5 persuasive writing prompts about drugs

Drugs have always been a meaty topic for high school and college students as they are at an age when they are becoming aware of the social and health issues associated with drug use but also surrounded by the confusing messages from music, films and social media that drugs are "cool."

These persuasive writing prompts will certainly require your students to do some research to form an educated opinion about issues surrounding drug use.

Remember that if you are looking for more great free resources and structured guides to teaching all aspects of English especially writing be sure to visit literacyideas.com

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Prompt 1) In order to crack down on drug use and distribution in schools, many high schools have begun to conduct targeted searches of student lockers, backpacks and other "personal" properties. Keeping in mind that the Supreme Court has ruled these types of searches as constitutional, do you feel that this is still a violation of student rights? Or, do you think that since the school is ultimately responsible for the well-being of it’s students, they should have the right to conduct these searches in the effort of keeping the student body safe?

Prompt 2) With more professional and college athletes being drug-tested, do you feel that High School athletes should be subjected to regularly drug tests?

Prompt 3) Should marijuana be legalized? Site your position and specific examples that support this decision. Simply "because I like it," is not an example.

Prompt 4) Medical Marijuana has been legalized in California for some time now. Do you feel that it is okay for the State to decide that marijuana should be regulated and distributed any other prescription drug, or do you feel that this should be a decision made on the Federal level, and California should step inline with the rest of the country?

Prompt 5) Do you think law enforcement agencies and government officials spend too much time and energy focusing on marijuana instead of other drugs (heroin, cocaine,  meth, etc…)

Six ways to teach smarter with Google Forms

To the uninitiated Google Forms might seem like a poor cousin to the spreadsheet, presentation and word processing apps on offer, as it doesn’t fit the model of the traditional Office Suite.

Google Forms however opens up a whole collection of new teaching learning opportunities through it’s capacity to accumulate custom data in large quantities and then represent that data instantaneously in either a number of graphical or text based formats.

Teachers around the Globe are tapping in to this resource to make their job easier and find out a great deal more about their students with reliance on technology as simple as a mobile phone.

Here are some ways in which Google forms are being used by teachers.

Create an online reading record

Put a link on your class blog to an online reading record.  You don’t really need to make it too different from your paper based reading log such as name, title of book, pages read and comments.  It will save some paper and printing costs and be available as a digital format when writing reports.

Brainstorming with Wordle.

Got a class full of students who you want to focus on a specific point of view?  Create a simple task such as this.  “Separated by  a comma write down three words which you think sum up the message of “The Great Gatsby”.  You have 1 minute to do so.

Pop up a link for them to access and answer on their mobile device.  Then simply copy and paste all the responses into Wordle and you have a class focus on the topic in a beautiful easy to read and share format.

Create a classroom test.

Create form that has multiple choice or short answer questions to a topic you have been learning in class.  You can quickly view the spreadsheet to save correction time.  See the Video below for a tutorial.

Assignment tracker.

When students say they have saved a piece of work such as an assignment to a website or school server get them save the hyperlink to the location of the file on a google form so you don’t have to waste time looking for it and assuming it is there.

Spelling Tests

It doesn’t get much simpler than this.  Create a form with name and ten or so short text boxes for students to type in their weekly spelling words.

Prior Learning Assessment form

Create a Google Form asking a few simple questions about the topic you are intending to teach.  It will give you a great insight into where to start and direct your teaching. 

This may have taken a session on it’s own to do in the past.

101 ideas for using technology in the classroom

Sometimes it is difficult to put the technology in your classroom into an educational context.  This document contains many ideas for using a PC or mac in education.  

Unfortunately much of it was written prior to the uprise of the iPad so there is no reference to it but nonetheless there is plenty of relevant content for teachers and students. 

Many of the ideas come from the Victorian department of Education, Australia and can be downloaded here. 

How to write a great essay in ten simple steps

Thanks to literacyideas.com for these great tips for parents, teachers and students about writing essays.  Many students get anxious about how to approach an essay, but these ten tips will make it a logical and simple process.

Remember that if you are looking for more great free resources and structured guides to teaching all aspects of English especially writing be sure to visit literacyideas.com

If you would like some great essay topic suggestions be sure to check our recommendations here.

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1.   Examine the essay question carefully

o   Highlight key words.

o   Use the dictionary to check the meaning of any unfamiliar words.

o   Identify the task words that indicate what needs to be done, eg ‘discuss', ‘explain', ‘compare'.

o   Identify the topic words that indicate the particular subject of the essay, eg the character of ‘Juliet' in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the ‘causes' of World War 1.

o   Identify any limiting words that restrict the discussion to a particular area, eg in ‘Chapters 1-3', during the ‘nineteenth century'.

2.   Finalize any necessary reading or research as background to the essay

o   Be selective: use sources which are relevant and accessible.

o   Write notes in your own words.

o   Write down quotations that may be particularly useful, but ensure the source of these quotes is acknowledged if they're used.

o   Take note of sources so they can be provided in footnotes and the bibliography.

3.   Brainstorm your ideas in response to the question

o   Jot down any relevant points.

o   Make note of any relevant evidence or quotes that come to mind.

o   Use a mind map to help stimulate lateral thinking.

4.   Construct a thesis (idea/argument) that encapsulates the response to the question

o   The thesis should be a statement that strongly expresses the overall response to the question.

o   Avoid a thesis that's too simplistic – show thought has been put into some of the complexities behind the question.

o   The thesis is the backbone of the essay – it will be stated in the introduction. It also needs to be referred to several times in the essay before restating it and demonstrating how it has been proven in the conclusion.

5.   Write a plan for the response

o   Order ideas in a logical sequence.

o   Make sure every point in the plan is relevant to the question.

o   After the plan has been written it should be clear where the essay is going. 

6.   Write the introduction

o   Open up the discussion.

o   Introduce the thesis.

o   Indicate how the questions will be answered.

o   Name any texts to be discussed, if appropriate.

o   Engage the reader.

7.   Write the main body of the essay

o   Ensure each point is given a new paragraph.

o   Use words or phrases at the start of each paragraph that will indicate to the reader how it relates to the previous paragraph, eg, 'however', ‘in addition', ‘nevertheless', ‘moreover'.

o   Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that clearly links the paragraph to the rest of the essay, eg "A striking example of Gary Crew's use of light and darkness imagery to suggest notions of knowledge and ignorance occurs in the scene on the jetty".

o   Provide supporting evidence for each point that you make.

o   Revisit the thesis, and express it in different ways if possible, to emphasise how the question is being addressed. 

8.   Write your essay conclusion

o   Summarise the main ideas.

o   Demonstrate how you have proven your thesis.

o   Finish with an interesting or thought-provoking, but relevant, comment.

9.   Edit the draft

o   Check for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

o   Delete any sections that are not particularly relevant.

o   Change vocabulary to improve expression.

o   Seek feedback from peers or a teacher before writing the final copy.

10.                  Write the final copy

o   Add any footnotes or bibliography if required.

o   Present a clean, neat copy.

o   Submit on time.

5 Google Docs Tutorial Videos for Busy Teachers

Google Gooru is a great site for teachers to check out if they need to know more about integrating Google into their workflow and accessing all of those great collaboration tools which exist within Google Apps. 

Below are 5 well organised tutorials that will make your understanding of Google Docs greater and allow you get more out of this great suite of tools. 

Enjoy. 

How to transfer ownership of a Google Doc

Learn how to transfer ownership of a Doc as a user or an admin. An ownership transfer can be performed as a user within Google Drive, while Admins can perform this task in the Google Apps Control Panel, or by using a 3rd party tool. In this video we highlight FlashPanel.

Introduction to Google Plus Circles

Google Plus Circles are one of the best ways to share and receive social content with the right people. A staple of G+, Circles allow you to segment your friends, family and co-workers into easy to manage groups.

For example, if you’d like to share an interesting article with people you work with, you can set-up a circle with all of your important contacts.

How to Print Your Google Calendar

TOPICS: Beginner, Google Calendar

Posted on: May 03, 2012     | 42 comments

Gooru Tip - Maximize the video player and adjust video quality for optimal viewing!

Printing your Google Calendar is super easy. All you have to do is:

1. Go to the More dropdown in the top right
2. Click print
3. You’ll have two options – print or save as .pdf
4. You’ll have multiple formatting options, including the orientation of the calendar (portrait or landscape)
5. You can show or not show events that you have declined
6. You can choose black and white if you are printing in black and white, for better contrast
7. Hit print or save as .pdf and you’re done!

How to add your template to the Template Gallery

1. Open up Google Drive

2. Check off the Google Doc that you’d like to save as your template

3. Click “More” on the top

4. Select “Submit to template gallery”

Adding a table of Contents to a Google Doc

In this video, I show you how to add a table of contents to a Google Doc in two different ways. One way is by changing the specified text to “headlines” and then inserting a Table of Contents, which automatically creates links to your headlines. The other way is by making your headlines into bookmarks and then inserting links to your bookmarks at the beginning of the document.

The fact that you can create a table of contents on a Doc is one of the many benefits of using Google Docs and the fact that it is all on the internet. Once you watch this video, you’ll see how easy it is to add a table of contents to any Google Doc.

5 YouTube Tips for Busy Teachers and Students

YouTube is one of the most underused teaching resources on the web.  It offer millions of hours quality viewing made by some of the biggest names in the industry for free.  

As a teacher it is your job to sort the good from the bad and define a purpose for this medium; which is in most cases a pretty simple task.

Below I have put together my top five tips for teachers to help them get the most out of YouTube as a powerful teaching learning tool.

Create a YouTube Channel of your own.

Let’s get one thing straight you don’t actually need to create your own videos to create a channel you simply need to add videos to your channel.  This is really handy for teachers because it allows you to organize your favorite YouTube clips exactly how you would like them and you can invite visitors, pose questions and share comments without the rest of the world having their say. watch the video below.

Download your videos to watch offline in HD quality

You can download practically any video stream off the web with RealPlayer basic.  In HD too.  Install the program, and every time you load a YouTube clip it will have the option to download it locally to your PC.

Embed YouTube into PowerPoint Slides and web pages.

This is really easy to do.  If you have a web presence or a presentation simply follow these guides below to ensure your video is accessible via your website, blog or presentation.

Add Quizzes to your Videos

“Now kid’s today we are going to watch a documentary.  Please ensure that you take notes as there will be 5 questions you need to answer throughout the clip via a quiz.”   This really enhances student engagement and gives teachers a greater purpose as to why you are watching a clip.  Click here to see how to do it.

Add annotations, links and subtitles to your videos.

So you’ve just uploaded a YouTube video but forgot to add subtitles or annotations.  Don’t worry; you can do all of this directly from YouTube by following this guide.

20 Google Docs Secrets for busy teachers and students.

​Google Docs for Teachers and Students

Google Docs has revolutionised the way we create and edit content on the web.  It is a genuine collaboration tool like nothing that has come before it.

Up to 50 people can simultaneously edit a spreadsheet, presentation or document at no expense, and it is available on all mobile and desktop platforms.

Today we are going to look at 20 great tips every teacher and student should be using to get the most of the collaborative learning opportunities Google Doc’s offers.

Allow editing without signing in: If you’re sharing a document with classmates who don’t have a Google login, just make it available to edit without signing in.

Chat away: In Google Docs, you can see anyone who is currently editing the document, and if needed, send a message to chat with them.

Embed Docs anywhere: Get a link to your document or spreadsheet, and you can embed or publish it anywhere, including Facebook or a class blog.

Insert facts: Using Google Spreadsheet, it’s easy to insert facts, like a countries’ population, which is simply pulled through the Google search engine.

Create graphs: Visuals are great tools for getting your point across. Using charts in Google Spreadsheets, you can create your very own information-sharing graphs.

Create forms: Gather research information; ask for opinions, and more by creating Forms in Google Docs.

Convert PDFs to images and text: Use Google Docs to make PDFs easily editable.

Save to different file types: You can easily save your documents and spreadsheets to commonly used file types like DOC, XLS, CSV, and HTML.

Automatically add email addresses: If you have Google Apps, the email addresses of the people who fill out the form will automatically be saved.

Hide chat: Keep everyone quiet during your presentation by clicking the left side of the chat module.

Track edits and changes: In Google Docs you can go back and forth between edits that you or collaborators made.

Remove collaborators: If you want to take someone off a project, click none next to the name of the person you want to remove.

Turn it into a webpage: Download your document in HTML, and you can share it as a webpage with a minimal amount of hassle. A great starting point for students wishing to create a website.

Change ownership: Switch ownership of Google docs as project leaders change.  You might need to transfer ownership of a document to a staff member or student.  It’s easy.

Share an entire folder: If you’ve got a collection of documents to work on together with students or staff, just open up a shared folder that everyone can access and contribute to.

Adding video: Remember Google owns YouTube, so they know video.  You can embed video in documents, slides, and more to dress up your presentation.

Track visits: Using Google Analytics, you can track how much traffic a published document is receiving.  This is really useful if you need feedback on whether your audience is actually getting involved.

Revert back to old versions: If your group doesn’t like a certain set of changes made, it’s very simple just to revert back to automatically save previous versions in the revision history.

Get Google Drive – Google Drive is the central place to manage all of your online profile with Google and syncs with a number of devices.

Google Docs and Google Drive is an ever-evolving product that has provided heavy competition for products such as Microsoft Office.  I am sure there are many other useful tips you might be ware of and would love you to post them below.

Because of Winn Dixie Study Guide

​Synopsis of the Novel:

A 10-year-old girl, abandoned by her mother when she was three, moves to a small town in Florida with her father, a preacher. While there, she adopts a stray dog whom she names after the local supermarket where he was found. With her goofy pooch by her side, she meets an eclectic group of townspeople and rekindles an almost lost relationship with her father.

We have a study guide for students reading the novel.  It is an excellent resource for students to enrich their understanding of the novel as they read through it.

Download it here

Dan Ackland submitted this lesson plan and earned cash for it.  You too can earn cash for your teaching ideas right now by clicking here.

*Please note all of our documents are originally designed using high resolution images and fonts at A3 paper size.

Be aware it will be automatically resized to your default paper size when using Adobe Acrobat Reader without any loss of quality. If you would like to print these documents at larger sizes you can read the Adobe Resize & Scaling FAQ here.