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this picture has a scorpion atop a blue background with the post focusing on Steinbeck's The Pearl Activities

Comprehensive Bundle: Steinbeck’s The Pearl Activities

Looking for The Pearl activities that excite your students’ creativity and critical thinking skills? The Pearl Unit Bundle will keep your students hooked from start to finish. The Pearl Lesson Plans included in the Bundle Pre-Reading: The Pearl Activities & Unit Calendar Before you begin, The Pearl Activities bundle includes an editable unit calendar. You can expect… ⭐️ Suggested lesson plans designed for 40-50 min. classes ⭐️ A total unit length of 4 ½ weeks (adaptable to be shorter or longer) ⭐️ Minimal homework throughout (homework-free option if unit length is extended) ⭐️ Students will engage in an anticipatory activity that provides resources (2 videos and 2 articles) to conduct research on John Steinbeck and Cortez Pearl. There are SO many benefits to using these activities as your anticipatory set! During: The Pearl Reading Guide

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Carina Assayed January 17, 2023
Here are three tips for grading interactive notebooks quickly and easily, even in a high school ELA classroom. This blog post contains actionable steps you can take today, along with a freebie to focus your grading. (teachnouvelle.com)

Grading Interactive Notebooks

I love using Interactive Notebooks in high school and sharing this love with others. Still, the number one question that I get from teachers is how to manage grading Interactive Notebooks without letting it take over your life. I’m here today to tell you that it is possible, as long as you set yourself up for success. Here are some tips for making grading Interactive Notebooks easier and faster. Watch the video: Read about Planning Novel Units for Interactive Notebooks Decide when you’ll grade. I like to collect my notebooks at least once per unit, and twice if it’s a particularly intensive or long unit. I decided never to take Interactive Notebooks home, so that means I need to grade in class or at school sometime. The easiest time to grade is during a unit

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Danielle Hall August 15, 2017
Using Interactive Notebooks to teach class novels can be rigorous and engaging, even for middle and high school. Here are some tips and tricks for setting up your novel units. Read more at teachnouvelle.com

Teach a Class Novel with Interactive Notebooks

Do you love the idea of Interactive Notebooks but are unsure of how to use them to teach class novels? Stay tuned for my best tips and tricks for designing rigorous and engaging class novel units. I am a huge proponent of using Interactive Student Notebooks (ISNs, INBs, INs) in high school. I love them for the ease of structuring a lesson, keeping everyone organized, and helping students create a yearlong learning tool. Once your students get onboard, it can even be a relaxing addition to your classroom since there can be some coloring or crafty elements. And whereas people find it easy to set up a spread for a single lesson, I often get asked how to set up an notebook for an entire class novel. Well, I’m here today to share my planning

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Danielle Hall November 22, 2016
I finally nailed teaching symbolism to my students! Using candy was both efficient and engaging, and they kept referencing this lesson for the rest of the year. This strong foundation really helped their literary analysis skills. TeachNouvelle.com

Teaching Symbolism with Candy

I have been reflecting on my favorite lessons from the school year, and one of the most fun and effective was teaching symbolism with Tootsie Roll Pops! Not only were the students enthusiastic about eating the candy (because aren’t they always?), they really grasped the concept of analyzing a symbol. We were nearing Halloween and deep in our Short Stories unit, and I planned for my 9th graders to read “Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe. They had already told me in their journals that they didn’t “get” symbolism.  I wanted to help them learn to take apart symbols and analyze them based on concrete details before adding in the abstract traits and drawing a conclusion. Basically, I wanted to help them break down symbols and realize that there was a lot

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Danielle Hall July 5, 2016

Interactive Notebooks for High School

Are you looking for ways to use Interactive Notebooks for high school English? When I was first faced with this possibility, I was super excited!, but had no idea where to start. I wasn’t sure if these would be the right tool for my 9th graders. I decided to start off the year with my normal Short Stories Unit, and slowly found ways to transform those lessons to ISN spreads. Over the course of the unit, I discovered that Interactive Notebooks gave me a great structure for planning lessons, a lot of scaffolding for my students, and very rigorous, focused practice of a new skill before they left me each day. Check out this 2 minute video to see how I set up Interactive Notebooks for high school English: Interactive Notebooks in ELA To make

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Danielle Hall October 14, 2015