Here’s what I do. I decided that since my 9th grade class is Grammar, Composition, and Literature, I would give them a grammar warm-up each day. I use two sentences from books the companies call DOL’s for Daily Oral Language exercise. I don’t really like that term, and someone on my blog called them MUG shots (mechanics, usage, and grammar), which I liked much better. Students copy the sentences, fix them, then we go over them. Great way to teach all kinds of grammar in like five to ten minutes each class period. Then when I do notebook checks, I always put at least two MUG shots on there. In other words, I ask students to locate their MUG shot for, say, August 22, then write the corrected sentence for number 2. It’s a great way to make sure they do it. For my British Lit. class, my warm-up will be Shakespeare related each time (Barnes and Noble has a series of Daily Sparks that are great for this sort of thing). I’m not sure what I will do with my seniors yet, but I’m thinking about it.

Dana’s answer is great!

I think ideally “people” do like the sponge activities to be linked to the lesson, but I think in teaching English on a long block, you can easily come up with ways to chunk up your time, as our subject has so many components to it. So, the sponge could actually be longer than a sponge, and be one of your lessons in the day. I would normally do 2-4 different things during those long periods. So, think of those little bits of English you can do everyday–whether it’s consistently the same or not.

Dana’ suggestion is great. I’ve always had a hard time sticking to one activity throughout the year, although DOL or journal writing is the the way to go to keep it consistent. Sometimes vocabulary works well, too–especially if you are working with a set of words where you ask the students to do varied activities. You can do a little bit everyday and collect it at the end of unit.

The literature books I used often had warm-up questions for students to address before the text. So, I would have them read about the author and the intro to the story, and then I would have them answer the pre-reading questions. You know the questions you would simply ASK and orally discuss? Those questions. Students were instructed to hold on to their responses and turn it in with the literature assignment, which was usually questions, writing, or reflection.

The Daily Sparks books are wonderful! There are several different ones for English–mostly 10 minutes worth of activity.

I miss teaching long periods for English. When my old school fought to go to a block schedule I had a retired English teacher turned board member challenge me on how difficult it was to teach English for that amount of time. I NEVER had a problem. We could read AND discuss literature in one period. We could write a rough draft, do some grammar work, and review vocabulary. Students could take a quiz and do a lesson. I could actually squeeze in the time to conference with students! I’m jealous of your 84 minutes!

I am totally loving Dana and HappyChyck right now–great suggestions and I’m so glad that my English teacher who says she’s “technology challenged” (SO NOT TRUE as evidenced by this terrific blog) is out here asking questions and learning. Kudos to you for asking the question Carol!

I’m so glad that you are feeling the same as I feel, Carol! I’ve been racking my mind trying to come up with ideas to start class, thinking this whole time that it had to be something SUPER COOL to catch their attention and hold it for 84 minutes. I’m now seeing that it’s the consistency that counts not the SUPER COOL factor. See you soon!

Happychyk, what exactly do you do with vocabulary? Are they looking up word definitions? Then do you need several dictionaries? I found the Daily Sparks Books, I think I ordered one I already have! ugh! Ihave to look for the grammar one! Give me the details on how you do this!