English & Language Arts Teacher BlogThis blog is for secondary English, ELA, and language arts teachers filled with lesson plans, humor, product recommendations, teaching ideas, tips, and tricks and much more! Here we go! Helpful Stuff The “Pygmalion effect” is when a teacher’s expectation causes student performance to rise to that expectation. It’s based on psychological research by Robert Rosenthal during the 1960s. Even though we can go back and forth with what was flawed in this study or if later research shows different results, I think we all have experience in this sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: if we expect better from our students they will do better. Let’s keep this in the forefront of our mind as we lead and teach this week!
Here’s a Youtube video explaining how the activity works and the cases involved! You can read about this lesson and activity in more detail on this blog post here, download a free preview here, or buy the activity on TPT here! A Little Inspiration Check out this compelling video: Alan Watts: “What If Money Was No Object?” In this video, Alan Watts explains: “When we finally got down to something, which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.” This video is a valuable for reflection to us as adults as it is to our students. I have used this video as a writing prompt for all of my English classes from grade 6 all the way up to my high school seniors.
It has never once disappointed me because it really gets a discussion going on what happiness is, what their goals are in life, and what they would like to do after graduation. The reflection alone is worth 1 million times the time spent watching the four-minute video. As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! Leave a comment with Facebook below or can always message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world, Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here!  Hello, Teacher Superheroes! I wanted to share one of my best lessons and activities that I have ever created. It’s called “Criminal Trials and Convictions, Students as Lawyers” and for the past 10 years since I created this activity, class periods have flown by! Directions/synopsis: Students will get the opportunity to be lawyers and prosecute or defend an accused person in a criminal trial (11 cases total). Each group will consist of 2 lawyers (prosecuting and defending), and an accused person (3 students total). The teacher will act as the judge and guide the jury as they vote on the verdict. The majority vote determines the verdict. This activity includes the following types of cases:
The activity bundle includes:
To get students more comfortable to argue in court, these powerful courtroom scenes from movies are perfect! (I strongly recommend previewing each clip in its entirety to make sure it is appropriate for your audience). Here are the clips: For the past 10 years since I wrote this engaging lesson and activity, class periods have flown by and students forget that they’re actually learning because we’re having so much fun! Here’s a YouTube video explaining how the activity works and the cases involved! Please leave a comment with Facebook below, email us here, or message us on Facebook here and let us know how it went in your classroom!
Students even forget that they’re actually working and learning because we’re having so much fun! Click here to download a preview of the lesson and here to get it at TPT! As always —keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here!
Back at it again!
But First, A Chuckle! Devin Siebold: “What Teaching is Like Today”
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The “what” might be explicitly required in your curriculum and/or scope and sequence but the “how” is open for your creativity on how to reach students and help them learn. Not every lesson needs to be a masterpiece (because let’s face it, some lessons are better as whole-group instruction) but even just little tweaks or 1-2 more options the “how” part can will yield incredible results for you and more importantly, your students and their learning. For example, readying and studying a theatrical play while reinforcing the growth mindset principles could include reading a summary of the overall play and then having a student or group of students focus on a scene or two from an act and having them display their understanding and mastery of the standards through a skit, a song, a freestyle rap, an animated video, a comic strip, a podcast episode, or any of the other millions of creative options students have at their disposal. The key here to model the growth mindset would be clearly-defined check-in points, where the teacher would check in with the students and give constructive feedback that models a growth mindset: “You guys are on your way to really getting this down! Have you thought about trying ____ or ____?” “Remember this a process, and it can get messy sometimes but we are all students, myself included, and we are getting better every day.” Having the students struggle appropriately during class will reinforce the idea that learning involves struggle and that it’s OK because that results in growth. It might also help to explicitly have conversations about the learning process and how each student’s struggles might be unique to that student but that all they’re struggling is helping them develop a growth mindset. Journaling would also be a great option for them to reflect their stumbling blocks and how they overcame them, or at least brainstorm their plans of attack to reach their goal. Remember Teachers: you are the captain of your ship, you steer and navigate a lot more and in a much more powerful way than you may think!
Just like before, this is an affiliate link meaning Amazon may give us a small commission if you do decide to buy these awesome little notebooks.
A Little Inspiration I recently had an experience with a student (we’ll call her “Riley”) that really lacked motivation and was doing everything and anything except the actual schoolwork. At first I was very upset and annoyed because here I was bending over backwards to help Riley succeed academically and it felt like a slap in the face. Like she didn’t appreciate anything I was doing and didn’t care enough to do the work. I took two days to cool off and to be able to respond more rationally, as well as observe more closely what exactly she was and wasn’t doing. When I saw her again, I realized she had spoken to the principal, who had already made contact with Riley’s mom. When she came to my class, Riley was very upset that her mom was being involved. I explain to her that we reach out to the students first and if they are responsible and can resolve the issue themselves, we would all be happy to end it there. (Of course, we would discuss it in the following parent/teacher conference, but would not be a big fuss for the time being.) I also explained that since most students don’t have the maturity to resole the situation on their own, it usually ended up with parental contact. I consider this a huge win for me approached this discussion in a new way of explaining that I knew she was capable of more things and can work hard to do better than the expectations. I also explained that parental contact goes both ways and if she did well I would reach out to mom and let her know. This completely changed the tone of our conversation —she was excited to get a good phone call from school for what seemed to me the first time. I am happy to say that that day Riley did TWO more activities than what was expected and the look of pride and accomplishment on her face was worth my two days’ struggle of trying to figure out how to solve the problem. I called home and mom was elated to hear that her daughter had done very well that day. I also mentioned the slight struggle with motivation but told her what I was doing to help Riley stay focused and motivated including: one-on-one daily conferences/coaching sessions and frequent progress checks to let her know how she was doing that day. Of course I know not every situation can work out like this but it was a nice win for me that will hopefully carry over to future students and situations where I need to approach it with giving the student the benefit of the doubt and keeping my ego and emotions in check. As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! You can always message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! Want to catch up on past messages? They’re on our blog right here! Let’s get it started! But First, A Chuckle! This has been around for a while but is still hilarious! Helpful Stuff Helping students understand the power of the word “yet” is a needle-moving thing that can really change the culture of your classroom! It is unbelievably important that we try to catch as many limiting beliefs as possible when said out loud so we can start little by little, day by day, instance by instance, to really change at a subconscious level the words that hold our kids back. Some examples are: Them: “I can’t do this!” You: “—Yet!” Them: “I’m not good at ______!” You: “—Yet!” Them: “I can’t do this!” You: “—Yet!” Try to catch and rephrase these kinds of statements as much as you can and you will see inevitable changes in the your students’ attitudes toward the beautiful struggle of learning and in your classroom culture as a whole! This is something I’m really focusing on right now and hope to build the habit so it becomes automatic and roll right into next year. Recommendations Here is the 20/20/20 formula for bullet-proofing your morning and getting you primed to make the rest of your day a success from my unofficial mentor, Robin Sharma, whose wonderful podcast I shared last week. This image does a fantastic job of breaking down how the morning formula works:  As with everything I share, please keep and use what is helpful to you and disregard the rest! I myself have sometimes changed the formula to 30 minutes of exercise and 10 of meditation, depending on what I need that particular day. Think of this more as a guiding principle than a one-size-fits-all technique! A Little Inspiration Here’s a picture of one of my whiteboards in my classroom that I have dedicated solely for quotes that promote different perspectives and help foster a growth mindset.  One of the coolest things that has come from this whiteboard is that students that aren’t even in my classes have visited my classroom and commented on the quotes on the board!
Do you have any pics of classroom inspiration you can share with us? Send it to me at [email protected] and I will share them in future emails! As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! You can also always message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here Let’s stay focused… Helpful Stuff Journaling: this is a non-negotiable, needle–moving part of my morning. I set a timer on my phone for 15 to 20 minutes so it's uninterrupted, free-flow writing. I had done it for years sporadically without much intention nor organization, but lately I have truly realized the truth behind the phrase “Less is more”. Some people get fancy (or complicated depending on how you look at it) by dividing their journal into sections like business, personal, professional, or any other subdivision of your life. I write about everything in my journal: teaching full-time, this business, my kids, the things that excite me, the things I'm working on, and everything else. I may put a paragraph heading before I write about a specific area in my life, but there's no formal separation —and that works for me. I just want to share ideas to set sparks off in your own head and you do what works for you! I know we all have a million things to do, and more is piled on each school day, but if you can, write with your students when they are journaling! This helps in the following ways:
Here’s a prompt to get you started: How have you been implementing a growth mindset in your classroom and in your personal life? Here is an excerpt from my last journaling session: I have come to realize that a growth mindset is just a piece of the recipe for what I want for my classroom. I now know that my preferred style of teaching is more like that of a student life coach where the curriculum is just one piece of the puzzle. So my goal overall is to become a better teacher/life coach and that entails:
This is just an example of what works for me and I want to share a great quote from one of my favorite podcasters illustrating the everyday process of change: “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end” – Robin Sharma. Recommendations Robin Sharma is an incredibly peaceful & positive person! After listening to a single episode of his podcast years ago, I was absolutely hooked. He has since then started a new podcast which is very good, but his first one was is a masterpiece, in my opinion. Tip: most podcast players allow you to set specific settings for each podcast you subscribe to, so you can skip the first & last X number of seconds to skip over the ads, intros, and outros. This lets you get to the good stuff faster. His first show (linked here on Apple Podcasts) is called The Robin Sharma Mastery Sessions and was a little longer than his current show. These episodes range from 10 to 30 minutes and were incredibly insightful, helping me refocus on being grateful, graceful, and more positive. He offers real advice on dealing with real negativity and people in the real world. Here are some of my favorite episodes from this podcast (linked for Apple Podcasts): How I Handle Haters The Big Lie of Positive Thinking How To Handle a Bad Day His current podcast is called The Daily Mastery Podcast by Robin Sharma (linked here on Apple Podcasts) and is still filled incredibly valuable and helpful content, just in much shorter form. Pretty much every episode runs 2-5 minutes, which is great for those that want quick hits of info. Here are some of my favorite episodes from this podcast (linked for Apple Podcasts): The Antidote to Procrastination? The #1 Method to Beat Your Fears in 2023 Use Each Day As a Platform For Personal Development A Little Inspiration Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset those who believe their talents are innate gifts). -Carol Dweck Please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! You can always reply to this message or message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world!Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! |
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