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Teaching middle grades reading and ELA

5 Ways to Spice Up Your ELA Classroom with Flocabulary

By 8 Comments

After mentioning my use of Flocabulary as a component to several of my lessons, many of you have asked for more information. It’s way to difficult to explain Flocabulary in a short email response, so here goes this post! If you’re wondering if it’s worth your time and attention, the answer is YES.

**Disclaimer** I do not participate in affiliate marketing, nor do I gain anything from your subscribing to Flocabulary other than the great feeling I’ll have that I’ve shared something valuable with you and your students.

1. Teach Reading Skills in New Ways

How many of these skills do you teach? Flocabulary has a unique and different way of explaining each and every one of them to your students.

I know that with my 6th graders, I teach plot structure ALL YEAR LONG. Can we really ever have enough clever ways of teaching and reviewing plot structure?

 

 

2. The Supporting Materials are RIGHT THERE

Using a video that you LOVE? You don’t even have to go out and find something to go with the video. Most videos have an activity AND a quiz. And yes, the answer keys, too!
And it’s great quality stuff, for real.

 

3. The Lyrics are a Lesson in Themselves

Download the lyrics, highlight the important information, and glue those puppies into their interactive notebooks!
Or, download the fill-in-the-blanks version of the lyrics and have students complete them on the second or third watch of the video.

4. Grammar & Vocabulary

Boring subjects, NOT boring videos. Need I say more?
If you’re using my new Vocabulary Printables or Interactive Vocabulary Notebook, you’ll find that all of the prefixes from Unit 1 are in this video!

Other topics include Parts of Speech (all together AND each on its own), Capitalization, Punctuation, Commas, Subjects & Predicates, Active & Passive Voice, Word Choice, Roots, Suffixes, Synonyms & Antonyms, and more…

5. Current Events ~ The Week in Rap

And last but CERTAINLY NOT least, it’s my favorite! The Week in Rap is the BEST way to incorporate current events into your ELA classroom. The sheer number of literacy skills that are packed into the printables available for each of these weekly raps is just ridiculous. Forserious.It’s worth starting your free trial to check out the video for The Week in Rap. My kids can’t get enough!!  Of course, you can simply print out the lyrics and have students do the fill-in-the-blanks version while watching the video to hit on some ALL of those Common Core Speaking & Listening standards. But you can also pull out an entire EXTRA-LONG class period’s worth of skill sheets from each weekly video faster than you can say SUB PLANS DONE.

There is NO BETTER lesson to use for assembly days, mass days (for us Catholic school teachers), and those days where you won’t see each class the same length of time but need to do something useful with the time you have.

Here’s a peek at this week’s skill sheets.

 

 

 

 

So much content from one three-minute video. *sigh*

Time to wipe the drool from your chin and add some spice to your classroom with Flocabulary! They have graciously supplied me with an extended 45-day school-wide free trial so that you can get started NOW. Do the math – that’s six weeks of The Week in Rap for FREE, not to mention a high-interest video (and printables) to go with pretty much every skill you’re going to teach. Yeah! Click here to sign up for your free trial.

Happy Teaching!

 



Comments

  1. 1
    Amber says:
    October 9, 2015 at 12:54 am

    I love Love LOVE Flocabulary – so engaging and I love all the support materials!

    Reply
  2. 2
    Kirsten O'Quinn says:
    October 10, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    My students LOVE Flocabulary!! Our school even has a subscription 😀 They loved the Point of View and The Five Elements of a Story. I showed the the Five Elements one during the 2nd week of school and I still hear them singing it 🙂

    Reply
  3. 3
    Mrs. Spangler in the Middle says:
    October 10, 2015 at 10:50 pm

    Flocabulary is awesome! My SPED kids especially love it! I think because they can learn things in a new way that they really can catch on to. 🙂

    -Lisa
    Mrs. Spangler in the Middle

    Reply
  4. 4
    Stephanie Larsen says:
    October 11, 2015 at 3:14 am

    Can't wait to try the free trial. Thanks for posting!

    Reply
  5. 5
    Welcome To The Computer Lab says:
    October 11, 2015 at 9:20 am

    It's also great if you have a 1to1 situation because of all the PDFs. We use Schoology and 5th & 6th grades have ipads and I have them do the Key Terms for the Week in Rap every week and send them to me. Point of View is my favorite.

    Reply
  6. 6
    The Friday Afternoon Files says:
    October 11, 2015 at 12:22 pm

    I am so excited to try this resource–it's on the docket for this week. 🙂 Thanks for sharing all your amazing ideas!

    Melanie

    Reply
  7. 7
    Jacqueline Miller says:
    October 12, 2015 at 2:05 am

    Thanks for this detailed look at Flocabulary. I purchased a subscription at the beginning of the year after you posted your 1st day of school lesson with the free Flocabulary video. I've been using it since then, and my 7th graders LOVE it! Let's not even get into how much TIME it saves me!!!

    Reply
  8. 8
    Kristen Vibas says:
    October 20, 2015 at 12:13 am

    Oooooo…..this is going to be fun! Thank you for the free trial!

    Kristen

    Reply

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