Lesson a Day
It has been sad to see the collapse of teacher sharing via social media over the last few years. There's a few things I could blame, but this is not the place for it. The problem is, it has made me less interested in sharing too. There just isn't much engagement any more when I do. I don't think it's lack of interest - this website is busier than it's ever been - it just isn't happening.
So, I want to push back. My goal is to post a resource (lesson, game, story hook, etc.) every day in January. Maybe that will inspire a few others to share more as well, or, maybe it won't. Either way, I'll get to practice my One Word of 2025 - Discipline!
This page will update periodically, the daily lessons will be found on social media at https://x.com/MrRoughton
1 of 31: Self Concept feat. Encanto - Part 1
One reason I haven't posted much the last two months is that I've been working on this massive project. l recently learned about the uh, concept of self-concept, and I think it is something my advisory students will benefit from it greatly. Of course, I wanted to make it more interesting, so I tied it all to Encanto. After the success of my Inside Out unit and Soul mini-unit, I knew I needed a movie to tie in. We will watch the movie, write a movie review then do a series of activities along with it. This is only part 1. There are (at least) 3 other parts to come - and they are far larger than this one, with some really cool hands-on projects to help students get to know themselves just a little bit better.
Self-Concept ft. Encanto
Chronology: The Night of Sorrows
Jury Service: Day 1
2 of 31: Chronology: The Sad Night
This break I've been working on revamping my Latin America unit. It was simply too much me talking. Despite the stories being awesome, I just needed to limit myself a bit more. So, I took one of those best stories and turned it into a lesson. In this new lesson frame (that I will sure use again) students play the role of a production assistant who is leading a pitch meeting. They have to figure out the order of the story in order to do so properly. I'm use the story of La Noche Triste. I think it will be fun and give students much needed practice in understanding chronology.
I wrote about this lesson in detail when I made it a couple months ago, so I won't rehash it here. I'm posting it again because it's the best new lesson I've done in awhile!
Two years ago, I served on a jury for the first time in my life. I can't wait to do it again! Seeing 12 very different Americans come together to do their civic duty was an awesome experience. It was so incredible that I knew I had to share it with my soon-to-be 18 year olds. But, how?
I searched for videos on the process which led to one of the best shows I've ever seen, Amazon's Jury Duty. This is a reality show where everyone is an actor except for one Truman Show-esque participant. He is selected for jury duty and serves on this fake trial. It's hilarious, heart felt and surprisingly accurate in terms of the jury process. It is, however, also not classroom appropriate. I could use parts, but definitely not large segments. What it did open my eyes to though was that my students could do this. They could be part of a jury.
So, I set out to make a simulation of jury duty. I started from the moment they receive their summons in the mail. They had to look up their status, plan their travel and parking and figure out where they'd go for lunch - without being late in each case. They'd fill out the juror questionnaire and go through the jury selection process. I wanted them ready for their first experience. I did not want them to be like the young man in my jury pool who showed up in shorts and flip-flops who was late to multiple check ins.
This lesson is what came of it. It is directly tied to my local jurisdiction, but you can either make changes or just have your students "live" in Riverside County for a couple days!
The second day of the sim would be the trial itself. I took my own trial and wrote up the witness testimony as a script. Students would read each, evaluate the honesty of each witness and try to determine the guilt of the accused. They were given the same jury instructions and explanations of the law in question as I was.
On the third day, they'd have deliberations. Each group selected a foreperson and tried to get a unanimous vote on guilty or not guilty. After coming to their conclusion, I discussed how my own jury decided the issue and then we watched a segment of the jury deliberation episode of the Jury Duty show and students compared their own deliberations to what they saw.
By the end, most were ready for jury duty and some were even now eagerly looking forward to it. I couldn't ask for anything more from a lesson.
A series of mini-activities showing the history behind Hamilton using primary sources tied to the songs. Act 1 focuses on the Revolutionary War. I bet you'll never guess what tomorrow's lesson will be!
Ah, you guessed it. Here's Act 2 which focuses on the Constitution.
8 of 31: The Marriage of Supply and Demand
This lesson, formed out of frustration and desperation, quickly became one of my favorites because of it's effectiveness. It's so good, in fact, that it is the centerpiece of my latest show: The Story-Driven Lesson. Students role-play as wedding planners to learn about how supply and demand curves function. It's heavily academic (and heavy on math) but it works! The story pushes the lesson along and the ending reward of a honeymoon video really sells it. This lesson is the perfect example of the pre-show, show, post-show model of design, check it out!
Marriage Honeymoon.mp49 of 31: Self-Concept ft. Encanto Part 2
In part 2 of this multi-week lesson students explore the different aspects of their lives that have formed how they see themselves today. They analyze a few songs from the movie to see how their characters there have come to see themselves. They also do some hands-on art projects that may get a little messy!
I love to start the year with a reflection on the past year. I've been doing this One Word variant for years now. We do some word games, look back, and then look ahead with a focus word for the year. If you're headed back Monday (like me) here's your lesson plan!
I'm back to teaching an unnamed-for-legal-reasons college-prep elective this year. We're doing our college kickoff when we return, so I put together this activity where students design their own dream university complete with campus maps, demographic data and amenities. This should be fun!
12 of 31: Through The Looking Glass
I spent a bunch of time this summer working with a colleague on building a lesson on how to write proper evidence statements in history. The result was this set of mini-activities themed around fairy tales. I liked the activities, and so did my students, but next year I'm making some changes. First, I'm cutting it down to 4 rules (from the six here) as my students are just too far behind on skills to start with 6. Second, and this was planned at the time, I'll be making activities to do throughout the year to specifically reinforce each of the rules. This is a great start, but it will need consistent follow through to really work.
13 of 31: The Rundown (How to Write a CER)
A very short lesson on claims followed by a much longer one on what makes valid evidence - all loosely themed about Among Us (as students look for the "impostors" - the things that look like evidence, but really aren't.) Students work as detectives finding factual evidence and learning the requirements for it. I've done this for years across many grade levels and it always works well! NOTE: This version also contains the lesson on reasoning, which I've updated as you'll see tomorrow!
14 of 31: The Rundown Reduxe: Reasoning (Built for PearDeck)
The reasoning part has historically worked less well, so this year, I started over. I'll be doing much more explicit instruction on how the reasoning part of a CER is constructed. I've kept some of the more fun aspects of the activity, but I want to hammer in the basics. A wise man once said, "if you can dodge a wrench, then you can dodge a ball." Well, if I can teach them to write a single proper reasoning statement then they can write a CER paragraph!
15 of 31: A Day in the Inca Empire I Script - In this introductory, scripted, story-driven lesson students time travel back to the days of the Inca to experience some of more memorable aspects of their culture from crossing grass bridges to eating guinea pigs. PowerPoint Recommended.