Thanks for visiting my free resources! All of these have been used with success in my middle grades and/or high school ELA classrooms. I will be posting more free resources in the coming weeks, so check back soon.
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Marilyn Yung | Owner of ELA Brave and True.com
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Read my post about this free resource here: The Favorite Place Poem | Have students create content with a poem about their favorite place
This free handout contains guidelines to help students middle school and old students write a poem based on a happy or joyful experience. Read my post that discusses this resource here: How to Make Student Writing More Specific | It means to “name things”
Read my post about this free resource here: Encourage Distance Learners with Creative Color Poems | Tempt students to play with language and color
Where I’m From poems are one of my favorite poetry assignments, and one of the best ways to get kids invested in writing their own is to show them some examples written by other students. This PDF file contains four examples written by middle schoolers that will help your students adapt the structure of originator George Ella Lyon’s poem to their own personal history.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Where I’m From poems, check out this post.
Download this brief slide presentation that explains this creative, easy-to-implement activity that helps students connect to Eliot’s modern masterpiece. Read my post about this free resource here: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock | Connect to Prufrock with this easy, mindful project.
This activity is a great way to enhance your teaching of historical context for The Great Gatsby.
This free PDF file features four 8-1/2″ x 11″ posters perfect for a bulletin board about Ralph Waldo Emerson and the American Transcendentalism movement. Read Ralph Waldo Emerson for High School Students, which shows how I incorporated these quotes into an Emerson-themed bulletin board that celebrated the winter season using my student’s outdoor photography taken on a snow day! The thumbnail image above shows only one of the posters in the four-poster set.
I made this handout to show my students that — with the phrase “In other words,…” — it’s easy to explain and interpret in order to support the evidence they introduce into their writing. Better interpretation equals better idea development, which I feel is something that nearly all young writers need help with. Read my blog post, Your New Best Friend: “In Other Words” for how I use this sheet in my classes.