1. The remainder of Hispanic Heritage Month (begins mid September and runs through mid October)
2. Hurricane season (There always seems to be at least one that makes landfall in October in the Southeast U.S.!)
3. Fall season
4. Indigenous Peoples' Day (second Monday of October)
5. And, of course, Halloween
I went into detail on some ideas for Hispanic Heritage Month and hurricane season in that blog post, and now, for part 2, we can dig deeper on some more great ways to get YOU and your students excited about ELA class in October.
Falling in Love with Fall Poetry
Photo by Kerstin Wrba on Unsplash
Poetry is great,
And I love teaching seasons,
Fall is my favorite!
There ya go-- a fall haiku for you. :)
To make it even better, I made bulletin boards covered in fall student poetry that we could enjoy all the way through Thanksgiving. I would provide shape cut outs of leaves, acorns, pumpkins, etc., along with construction paper, markers, paints, glitter (because there's never enough sparkle in the world), and whatever else the students wanted to use. It's a great chance to review types of poetry with the upper middle schoolers, or a pick a couple poetry styles and do mini lessons with the class!
Celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day
Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash
My favorite Natives to teach about are Pocahontas (thanks, Disney childhood) and Sacagawea (thanks Scott O'Dell's novel Stream to the River, River to the Sea), but there are so many great resources out there on teaching this special day. Check out some of these websites below for ideas for your class:
--15 Books by Indigenous Authors for the Classroom
https://www.weareteachers.com/indigenous-stories-for-the-classroom/
--Best Free Indigenous Peoples Day Lessons and Activities
https://www.techlearning.com/news/best-free-indigenous-peoples-day-lessons-and-activities
--Q&A: How to Teach Indigenous Peoples' Day
https://www.hmhco.com/blog/how-to-teach-indigenous-peoples-day
This...Is...Halloween... In the Classroom!
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (see above-- my friend Chris and I waited over an hour to meet Jack Skellington at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party!) because instruction can be mysterious or spooky while still being age-level and school appropriate. You can keep all of your content within your standards, and the kids will have a blast reading some cool lit!
My 8th graders completed a unit I made to follow along with HMH's Collections Unit "Thrill of Horror". My favorite piece that HMH includes in the Close Reader workbook is "The Outsider", by H. P. Lovecraft. It's creepy and fun with a surprise ending. You can find this short story for free online, so you definitely don't need HMH to bring this fun reading into your class!
I'm also obsessed with Scholastic's Scope magazine, and every October issue has a play-version of a classic horror piece. I've used their plays of "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "Frankenstein", "The Monkey's Paw", and "Tell-Tale Heart". Scope's resources for each piece are amazing, encompassing vocabulary, literary skill building, comprehension questions, and enriching project-based activities.
Finally, I would have my 8th graders do an independent novel study of a classic horror novel and complete a project with it. Students got to choose from a list I provided them (they LOVE choosing their own books) and got to decide if they would read an abridged or unabridged version of the book. I would help them with that decision, and for the most part, the kids are aware of their reading zone and abilities enough to make the right choice for themselves.
I made sure to send information home to the parents about the novel choices as well so if their student picked Dracula, for example, they were aware that the content would be on the more mature side. Parental awareness is key, and since the students have the choice of book, parents can have a say in the book choice as well.
Another fun Halloween activity I'd do during the week of Halloween is teach "The Nightmare Before Christmas", by Tim Burton. Most people don't know that the stop-motion holiday classic film is based on a poem written by director Tim Burton himself.
We would read the poem as a class and watch the movie in order to do a compare and contrast of the two mediums' interpretations of skeleton Jack and his holiday mix-up. A Venn diagram works wonders for an activity like this.
Then, I would have the kiddos get creative, and I'd ask them to write a poem or short story to continue Jack Skellington's story as he explores the other holiday doors.
SO. MUCH. FUN. :) Comment below with your favorite October-Themed classroom content!
SO. MUCH. FUN. :) Comment below with your favorite October-Themed classroom content!
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