Whats New This Week on TeacherVision

Whats New This Week on TeacherVision This week's roundup of what is new on TeacherVision including a Grammar Warm-Up Packet For Middle School Students, and A Poetry Toolbox Workbook. by Julie Mason As the month of April comes to a close, we are starting to think ahead to summer break, and reflecting on the school year. Before we get ahead of ourselves, this week we have some exciting new resources for your classroom to celebrate National Poetry Month and support students to learn and practice grammar rules. Grammar Warm-Up Packet (Middle School) Get it here A series of grammar warm-up resources was one of the top teacher requests when we sent out our latest survey. We started by creating the elementary resource, which you can download and print here, and this week we are adding the middle school resource. It can be challenging to find time to prioritize grammar instruction, but we all know that in order for students to become proficient writers, they need to know grammar rules and apply them to their own writing. I used to tell my students, “your writing loses power when it is peppered with grammatical errors,” and while we all make an occasional mistake, I believe it is essential for us to teach our students these rules. There are ten warm-ups for your students in this packet that was created by an English teacher and grammar expert. Each exercise is designed to take students from five to seven minutes, the time that is usually spent on a bellringer or activator. However, you can also use these short exercises during a Daily 5, Station Rotation, or work on them together as a whole class. A teacher’s answer key is included, and the warm-ups cover the following topics: Independent and dependent clauses Simple, compound, and complex sentences Relative pronouns Commas with compound and complex sentences Appositive and appositive phrases Modifiers Semicolons Complete sentences, fragments, and run-ons Commas for direct address Correct all the errors   Poetry Toolbox Workbook Get it here   April is National Poetry Month, and we have shared our favorite resources and tools with you throughout the month. Teaching poetry can be challenging, and this particular resource is especially helpful. Poets have a toolkit of devices that they use when they write. If one of your goals is to support your students to learn how to use poetic devices in writing their own poetry, this resource is for you. The workbook defines a poetic devices, provides an example, and then includes an exercise where students can practice using the poetic device. TeacherVision Advisory Board member, Mikaela, designed this workbook so students can read about the device, look at the example, and then complete the exercise within 5-7 minutes. It will work well as a warm-up exercise, whole class practice, or an extension for early finishers. The workbook includes the following poetic devices: Rhyme Rhythm Line Break Simile Metaphor Imagery Onomatopoeia Personification Alliteration Repetition   Did you find these resources helpful? Share with us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. ???????Julie Mason is the Head of Curriculum and Content for TeacherVision. She taught middle and high school English for eight years, and then worked as an instructional coach, supporting K-12 teachers to blend and personalize their classrooms. She has a BA in English from Connecticut College, and an MA in English Education from New York University.