Once the second semester of the school year starts, it is time to focus on refining ELA skills and building on what students learned during the first semester. All of the resources included in this post include both the digital and traditional print versions.
Here is a look at 5 resources for the second semester in the secondary ELA classroom.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: Teaching Rhetorical Appeals
Whenever I teach argument writing, I like to include several lessons and activities on rhetorical appeals. When students know ethos, pathos, and logos and how to effectively use each appeal, their argument and persuasive writing become so much stronger.
This Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Teaching Unit includes an instructional presentation for direct instruction and student materials. Your students will love completing the doodle notes, and you will love the increased engagement.
Writing Spotlight Teaching Bundle
Once my students have a basic understanding of writing an essay, I then use the instructional time during the second semester to help my students fine-tune their writing. This is when Writing Spotlight mini-units come on. This writing instruction bundle includes both the print and digital resources for four focused writing unit:
- Writing about the quote (writing commentary)
- Writing in the third person
- Writing in the literary present
- Focusing on embedding quotes (emphasis places on ellipses and brackets)
Each mini-unit includes an instructional presentation for direct instruction and student materials. In my classroom, I like to focus on one area of improvement with each major writing assignment.
Teaching Active and Passive Voice
Another way to help students improve their writing craft is by teaching them the differences between active and passive voice. And let me tell you, students struggle with this one. The second semester of the school year is the perfect time to teach students about voice because they are ready to grow as writers. This unit includes an instructional presentation for direct instruction and student materials.
Colon and Semi-Colons Teaching Unit
Punctuation can be challenging, especially colons and semicolons. However, when students learn the rules of how to use the colon and semicolon correctly, they can improve their writing so much by now being able to write with even more sentence variety. Not only will learning how to use a semicolon and colon properly help students with their writing, but they can also use this knowledge when embedding quotes in their writing. This unit includes an instructional presentation for direct instruction and student materials.
The Graphic Essay
This is one of my favorite multimedia and writing projects for secondary ELA! Once students understand writing and argument writing, I like to incorporate some college and career readiness skills for projects like this graphic essay. This graphic essay assignment is a two-page, double-sided graphic essay. Students present all of the elements of an argument essay into a visually appealing graphic.
ELA Teaching Bundles for the Secondary ELA Classroom
I discount all of my teaching bundles to provide teachers with even more savings. Here are some of my biggest discounted bundles.
Secondary ELA Curriculum (Digital and Print)
My digital and print secondary ELA curriculum includes 120 teaching resources. Since these resources are aligned to the common core curriculum and have built-in scaffolding and differentiation, teachers can use these resources in grades 7-10. My secondary ELA curriculum bundle includes teacher resources for teaching all of the strands of writing (argument, narrative, informational, and research), grammar and punctuation, literary analysis, vocabulary, and more!
Parts of Speech Teaching Unit: Digital and Print
When it comes to teaching secondary ELA, I’ve discovered that so many students lack foundational parts of speech understanding. Knowing the parts of speech is a crucial element for becoming a stronger writer. When I created these parts of speech units, I made them with middle school and high school kids in mind. Each part of speech unit contains a teaching presentation for direct instruction, student activities, and assessments.
Academic Vocabulary Teaching Program: Digital and Print
One of the best ways to help students succeed academically is by assisting them in growing their academic vocabulary knowledge. By knowing and understanding words commonly found in an educational setting, students will gain more confidence in their academic abilities. My Academic Vocabubulary Teaching Unit includes 9 different academic vocabulary units. Each unit includes five weeks of focused academic vocabulary instruction and activities.
Short Story Close Reading Bundle: Digital and Print
One of the best ways to teach short stories in the secondary ELA classroom is to slow down, closely read passages, and focus on just a couple of literary devices at a time. That is exactly what this teaching bundle does. This short story close reading and analysis unit includes seven different short stories. Each short story activity includes carefully selected passages for close reading and literary analysis, guided analysis questions, and a final literary analysis writing prompt.
Mega Grammar Bundle for Secondary ELA: Digital and Print
This mega grammar bundle includes 44 print and digital grammar teaching resources for middle school ELA and high school English teachers. This grammar teaching resource includes teaching materials for the parts of speech, punctuation, sentence structure, and themed grammar worksheets that are perfect for sub days!
