Thanksgiving Argument Writing Unit Debate Topics & Lesson Plans 4 STAAR ECRs
By TooBookedUp
Looking for a high-engagement, standards-aligned resource to teach argumentative writing? This Thanksgiving Argument Writing Unit is perfect for middle school (grades 6-8) and provides four unique Thanksgiving-themed writing prompts that help students practice developing claims, providing evidence, and addressing counterarguments and rebuttals.
This resource includes:
A full lesson plan designed for a 75-minute class, guiding students through argument writing with structured slides and engaging activities.
Four thought-provoking Thanksgiving debate topics, including:
"Should Black Friday be banned due to its impact on society?"
"Is it ethical to celebrate Thanksgiving given the historical conflicts with Native Americans?"
"Should Thanksgiving Day parades be canceled due to their environmental impact?"
"Should Thanksgiving football games be banned on the holiday?"
Slides and Guided Notes: Step-by-step instruction on writing an argumentative essay using claims, evidence, counterarguments, and rebuttals.
Practice Activities: Hands-on exercises to help students identify and write each part of an argument.
Templates for Writing: Easy-to-use templates for students to organize their essays and develop their writing.
This unit is ideal for teaching the basics of argumentative writing in a fun, seasonal way, with relevant and engaging Thanksgiving topics that students care about. It's also perfect for debate prewriting, essay interventions, or building towards state assessments like STAAR.
What’s Included:
Help your students develop strong, clear arguments while engaging with Thanksgiving traditions in a meaningful way. Perfect for teaching argumentative writing and improving students' ability to express their ideas logically and persuasively!
Much Ado About Nothing Escape Room.
By Educate and Create
Looking for a fun way to get your students talking, moving, and collaborating? Look no further!
The focus of this breakout is Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The activities in this breakout game are designed to help students review what they have read in the play. A great review game before a test or quiz. Comes complete with answer key.
*Teaching Much Ado About Nothing?
Check out some of our other products.
Much Ado About Nothing Characterization flipbook
Much Ado About Nothing Quizzes Acts 1-5
Much Ado About Nothing Flip book Study Guide
Much Ado About Nothing: Benedick Soliloquy Analysis Compare and Contrast Act 2
Shakespeare Comedies (All Plays)
ECR & SCR Bundle: Constructed Response Group Practice for STAAR Testing
By Blooming Through High School
Elevate your students' short response writing skills and prepare them for success on the STAAR test with these comprehensive Extended Constructed Response (ECR) and Short Constructed Response (SCR) lessons designed for middle and high school classrooms. The engaging PowerPoint lessons offer educators a valuable tool to assess and guide student learning effectively.
Key Features:
Why Choose This Lesson:
Rigorous and standards-aligned content designed to meet the needs of middle and high school students.
Engaging and interactive activities that promote student engagement and academic growth.
Easy-to-use resources and materials for seamless lesson implementation and classroom management.
Comprehensive preparation for the STAAR test, ensuring that students feel confident and capable on exam day.
Empower your students to excel in short response writing and conquer the challenges of the STAAR test with this dynamic and comprehensive lesson. Elevate your teaching and ignite a passion for learning with these innovative instructional materials. Download this lesson today and watch your students thrive!
What's Included:
Number the Stars PRE & POST reading: Background History & Review Game Google
By Kiwious About Vocab
THIS GOOGLE SLIDE BUNDLE INCLUDES PRE READING DIGITAL INTRODUCTION AND POST REVIEW CARD GAME FOR NUMBER THE STARS BY LOIS LOWRY.
1. Pre:
PURPOSE: This NONFICTION GOOGLE SLIDE Introduction lesson provides digital resources & factual historical context & background information in preparation for reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. BL 4.5
GOAL: to prepare each student to understand the historical background of the novel by front-loading facts to aid comprehension
AUDIENCE: whole or small group for regular ed, learning support, ESL or virtual classrooms. This product is ideal for preparing READ ALOUD, LITERATURE CIRCLES, or BOOK CLUBS.
HISTORICAL POWERPOINT: Please be aware that YOUTUBE LINKS open to a standard warning page which must be clicked to access video.
• Opening slides
-genre, author photo and short bio.
-audio link
•Setting slides
-Location facts, photos, maps
-Time period facts, photos and links
-Link to period music
-Links to historical video clips
2. Post:
REVIEW GAME post-reading activity for novel Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
This interactive card game has been specifically designed to review the novel with comprehension questions and answers woven into the playing of "THE RESISTANCE" review card game.
This printable card game is made for groups of 2-4 players with 64 playing cards and 32 question/answer cards. The game is made to be played similarly to the card game "WAR". *Cards can be printed in COLOR or BLACK and WHITE.
USES IN THE CLASSROOM:
· Introduce new story
· Provide factual backstory to historical fiction text
· Stimulate group discussion
· Create predictions about text
· Use as distance learning resource
· Post on webpage
· Add to electronic notebook
* Review for test
Please be sure to view the preview and watch the video for detailed images and descriptions of the lesson.
Enjoy
-from Kiwious About Vocab!
Parts of Speech Activities: Word Tiles for Sentence Building, Bingo, Bookmarks
By Betsy Newmeyer
Looking for fun activities and games to teach and review Parts of Speech? With over 350 color-coded word tiles including: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, plus 84 punctuation mark cards, your upper elementary or middle school student will expand beyond basic sentences to build sentences that are detail-rich and descriptive. Also included are 16 Parts of Speech Bingo Cards (also includes a blank bingo card) and a Parts of Speech Reference Bookmark.
This resource is perfect as a whole class activity or small group center activity, and includes both color-coded cards and black and white word cards. It also includes basic punctuation marks (period, comma, question mark, and exclamation marks) as well as more advanced punctuation marks (colons, semicolons, hyphens, and quotation marks) to allow students to experiment with more complex sentence structures.
This resource can be used in conjunction with the Part of Speech Games for Grammar Review: Grow and Build New Sentences resource.
Using the included word tiles and resources, you can do any of the following fun activities:
Parts of Speech Included:
Nouns
Pronouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Punctuation Marks Included
Periods
Commas
Question marks
Exclamation marks
Colons
Semicolons
Hyphens
Quotation marks
My 5th graders LOVED this resource. When I first introduced the sentence building activity to the kids, each student was given a noun, verb, and adjective. They went to their seats to build a sentence, then met their peers at the center of the room to read their sentence and exchange one of their word tiles, returning to their seat to build a new sentence. The kids said they enjoyed being creative and that it felt like they were playing with trading cards.
You might also like . . .
Part of Speech Games for Grammar Review: Grow and Build New Sentences
Grammar Bookmarks
Spin a Great Story: Gamify Writing Time with Printable Game Spinners
Hands-On Grammar: Bundle
I'd love to hear how you use this resource in your classroom! Feel free to email me at iteachiwrite@yahoo.com with any questions or suggestions you may have. And don't forget to rate this product in order to earn TeachShare Credits for future purchases!
Copyright © iTeach & iWrite by Betsy Newmeyer.
All rights reserved by the author.
Permission to use for single classroom use only.
Let’s be friends!
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First Five Days in Secondary Reading Intervention
By HuddleTeach
Do you teach reading intervention in middle or high school? Start the year or begin your work with a group by building community and supporting a growth mindset!
This ebook details the first five days and has ALL the resources you need to start the year off on the right foot!
You get 20 pages of:
These activities support CCSS.SL.1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Read more about the First Five Days on this blog.
BUNDLE Similes Onomatopoeia and Alliteration a Figurative Language Activity
By A World to Explore Store - A Heritage Month Depot
Are you looking to make reviewing figurative language fun? Do you want your students to be engaged and motivated to learn? Then download this BUNDLE Similes Onomatopoeia and Alliteration a Figurative Language Activity! Well suited for the Language Arts or ELL classroom, your students will be having so much fun they will forget they are learning!
Students roll a die and find the corresponding instructions to create their own sentences using figurative language! The first one to complete a row or column wins the game! Can be played virtually or in-class - Virtual dice included! This activity can be played repeatedly as each game is unique. Laminate your gameboards and they can be used for years.
✔ Figurative Language covered in this activity: onomatopoeia, alliteration, similes, and metaphors.
✔ Each resource includes:
✔Examples:
✈️ Click here to follow A World to Explore Store and be the first to know about brand-new games and activities!
❤ Other Resources You'll LOVE:
Dice Games Figurative Language Similes & Metaphors
Dice Games Figurative Language Alliteration Onomatopoeia Simile Metaphor
Dice Games Onomatopoeia Oxymoron Personification Alliteration Hyperbole
BUNDLE Dice Games Figurative Language onomatopoeia oxymoron personification
SIMILES Choice Board, Student Checklist, Rubric, 48 Similes w/ definitions
METAPHORS Choice Board, Checklist, Rubric, Metaphors w definition
Homophones Choice Board
Digital Grammar Practice - ALL ABOUT ANIMALS - Walruses
Digital Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Practice - ALL ABOUT ANIMALS - Gorillas
Grammar:
VIRTUAL Grammar Scategories - Making Grammar FUN! by A World to Explore Store
BUNDLE Grammar Games! Parts of Speech Scategories 2 KaBOOM Irregular Verbs
KaBOOM Grammar Games - Irregular Plural Nouns by A World to Explore Store
KaBOOM! Virtual GRAMMAR Game #1 - Irregular Past Tense Verbs
KaBOOM! Virtual GRAMMAR Game #2 - Irregular Past Tense Verbs
Rock, Paper, Scissors - Grammar Games! Irregular Past Tense Verbs
Rock, Paper, Scissors Grammar Games Irregular Plural Nouns
SCR and ECR Short and Extended Constructed Response Practice 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
By Magen Crim
Engage 3rd, 4th, or 5th graders with tools to master Short Constructed Responses (SCR) and Extended Constructed Responses (ECR) practice using 35 student opportunities for RACE in a creative way. Ideal for ESL, ELA STAAR, RTI, stations, review, bell ringers, or differentiated independent work.
This No Prep roadmap will help students craft clear, structured, and thoughtful writing responses.
➡️ Why You Will Love
⭐35 student practice opportunities planned and prepped so you get your planning time back!
⭐Science of reading-aligned strategies for students to apply to their reading and writing.
⭐Leverages the UPS framework to help students combine visuals, analogies, and hands-on practice, emphasizing Understanding, Processing, and Sharing knowledge.
⭐Flexible Format to integrate into any curriculum.
⭐Embedded support to help reach all learners.
➡️ What’s Included
➡️ How to Use
Bring STEP UPS to life with this incredible resource today!
➡️ LET’S CONNECT
Follow ELA Vibes
➡️ Additional Supports
Mini-Lessons
Activity Packs
STAAR Prep
Short and Extended Constructed Responses
➡️Receive TeachShare Store Credits
Figurative Language Activities: Sorting Activity for 4th, 5th, and 6th Grade
By Kirsten's Kaboodle
Figurative Language Sorting Activity: Over 200 Cards Figures of Speech Review
This differentiated activity for figurative language includes hyperboles, metaphors, similes, puns, proverbs/adages, idioms, onomatopoeia, personification, and alliteration. This figurative language sort is a great way to review types of figurative language with your students.
There are over 200 figures of speech that can be categorized in each area. Created for 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade, this activity is perfect for individuals, pairs, small groups, or the whole class.
DIFFERENTIATION:
You can choose to:
IDEAS FOR USE:
use as a test review
use as a game- groups work to complete the activity first (with the highest accuracy)
use as an introduction for each figure of speech (the color-coded set)
use as an evaluation
use during stations on a bulletin board or whiteboard
use as a catalyst for a class discussion on figures of speech
use as a review at the beginning of the year for students who have been exposed to figurative language
NOTE: THIS FILE INCLUDES A DIGITAL DISTANCE LEARNING OPTION!
This product includes a digital option (as well as the no prep printable option). The digital portion instructions appear at the end of the packet.
WAIT! Would you rather print these figure of speech cards on STICKY NOTES? Check out this product (it is EXACTLY the same in terms of content, but differs in format):
Need interactive, fun figurative language activities?
MEGA BUNDLE:
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE ALL YEAR LONG:
ECR Relay Race: Engaging STAAR Writing Prep Grades 5-8 Comprehension 12 Prompts!
By TooBookedUp
Transform STAAR writing preparation into an exhilarating adventure with our "ECR Relay Race" resource! Designed specifically for grades 6-8, this product turns the daunting task of essay writing into a collaborative, fun, and competitive experience. Dive into high-engaging topics while practicing informational, argumentative, and correspondence writing skills critical for STAAR success.
✅ Engaging Topics for Every Genre:
✅ Collaborative Learning: Encourage teamwork with relay races that make writing a shared journey. Students can work together or individually, pushing them to think critically and write effectively.
✅ Interactive Progress Tracking: Watch as students advance their stick figure characters across the board with each completed paragraph, igniting a sense of accomplishment and urgency.
✅ Comprehensive ECR Refresher: Kickstart your classes with 15 slides designed to refresh students on ECR essentials, providing a solid foundation for success.
✅ Inclusive Support Materials: Includes sentence stems for each writing genre, aiding students in structuring their thoughts and arguments clearly and cohesively.
✅ Fun, Engaging, and Educational: Our resource is not just about STAAR prep; it's about creating memorable learning experiences that foster creativity, critical thinking, and a love for writing.
Prepare your students for STAAR writing with a resource that’s as educational as it is exhilarating. Make test preparation something students look forward to with our ECR Relay Race. Perfect for teachers seeking innovative, engaging ways to enhance writing skills and STAAR readiness.
Figurative Language Escape Room
By Educate and Create
Looking for a fun way to get your students talking, moving, and collaborating? Look no further!
The focus of this breakout is figurative language. Includes simile, metaphor, personification, allusion, alliteration, oxymoron, idiom, hyperbole, imagery, and onomatopoeia. A great review game before a test or quiz. Comes complete with answer key.
Commas: No Prep Test Prep - Grammar/Revising & Editing for English/ELA
By Blooming Through High School
I spent two weeks teaching my students revising skills explicitly before it hit me... all the answer choices had SOMETHING to do with knowing how to use a comma!
It's an area where students feel the least confident and it can be fixed. Before your students go into a test or a state exam, make sure they know how to use a comma.
INCLUDED: 13 self-grading Google Form Quizzes, Word Doc, PDF!
BUNDLE and SAVE: ELA Test Prep, Study Guide & Activities Bundle
Check out these other resources!
Number the Stars PRE & POST reading: Background History Intro & Review Game PPT
By Kiwious About Vocab
THIS BUNDLE INCLUDES PRE READING DIGITAL INTRODUCTION AND POST REVIEW CARD GAME FOR NUMBER THE STARS BY LOIS LOWRY.
1. Pre:
PURPOSE: This NONFICTION PowerPoint Introduction lesson provides digital resources & factual historical context & background information in preparation for reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. BL 4.5
GOAL: to prepare each student to understand the historical background of the novel by front-loading facts to aid comprehension
AUDIENCE: whole or small group for regular ed, learning support, ESL or virtual classrooms. This product is ideal for preparing READ ALOUD, LITERATURE CIRCLES, or BOOK CLUBS.
HISTORICAL POWERPOINT: Please be aware that YOUTUBE LINKS open to a standard warning page which must be clicked to access video.
• Opening slides
-genre, author photo and short bio.
-audio link
•Setting slides
-Location facts, photos, maps
-Time period facts, photos and links
-Link to period music
-Links to historical video clips
*Assessments
-Pre and Post assessments
2. Post:
REVIEW GAME post-reading activity for novel Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
This interactive card game has been specifically designed to review the novel with comprehension questions and answers woven into the playing of "THE RESISTANCE" review card game.
This printable card game is made for groups of 2-4 players with 64 playing cards and 32 question/answer cards. The game is made to be played similarly to the card game "WAR". *Cards can be printed in COLOR or BLACK and WHITE.
USES IN THE CLASSROOM:
· Introduce new story
· Provide factual backstory to historical fiction text
· Stimulate group discussion
· Create predictions about text
· Use as distance learning resource
· Post on webpage
· Add to electronic notebook
* Review for test
Please be sure to view the preview and watch the video for detailed images and descriptions of the lesson.
Enjoy -from Kiwious About Vocab!
Parts of Speech Activity Bundle: Sentence Building Word Tiles and Games
By Betsy Newmeyer
Help your students master the Parts of Speech with this fun activity bundle, which includes printable part of speech word cards in both color and black & white, a quick-reference bookmark helper, worksheets, and game boards. It's everything you need to review and practice the parts of speech.
Here's how it works: Kids trade word cards, then use them to grow simple sentences or build new sentences, sort words by part of speech, spin a part of speech spinner or roll a die in order to generate a word bank, or play Bingo.
This bundle includes the following two resources:
Part of Speech Games for Grammar Review: Grow and Build New Sentences
Parts of Speech Activities: Word Tiles for Sentence Building, Bingo, Bookmark
Parts of Speech Included:
Nouns
Pronouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
You might also like . . .
Grammar Bookmarks
Spin a Great Story: Gamify Writing Time with Printable Game Spinners
Hands-On Grammar: Bundle
I'd love to hear how you use this resource in your classroom! Feel free to email me at iteachiwrite@yahoo.com with any questions or suggestions you may have. And don't forget to rate this product in order to earn TeachShare Credits for future purchases!
Copyright © iTeach & iWrite by Betsy Newmeyer.
All rights reserved by the author.
Permission to use for single classroom use only.
Let’s be friends!
Follow on TeachShare
Blog
Sign up for my newsletter
BUNDLE Onomatopoeia Oxymoron Similes Personification Figurative Language Game
By A World to Explore Store - A Heritage Month Depot
Are you looking to make reviewing similes and metaphors fun? Do your students struggle to create descriptive figurative language? Then download this no prep Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron, Similes and MORE Activity BUNDLE!
Kids will be engaged and motivated to play this individual or team-building dice game. Well suited for the Language Arts or ELL classroom, your students will be having so much fun they will forget they are learning!
In this no prep activity, students roll a die find the corresponding instructions, and create their own sentences using onomatopoeia, oxymorons, personification, alliteration, hyperbole, similes, or metaphors! The first one to complete a row or column wins the game! Virtual dice included!
**You are receiving 3 different games but they can be played over and over again as each roll of the die provides students with new sentences to write! This truly is all you need to keep your students engaged and motivated to practice creating their own sentences using figurative language.
✔This resource includes:
✔Examples:
✈️ Click here to follow A World to Explore Store and be the first to know about brand-new games and activities!
❤ Other Resources You'll LOVE:
FUN:
Figurative Language Sort with Sticky Notes: Over 200 Sorting Notes
By Kirsten's Kaboodle
This figurative language activity includes hyperboles, metaphors, similes, puns, proverbs/adages, idioms, onomatopoeia, personification, and alliteration.
There are over 200 figures of speech, designed to be printed on sticky notes, that can be categorized in each area. Created for 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade, this activity is perfect for individuals, pairs, small groups, or the whole class.
DIFFERENTIATION:
The answer sheets are also differentiated. You can choose to:
IDEAS FOR USE:
NOTE: YOU WILL NEED TO PURCHASE YOUR OWN 3"x3" STICKY NOTES!
NOTE: THIS FILE INCLUDES A DIGITAL DISTANCE LEARNING OPTION!
This product includes a digital option (as well as the no prep printable option). The instructions for utilizing the digital portion appear at the end of the packet.
If you'd like a version of this activity that does not require sticky notes, snatch it up here:
MEGA BUNDLE:
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE ALL YEAR LONG:
Match Maker ELA Review Game Activity Print or Digital Resource Gr 6-8
By TooBookedUp
Shake up your classroom by playing this fun ELA matchmaker review game! As the testing season approaches, this comprehensive 81-page PDF resource offers a perfect blend of fun and education, ensuring a thorough review of essential literary concepts.
Our resource is thoughtfully crafted to cover five crucial categories: Synonyms, Antonyms, Figurative Language, Literary Elements, and Affixes & Roots. Each category is rich with 30 pairs, enabling full class participation and ensuring that every student is actively engaged in the learning process.
Our 'ELA Review Extravaganza' is designed to be flexible and adaptable to your classroom needs. Here are two effective ways to use this resource:
Option 1: Print and Cut
Prepare the Activity:
Distribute the Pieces:
Hand out one piece of the puzzle to each student.
Finding Matches:
Class Discussion:
Option 2: Assign & Go (Digital Version)
Assign the Activity:
Independent or Pair Work:
Interactive Learning:
Review and Feedback:
Embrace the Versatility
Perfect Tool for Diverse Educational Needs
Transform your ELA review sessions into an 'Extravaganza' of learning and excitement. With our 'ELA Review Extravaganza,' education is not just about memorizing; it's about engaging, interacting, and understanding. Download now for an enriching educational experience that your students will love!
Halloween Escape Room Literary Devices
By Educate and Create
Looking for a fun way to get your students talking, moving, and collaborating? Look no further!
The focus of this breakout is Literary Devices. The activities in this breakout game are designed to help students review. The Escape Room is Halloween themed and includes some spooky examples. A great review game before a test or quiz. Includes Metaphor, Simile, Onomatopoeia, Hyperbole, Imagery, Alliteration, and Euphemism Comes complete with answer key.
Context Clues Worksheets Determining Meaning of Unknown Words
By Blooming Through High School
THIS IS A PDF FILE
Why teach word meaning through nonsense words?
All of these are things we want every student to do! This is something that is already adapted for high and low learners.
Starting with three nonsense words gets students going so they can work in groups or independently to decode the meaning of 7 REAL words (selected from the SAT vocabulary list).
This is a perfect activity for group problem solving and critical thinking!
Extended Constructed Response Writing for STAAR - Test Prep for ELAR ECR
By Blooming Through High School
Elevate your students' short response writing skills and prepare them for success on the STAAR test with this comprehensive Extended Constructed Response (ECR) lesson designed for middle and high school classrooms. This engaging PowerPoint lesson offers educators a valuable tool to assess and guide student learning effectively.
Key Features:
Why Choose This Lesson:
Rigorous and standards-aligned content designed to meet the needs of middle and high school students.
Engaging and interactive activities that promote student engagement and academic growth.
Easy-to-use resources and materials for seamless lesson implementation and classroom management.
Comprehensive preparation for the STAAR test, ensuring that students feel confident and capable on exam day.
Empower your students to excel in short response writing and conquer the challenges of the STAAR test with this dynamic and comprehensive lesson. Elevate your teaching and ignite a passion for learning with these innovative instructional materials. Download this lesson today and watch your students thrive!
What's Included: