favorite Quote..." - Have your students share their favorite quotes. Prompt them to elaborate on why that particular quote speaks to them. Some will already know their favorite quote, but others may need help. Here are some websites with compilations of quotes that may help:
  • Brainy Quote
  • Good Quotations by Famous People (Compiled by Dr. Gabriel Robins)
  • A Collection of Quotes and More Pinterest Board
As an enrichment, students can type their favorite quote into a word-cloud generator (try www.wordle.net or www.tagxedo.com). They can print the images and hang their quotes in the classroom as a reminder of the inspirational words they have chosen.

3. Live & Learn and Pass It On: "I Have Learned..." - I've written about this activity several times; it's no surprise that it is one of my favorites each year. Based on H. Jackson Browne Jr.'s book, students write a "life lesson" they have learned. Examples include: "I have learned that being nice to the lunch ladies pays off with extra helpings of food," and "I have learned that my senior year went by way too fast. If I could have a do-over, I'd enjoy it more and stress less." If you want to use the lesson I created for this assignment, you can download it free here: Life Lessons Writing Freebie

4. Best Advice Received &/or Best Advice to Pass Along - First, students write about the best advice they've received in the past four years. What made it the "best"? Did they follow it? Or wish they had? Next, or as an alternative prompt, they write a message of advice to incoming freshmen. What do they wish they had known? Would they pass along advice they had been given? How would advice to an incoming freshman differ from advice they would leave to the current junior class?

5. "My Legacy..." - Ask students, "What is your legacy?" What are they leaving behind for others? This is a good reflective prompt because it makes students think about how they have impacted the lives of others. Perhaps it is a memory of something they did in school--an accomplishment they achieved or how they made a group of students laugh. Maybe they served as an example, whether it was positive or negative (one of my former students who had been expelled for a year wrote about that experience and hoped others would learn from his mistakes). Maybe it is a tangible item, such as a trophy in the cabinet, a seat in the cafeteria, a parking space, a locker, or a tree planted on campus. How will others benefit from their legacy? If they struggle with this, ask them what they would like to leave behind if they had no limitations. Or maybe the underlying question here is: how do they want to be remembered by future students? Or do they want to remembered at all? If not, why not?

6. Senior Will - I remember my old high school year yearbook printing up "senior wills" on the last page of the yearbook. Each senior "willed" something to another student, a teacher or staff member, or the administration. Perhaps the reason it was dropped before I entered high school was that some responses like "Jack wills his sense of humor to Mr. Doe because he clearly needs it" were not appropriate or respectful. But some of them were great, like "Jane wills her artistic abilities to the incoming freshmen so they can beat the other classes in the Homecoming float-building contest." If you think your students can handle this (as far as maturity), it is a fun activity. But if it becomes a way to make fun of others, move on to a different activity.

7. "What's Hot? What's Not?" - Another favorite activity, have students create Hot/Not lists for their high school career. They could start a list on the white board (or on a shared Google Doc) of events or happenings that were "hot" (or great) and "not" over the past four years. "Hot" items might include winning a championship, filming a "Harlem Shake" video, or participating in a poetry cafe. "Not" items may include state testing/final exams (or any high-stakes test), losing a close game, or perhaps losing a classmate. The lists they generate are great discussion starters, but also help students cope with feelings they may still be holding on to. I use my "What's Hot? What's Not?" activity in class for additional purposes, as well. You can download it free in my teacher store.

You'll also want to read:

10 Thoughtful and Inexpensive Graduation Gifts for Students

It's The Lesson Cloud Dollar Days Back-to-School Sale AND a Giveaway!

The Dollar Days Sale & Giveaway sponsored by The Lesson Cloud!

The Lesson Cloud authors are presenting a big Dollar Days sale this week! PLUS, you can win a $75 gift card to Really Good Stuff in our Back-to-School Giveaway!
You can get great deals on so many teacherspayteachers lessons, activities, printables, and other teaching resources for just $1 or $2. But it's only happening Sunday, July 29th and Monday, July 30th, so you'll need to put those items on your wish list or add to your cart so you don't forget.

To see all the great resources that will be marked down and to enter the $75 giveaway gift card, go to 

The Lesson Cloud Dollar Days

There you can click on the grade-level resources that are marked at super discounts and enter our giveaway!

  I will be marking down several products, including:

Grades 6-12: 
Common Core Graphic Organizers for Grades 9-10
Using Silly Shapes/Bands Bracelets to Teach Symbolism
Mockingjay Novel Unit Supplemental Activities/Lessons
The Life & Times of Shakespeare Powerpoint Presentation
 MLA Citations & Works Cited Student Help/Cheat Sheet 
Character Olympics - The Summer Games


Grades K-4:

  Create an Award Craftivity
Writing Lines Commercial & Personal-Use Clip Art (For handwriting practice) 

Clip Art:

More Seusstastic (Dr. Seuss-themed) Frames, Borders, Backgrounds

Writing Lines Commercial & Personal-Use Clip Art  (For handwriting practice)

Line-Art (or outline) Adults/Teachers Cartoon Characters Clip Art Package

Thanks to Hilary Lewis for designing the cute logo at the top!
Check out her blog {HERE}.

Back to School Sale!

Are you ready for back to school? Stock up on resources from August 1st through the 6th and save 20% off everything in my teacher store! This includes all my novel units, presentations, and even my shipped CDs! Make sure you use the TeachersPayTeachers sale code at checkout: B1T1S

What do you think of the new TeachersPayTeachers website? It's a new look for a new year! Enjoy!