8 Fresh Ideas for Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird

8 Fresh Ideas for Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

By Tracee Orman

Are you teaching To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee this year? Whether it’s your first time or your 20th time teaching it, I’m sharing some of my favorite ideas to engage your students and keep up the momentum while reading.

If you’ve taught the novel before, you know that there are some parts that can seem to be a slog to get through, which is why pacing is key. Some chapters deserve more attention than others. I created a student workbook that breaks up the activities and questions by chapter, but naturally combines some chapters that allows you to move more quickly through them. Other chapters have their own activities, forcing students to take more time. 

Incorporating a mix of creative activities and critical-thinking questions is the key to keeping your students engaged and learning. Here are some ideas to keep things fresh in your unit and students engrossed:

1. Interactive notebook activities

Include some hands-on interactive notebook activities, or use one for the entire novel. Studies have shown that students using physical, tactile activities help them learn and retain information better. My interactive activities combine creative and critical-thinking skills and definitely keeps things fresh. I include over 90 activities--some specific to the chapters and some that can be used with any chapter--so you can pick and choose which ones you use. My students really enjoyed the time they had adding to their notebooks. As a bonus, I let them use their notebooks on the final test, so the more detailed they were for each activity, the more it benefitted them in the end!

To Kill a Mockingbird Interactive Notebook Activities

2. Incorporate Drawing

Having students visually describe what we’ve read is not only creative, but requires them to read closely for details, then process that information into a visual depiction. This first time I ask this of students is in chapter one when Jem describes what he thinks Boo Radley looks like. This activity builds the mystery around Boo and also shows stereotyping. I have students display their depictions while we read the novel. We always circle back to them after the big reveal at the end of the novel to reinforce the themes. Find my pre-made activities here.

Boo Radley Depictions

3. SUMMARIZE WITH A MEME

Students love memes, so break up the monotony of activities every once in awhile with a meme chapter summary. The beauty of a meme is that they truly have to understand the content in order to make a joke of it. This may require some rereading (which is AWESOME). Some memes they create you may have to have them explain to you because it can be hard to stay up on all the teen slang and fads. But it helps YOU understand them, as well. Chapters that are good for this type of assignment include (but definitely not limited to): 2, 3, 6, 10, 13, 15, 24, 29, 31. I recommend choosing two or three (at most) chapters to assign this. 

To Kill a Mockingbird Memes (included in my unit)

4. Sentence Starters

Sentence starters are an easy way to have students relate to the text personally. Start with the characters and their motivation. What would your students do in their place and why? For example, give students these stems to complete:

If I were Scout, I would... because...

If I were Jem, I would... because...

If I were Dill, I would... because...

You can be even more detailed, specific to the chapter. For example:

(Chapter 6)

If I were Jem, I would go back for my pants because... or

If I were Jem, I would not go back for my pants because...

(Chapter 9)

If I were Uncle Jack, I would have spanked Scout because...

If I were Uncle Jack, I would not have spanked Scout because...

They can be great ways to start a class discussion and have students share their own opinions and experiences. Find my pre-made sentence starters for TKaM here.

5. Comic Book Panels

My students really love turning anything into a comic book. Even those that just use stick figures or quotes only, it’s a great way to review and process the events and character motivations in a chapter. I have templates that can be used for any story or you can find chapter-specific prompts and panels in my creative activities pack for TKaM.

6. One-Pager with a Twist

One-pagers are a great way to have students creatively summarize key themes, quotes, symbols, characterization, and events in a novel or story. But sometimes filling an entire page can seem intimidating. Have students select a letter in the alphabet to represent one of the characters and create a one-pager letter. You can have them draw their own letters and cut them out or use my templates and rubric.

Character Letters One-Pager

7. Magic 8-Ball Predictions

Having students make predictions keeps the momentum going. If you happen to have a Magic 8-Ball, it makes a perfect prop for this exercise. If not, no worries. I have incorporated the activity into my student workbook and also have a stand-alone pack that can be used with ANY novel or story. Use the responses from the Magic 8-Ball (such as “Outlook Not So Good,” “It Is Certain,” and “Reply Hazy, Try Again”) and have students come up with questions for those responses. 

For example, after chapter 6, students might come up with this question for the response “Cannot Predict Now”: Will Atticus find out the truth about the kids sneaking onto the Radley’s?

Or Is Boo leaving the gifts in the tree for the kids? for the response “Most Likely.”

It’s a fun twist on having students making predictions and inferring.

Magic 8-Ball Activity from Student Workbook

8. Student-Created Escape Room Activity

After reading the novel, escape rooms are a fun way for students to review. But what if you had THEM create the challenges? It is amazing what they can come up with and makes the activity even more meaningful. Split up your class into groups and have each group create one station/challenge. You can give each group a section of the book to cover OR have them focus on a literary element (characters, plot, theme, setting, author’s style/tone, structure/scope, figurative language, etc.). Their challenges can be made up of puzzles, questions, physical challenges (one year I had students try to get a note through a shutter with a fishing pole), etc. Let them be creative! Then have each group attempt the other group’s escape challenges. 

I hope you’ve found some fun, fresh ideas for your To Kill a Mockingbird unit. All of the linked activities (besides my character letter one-pagers) can be found in my Mega Bundle, which is growing and will have new things added.

To Kill a Mockingbird Complete Literature Teaching Unit by Tracee Orman

Additional activities and resources:

• To Kill a Mockingbird Escape Room by Presto Plans

Spooky Season Activities for the ELA Classroom

 

It's spooky season with Halloween right around the corner. If you are looking for some fun activities to incorporate into your daily routine, look no further! We have a great selection of fun and educational ideas.

Zombie Vocabulary by Presto Plans

In this zombie-themed vocabulary activity, students work in teams to survive a zombie outbreak using their context clues skills! After a short lesson on decoding unfamiliar words, teams read a Zombie Survival Guide and determine the meanings of 15 challenging vocabulary words. Each correct answer earns them a mystery survival supply, such as food, water, or a first aid kit. Then, teams put their supplies to the test in an interactive zombie outbreak story where having the right resources determines whether they survive or are eliminated. The last team standing wins!

Edgar Allan Poe Fun Guessing Game by Tracee Orman

Your students will have so much fun trying to guess whether the lines come from an Edgar Allan Poe work or a song by Ed Sheeran. It is definitely not as easy as it may seem. Hand out the fun quiz first and give students 10 minutes or so to guess the answers. Then show the presentation with the questions and answers. This activity is guaranteed to have all your students engaged and excited for each new answer. The bundle also comes with an interactive bulletin board display, so if you don't have time to play the game in class, you can use the display as a way to incorporate some spookiness into your class without having to use up any class time!

Halloween Narrative Writing by Jackie from Room 213

Halloween is the perfect opportunity to engage your students in a creative writing assignment. This resource takes students through a process-based approach that has them experiment with various elements of fiction. They will be building so many narrative writing skills and have a great deal of fun while they do!

Halloween Grammar Worksheets by The Daring English Teacher

Make Halloween week easy with these no-prep Halloween grammar worksheets for middle and high school ELA. These four print-and-go Halloween grammar activities give students focused practice with pronouns, subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement, and direct and indirect objects. They work great as a Halloween station activity. Or, if needed, they also work well as an emergency sub plan!

We hope you have a fun week, Friends!

3 AI-Proof Literary Analysis Projects for Middle & High School English

By The Daring English Teacher

I vividly recall being in my classroom after learning about AI for the first time. I was curious about its capabilities, so I typed in one of my Lord of the Flies essay prompts, and Voilà, there it was. I mean, it wasn’t perfect, and it didn’t have direct quotes, but there was the five-paragraph essay in a matter of seconds that usually takes my students multiple days to complete. 

That was in the fall of 2022. I remember showing other teachers in my department this during our regular English department meeting. Immediately, we knew we had to change our teaching practices…again.

It has taken time to adjust to teaching in a world with AI, just like how it took time to adjust to teaching with class Chromebooks and smartphones. And while there is no end-all-be-all solution that works perfectly for everyone, I’ve found that going back to paper works—or at least it works for now. 

Since that moment when I realized that everything I’ve done as an educator would have to change, I’ve slowly made adjustments to my teaching practices to ensure that the work being turned in is that of my students’ minds and not a large language model.

Here are some things that are working for me as a high school English teacher:

• Putting the Chromebooks away - Yes. The Chromebooks and digital assignments are easy to assign and easy to grade (some of them are even self-grading and will send to my gradebook immediately); however, that is where students use AI-enabled extensions. 

• Going back to paper-and-pencil essays - It is tough to read, but having students write their thoughts, even if it is their first draft, on paper is helpful to ensure the thinking is their own. 

• Using lockdown browsers for in-class essays - Whether you have your students type an entire essay at a time or just a paragraph, I’ve had great success with lockdown browsers. Sure, some students will inevitably find workarounds, but not many. I use the lockdown browser embedded in Canvas (my school’s LMS); however, I’ve also used managed Google Forms for writing.

• Adjusting class assignments - This has been the biggest challenge. It has taken hours upon hours of thinking, brainstorming, trying, failing, and trying again to readjust how I do assignments and group projects. I think I’ve figured it out, though. I’ve created three literary analysis group projects that, if done correctly, eliminate all student AI use in the classroom. 

Three (AI-proof)  Literary Analysis Group Projects

I intentionally designed these three group projects to take place over the course of several days in class with students using paper only. To help eliminate AI from creeping into these projects, I ensure that student Chromebooks are put away, students' backpacks are zipped up, all phones and smartwatches are put away, and I collect the work each class period and redistribute it to student groups at the start of class. I also make sure students don’t use rogue papers that were brought in from home. Yes, it is a lot to manage, but knowing that the work comes from the students helps. 

Literature Mini Debates

I used this mini debate project as a culminating project for my Hamlet unit at the end of the last school year, and it was a hit! However, I also have a generic resource that I designed to work with any piece of literature.

For this final project, students are partnered together and given a topic relating to the novel. Student pairs work together, research, and prepare for a debate about that topic. The mini debates are quick. Students have a brief opening statement, rebuttal, and closing statement to prepare for…and I encouraged no notes. Since the topics are so specific, I informed my students that they needed to be experts in their subjects. 

For the actual debate, I grouped the student pairs with another pair, so four students presented at a time. They wrote down all their brainstorming and statements on paper, practiced together in class, and I even had the students do a dry run together. 

This unit also comes with a brief slide deck teaching students about the debate process and a link to a YouTube video that times the debates for the students!

Literary Analysis Group Podcast

This podcast project is another project that I’ve had to tweak over the years to accommodate for the AI intrusion in the classroom. At first, students worked on this project and recorded it on their own using only their Chromebooks. However, I switched it up recently, and now students “live record” their podcasts. That just means they pretend to record it live in class in front of the students. 

For this project, students choose a literary analysis focus for their novel and create a podcast based on it. I allow my students to be themselves on the podcast, or they can even make up personas. Some choose to be experts in their fields, and others choose to be characters in the book. 

For a few days in class, students work together to create the questions and answers for their podcast. They also come up with a show title and a podcast thumbnail. As student groups “live record” their podcast show, students in the classroom take notes.

Like the mini debate project, this is another collaborative project that sparks authentic conversation about the novels and literature we read in the classroom. 

Create a Literature Analysis Theme Park

Finally, the third project I designed to take AI out of literary analysis group projects and replace it with authentic student thinking and discussion is this Create a Literary Analysis Theme Park.

In collaborative groups, students work together to create a proposal for investors. Their goal is to create a theme park based on a novel or any piece of literature. This resource includes all the required paper planning sheets, so students do not need to use any technology or devices for the planning process.

In collaborative groups, students come up with a theme park name, a themed land, a ride, and a food item. Everything has to relate back to the novel you read in class (or one of the short stories you read in class). 

Once all of the planning and proposals are finished, students present their proposal to the investors to try to secure funding.

This project encourages collaboration, discussion, literary analysis, and creativity!

As it always has, education is forever changing. As teachers, it is our job to constantly adapt and change to meet the current demands of the profession. And while at times it feels like trying to stay two steps ahead of our students, we can always go back and rely on the tried-and-true methods. 

All of these collaborative projects are bundled together in an AI-proof Literary Analysis Activity Bundle!

How to Talk to Students About AI Using Contemporary Poetry

 by Tracee Orman

Over the summer, I read a poem I could not stop thinking about. It was called “Please Use AI” by Joanna Atkins-Potts. 
 
It made me stop and think about all the tiny little things that make us human. Like driving with the window down, feeling the grass between your toes, falling in love… Things that a machine will never be able to feel.
 
I knew instantly that this poem would be perfect for class. But I also wanted to share it with the world. I reached out to Jo and another contemporary poet, Shawn Smucker (who wrote the original “Please Use AI” that Jo's was inspired by), to see if we could collaborate on a lesson featuring their poems. Both poets gave me permission to use their poems and reprint them in a student-friendly format with room for annotation.
 
Their poems are not only perfect examples of verbal irony, but relevant sources for opening up a dialogue about AI use with your students. I mean, let's be honest. Students are using AI. It's readily available to them, it's getting harder and harder to detect, and they see everyone else using it. 

When I first posted this on my Instagram, many teachers reached out to me concerned because their students are using AI to do all their own thinking, from choosing what they should wear each day to deciding whether to break up with a boyfriend. And, of course, writing essays and answering homework questions. They are outsourcing their thinking, their creativity, what makes them human. I hear people express concern for the future if people become addicted to AI. I think the future is already here.

So how do we address this? How do we encourage students not to use AI for every little thing? (Or for the big things they need to learn?) One way is to start having these conversations about what we are losing every time we use AI. The poems can be our openers.

What is so wonderful about these poems is that they use sarcasm, something most teens can easily understand. After you've read the poems with your students*, you can discuss the theme, rhetorical devices, and compare how each poet treats the subject. But then talk about why the message resonates with so many. (Both poems went viral this summer.) Did it make them think differently about using AI?

Because both poets draw from their own adult experiences, it helps to have a teenage perspective, as well, which is why I include an example poem written from the perspective of a teenager.

And because I cannot let an opportunity slip to have students write poetry, I have them brainstorm different little things that they do throughout the day that are uniquely human. Things they may be tempted to outsource to AI. Then they use those examples to write their own parody "Please Use AI" poems.

This, I think, is where the reality of it might seep in. When they share their poems with one another, it just might make them think differently about how they are using AI.

Jo Atkins-Potts also wrote an essay about what the poem means to her, so you can have students read the essay AFTER they have already analyzed the poems themselves. She writes about what we stand to lose if we allow a machine to do all of our thinking for us. For teenagers, this is especially important. They are still learning so many valuable things. If they skip these steps and never learn to struggle through a problem or find the right words for an essay, they aren't learning perseverance, determination, or patience. They are missing out on the building blocks that make us uniquely ourselves.

What else would you include in these discussions? I would love to hear your feedback on our Instagram page.

You can find my full lesson here: Poetry Analysis: Please Use AI
While it is listed for grades 9-12, it can be adapted for 7th-8th grades, as well. I have an alternative assignment where only Atkins-Potts's poem is used.

*If you'd like to play a video of the reading of either poem, voice actor Chris Tester (@NaturallyRPVoiceover) recorded both.
Shawn Smucker's on YouTube 
Jo Atkins-Potts' on YouTube 
You can also find them on his TikTok and Instagram accounts.

Use Music as an Introduction to Poetry and Teaching Figurative Language

Use Music as an Introduction to Poetry and to Teach Figurative Language

By Tracee Orman

Teaching poetry can be intimidating because so many students have negative connotations associated with poetry. Is it because it’s used heavily in state testing? Is testing ruining poetry for our students? 

Regardless of the reason, it’s tough to overcome as an English teacher.

So how do we bring joy back into our poetry units?

I am a huge proponent of using music in some shape, way, or form, in all my units. Poetry is no exception. In fact, it’s the BEST unit to use music because aren’t song lyrics essentially poems? I believe they are.

One song that is my go-to even after all these years is Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Not only is it a recognizable, upbeat song, but it covers ALL of these:

• Imagery devices: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole

• Sound devices: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme

• Rhetorical devices: anaphora, epistrophe

• Tone/mood

• Theme

It makes it easy to use for so many different grade levels; younger students can focus on a select few devices to identify and analyze while older students can practice deeper analysis on how these devices work together to bring meaning to the song.

How to Introduce It:

🎶 The procedure I use for introducing the song as a poem is by playing it, of course. Poems are meant to be heard, so song lyrics should be heard, as well. You can have your students follow along with the lyrics on the first listen. Then play it again and have them try to identify the different imagery, sound, and rhetorical devices in the song. You can have students work in pairs if they are struggling.

🎶 After students are able to identify the devices, have them explain what it means. You can go over them as a group or in small groups. Play the song again, having students look with fresh eyes and ears.

🎶 Finally, discuss the tone/mood and how the devices work together to help create that. Ask them if they notice a shift in the mood at any point in the song. Discuss how the actual music (not the lyrics) contributes to this or creates irony. 

If you’d like this lesson and all the handouts that will guide your students step-by-step, you can get it FREE by opting in to my email list. 

You can also use the song to practice figurative language anytime. There are enough examples that you have a set lesson ready-to-go to use with any unit.

Next Steps:

I usually analyze at least one more song* before I have students choose their own school-appropriate song to analyze. Not every song is going to have a variety of devices used, so I usually tell them their song must have at least 3 different devices. 

What happens next is amazing. Students are looking at lyrics of numerous songs, scanning for poetic devices. Little do they know they are reading and thinking critically. It’s a fun, sneaky way for them to further practice identifying devices in context.

I hope this helps and I’d love to chat more with you about use song lyrics for an introduction to poetry or anytime! Join our conversation on Instagram.

For additional poetry activities, check out these activities:

*Wake Me Up Poetry Analysis by Tracee Orman

Figurative Language in Song Lyrics by Presto Plans