Brandy taught HS ELA in Missouri, Arizona, and Oklahoma before becoming a Curriculum Specialist at the K20 Center. She has over 12 years of experience in the classroom.
Students will engage in a discussion about what it means to be human before trying to determine, much like the Turing Test, which images were created by artificial intelligence and which were created by humans. Students will read a passage from Frankenstein, analyzing the piece for how the author portrayed... Read more »
Thematic Links Between AI and Frankenstein
In this lesson, students will explore the meaning of the word "parallel" and analyze how and for what purposes parallel structure is used in speeches. At the end of the lesson, students will compose a tweet to summarize the purpose of parallel structure in writing. This lesson includes optional modifications... Read more »
Parallel Structure
This lesson asks students to analyze the motivations of Montresor in Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" and engages students by placing them in the role of a forensic psychologist. In this role, having students will answer questions in a clinical evaluation. Students will analyze... Read more »
Irony and Characterization in "The Cask of Amontillado"
This lesson has students connect the theme of sadness and mindfulness in both a short story fiction text and a nonfiction text to explore the socio-emotional development of characters. This lesson includes optional modifications for distance learning. Read more »
Theme and Characterization
Discussions are a natural, common practice in ELA classrooms. It is a daily challenge to engage students face-to-face, but engaging students online can feel especially difficult. This presentation introduces strategies that can effectively spark ideas for both face-to-face and virtual discussions: First... Read more »
This session focuses on the basics and best practices of universal design for learning in the online environment to help students access materials and participate. This session explores what universal design for learning is and why UDL practices should be used when planning and designing lessons and... Read more »
A scaffolded, two-paragraph argumentative writing template that allows students to enter into academic conversations by first summarizing the argument of the given text, and then asks students to explain their own opinions regarding the topic. Read more »