Category Archives: Curriculum Units

2011 Curriculum Units Vol 6: The Playful Response to Stories

Let’s Play A Game: Responding to Literacy through Play

Amy LaLonde, Elementary, Tucksaseegee Elementary

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 6: The Playful Response to Stories

We Are The Outsiders: A Playful Response to Literature Curriculum Unit

Delee Hall, English/Social Studies, Randolph Middle School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 6: The Playful Response to Stories

Oh the Places We’ll Go! Incorporating Reader’s Theatre and Artistic Interpretation to Build Reading Skills

Nikki Guevara, Elementary, J.H. Gunn Elementary

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 6: The Playful Response to Stories

Thrilling Theater Cafe

Miesha Brayboy Gadsen, Elementary, Lansdowne Elementary

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 6: The Playful Response to Stories

Playing Great Characters

Torrieann Dooley, Elementary, David Cox Elementary

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 6: The Playful Response to Stories

Grimm’s Fairytales: Playful Acquisition of German

Diane DeMarco-Flohr, German/English, Mallard Creek High School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 6: The Playful Response to Stories

Using Playful Strategies to Create a Fun and Meaningful Literacy Program in Middle School

Abstract

This unit uses playful strategies to motivate and increase the engagement of middle school students in literacy activities. Through creative strategies, I play up the fun factor to promote student interaction with the text. Middle school students, especially 6th graders, love to play in class. Many of them, if given the opportunity, will gladly pretend to be someone else, dance, put on a performance, play games, or engage in anything “fun” rather than the traditional sitting in a seat answering questions about a story. Encouraging students to play, like they did when they were small children, will result in students who are more engaged in the lessons we create. Although playing in middle school looks very different than in kindergarten, the creative and interactive strategies that many middle school students respond to are still play. If we use the students’ natural tendency to socialize, talk, and generally be adolescents, we can guide them into appropriate and challenging interactions with literature that seem like play to them. Before they know it, they will be looking forward to language arts class and reading the next chapter of that class novel with excitement and engagement. Not to mention increasing their reading ability and achievement.

Janice Bernier, English/German, Jay M. Robinson Middle School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 5: Math through Popular Culture

Dilations and Linear Equations

Aaron Kollar, Science/Math, Bailey Middle School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 5: Math through Popular Culture

Slope and the Equation of a Name

Kelly Cole, Math, Bailey Middle School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 5: Math through Popular Culture

Fractions Aren’t Freaky!

Lyndsay Burns, Elementary, David Cox Elementary

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 5: Math through Popular Culture

Algebrawl: The Winner Is Not Always the Best

Dawn Blair, Math, West Charlotte High School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 4: Exploring Big Questions

Answering “Why?”: Life’s Biggest Question

Heather Nash, Special Education, East Mecklenburg High School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 4: Exploring Big Questions

Me as a Character, My Life as a Story

Lindsey Lendyak, English, Providence High School 

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 4: Exploring Big Questions

Answering Big Questions: An Attempt at Uncovering and Inquiry

Jeff Joyce, Social Studies, W.A. Hough High School

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2011 Curriculum Units Vol 4: Exploring Big Questions

That Was Then, This Is Now — Exploring the Moral Development of Characters and Ourselves

Amy Hillis, Language Arts, Jay M. Robinson Middle School

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