If you use any of these in your own classroom, send me an email and let me know how useful they were.
Julius Caesar
I review with the class the meaning of the word "tragedy," that a tragedy details the downfall of a person, sometimes due to a tragic flaw. I ask them, "Who suffered the worst tragedy in Julius Caesar?" The class, still in groups, needs to write 1/2 page about who they think suffered the worst tragedy out of all the characters. In addition, I have the class discuss what Julius Caesar's tragic flaws were -- personality traits which led up to his downfall.
Shakespeare Ten Points
I use this activity to review Shakespeare plays. After reading the play, I have the students form small groups (3-5 people). They then have to condense the play into the ten most important points in chronological order. This way, the students have to be able to weigh which events are major and which events are minor. Each groups will undoubtedly come up with very different lists because there are so many major points that happen. When all groups have finished, I have one person from each group write the list on the board so that it helps the students review the play.
Activities for characterization
We did this activity after read The Great Gatsby, although it would work for any novel. Students were put into small groups and given a sheet of poster board. They were to pick one character from the book that they wanted to concentrate on. Then, I had them draw in the middle of the poster their idea of what this character looked like. (The kids always grumble about lack of artistic talent, but they still put good effort into it.) When they are done with this part, I had them find quotes in the book which they felt helped characterize their character using 3 criteria: what the character says, what the character does, and what others say about that character. The quotes had to be meaningful; that is, they had to actually help us understand that character's personality or motives a little bit more. So a quote like, "Hey, how are you?" would not be considered a characterization quote, even if it is out of the book. They then wrote these quotes all around their picture on the posterboard. (I had then find at least 5 quotes to use.) Not only was this a good review, but when we hung the boards up around the room, it helped the kids understand each character and his or her motives. I use this activity for a variety of the novels we read.
Death of a Salesman
Here's another group poster activity: Students in small groups create posters that detail Willy's dream vs. reality. For example, what were some of the components of the life Willy's daydreams entailed? What was his life really like? A line can be drawn down one sheet of posterboard, with one side representing the dream, and one representing the reality.
Here's a good activity for the day before Christmas vacation ... or during a full moon. :-)
Because the kids are usually antsy the day before Christmas vacation, I have them do a creative writing exercise that doesn't seem like it's school work. The kids love it, and it's a big hit in the classroom for weeks afterward as the kids ask to see the story they wrote again. First, have the kids take out a sheet of paper. They should NOT put their name on it. Next, have them write 3 totally unrelated words at the top of their paper, such as "birds, socks, staples." When they are done, they hand their paper to the person behind them (last person in row hands to front person in the next row, and I usually am the paper runner for papers going across the classroom in order to cut down on time and distraction). Next, I give the students each 1 minute to start writing a story involving those 3 words. Of course, not everyone will be able to incorporate all three of the words, but by the end of the exercise those three words should be used sometime. When the minute is up, the cycle repeats itself with everyone handing their papers back one person. We keep doing this, with everyone getting a minute to write until I say "stop," until each person gets his or her original paper back. Now, the kids will be tempted to sit and read the story before adding on to it. I tell them to just scan the last sentence and begin writing. This way, they don't fully understand where the story is going, and it makes for a hilarious time. When they get their own paper back, the kids each read how their words were made into a story, and then we read selected ones aloud until the end of the period.
Teaching word connotation
At the beginning of advanced comp, I was trying to impress upon the students that one word can have many different connotative meanings. To prove this, we did a little word-association game. I had the kids take out a sheet of paper and number it from 1-20. Then, I instructed them to immediately write down the first word that comes to mind after I read my word. The words I chose were simple, such as "mother," "vacation," or "school." I tried to choose words which I knew people would interpret differently. A good one to include is "ticket," because some people think of traffic tickets while others think of movie tickets or concert tickets. The results are fun, and the kids had a good time with it. It's amazing how differently one word can influence people.
After we do this activity, I then demonstrate how automobile companies rely very heavily on a word's connotative meaning in order to give a car a name that will appeal to people. I ask the kids to volunteer the names of cars and we discuss why the company would have thought that particular name to be a good one. (Some examples: Explorer, Regal, Intrepid, Escape). We also talk about the commercials that continue to imbed the car's supposed abilities into our heads; for example, Explorer commericals usually show the vehicle on rugged terrain, as the name might suggest. I then have the kids find a new, original name for a pretend car. They then design a poster with a picture of the car (they can use magazine cutouts) and their car's name, along with an advertising blurb. They also fill out a sheet that develops an imaginary commerical for the car and explains why the name has a good connotative meaning.
A fun way to review parts of speech
Before launching into the grammar unit, I try this activity in order to "show" the kids how each part of speech works. I try to "act" out each part of speech and then asking the kids questions to lead them to the answer. For example, to teach verbs and adverbs, I will walk around the room very slowly in a deliberate manner; I will then ask the kids, "What am I doing?" Of course, the simple answer is walking, although I keep asking "What else am I doing?" trying to get them to observe what I am doing in addition to walking, such as "looking," "smiling," "talking," etc. They then identify these words as verbs. When they yell out each verb, I ask, "How am I walking?" and the kids will say things such as "slowly," and identify these as adverbs. I will go by students and pat them on the head, or knock on their desk, or do whatever else comes to my mind and keep asking the students questions. For example, to show prepositions, I will sit on a desk, beside a desk, under a desk, etc. It's also a good visual way to show the kids how a part of speech is represented in everyday life.
A vocabulary exercise
I just recently started using this method after reading about this activity during an inservice. For this activity, the kids need to keep a notebook dedicated to just vocabulary. Each week, after receiving their 10 words and writing the definitions, the kids then draw a picture to represent the vocabulary word. Not only is it a challenge to think of what picture could represent a word, but it gets the kids to think about the word, embedding it into their memory. Since I have started this activity, vocabulary scores have risen considerably. I do have to remind the kids to draw meaningful pictures, because some of them, when in a hurry, will jot down a stick figure and try to tell me that helps them remember their word. Having these word notebooks also comes in handy when we play "Pictionary" with our vocabulary words. It's a great way to review!
The Scarlet Letter
The last unit my juniors did this year was The Scarlet Letter. To help cement some of the major events in the book, I had the students write a Puritan Tabloid. (Kind of sounds like an oxymoron, eh?) The trick to this Puritan tabloid was that any mention of sex had to be "talked around," much like it is in the book. So the students had to tell the news about Hester and Dimmesdale while not mentioning exactly what happened ... they had to use "Puritan friendly" language, if you will. The plus of having this be a tabloid was that they could stretch the truth as well, just as long as the main point of the story was actually rooted in the book. For example, the students could write about Hester and Dimmesdale meeting in the woods because that actually happened, but then they could stretch the truth a little from there. Perhaps someone spying in the woods saw Dimmesdale give Hester a flower or a hug? I required the students to use a variety of stories about each of the main characters, and the language HAD to be appropriate for Puritan times. They put all their stories and pictures on a piece of posterboard and designed a masthead for their tabloid company. The results were hilarious, to say the least!
