Welcome to the Shurley English Blog! For the past thirty-five years, our mission at Shurley Instructional Materials has been simple. We do all we can to help teachers and students experience grammar and writing success. With that goal in mind, we wanted to create a space where our team of educators could share tips, tricks, and techniques to ignite learning. It’s all about educators helping educators on the Shurley English Blog. We invite you to join the conversation!
It seems like everyone is talking about being mindful these days! From “how-to” magazine articles to “feel-good” stories on the evening news, mindfulness is generating quite a buzz! So, what’s it all about? Is it for me? Will mindfulness enhance the quality of my life, and can I teach myself how to incorporate the principles?
With all of these questions in mind, I decided to
Read MoreEvery year, Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends on the first Sunday in November, when clocks are moved back an hour at 2 a.m. local daylight time. When this happens, It takes our minds and bodies several weeks to adjust to the time change. On top of that, the early evening darkness can wreak havoc on our overall mood due to a reduction in the amount of sunlight we receive.
Research tells us that
Read MoreMany students seem to have a difficult time locating even the most basic parts of speech like the Subject Noun and Verb. If they’ve had little to no grammar instruction in grades 1-8, it’s no surprise. With that being said, there is a curriculum that can completely turn a grammar deficit around. It’s
Read MoreThe upcoming Thanksgiving holiday is the perfect time to help your students show appreciation for someone special in their lives by creating a special, handmade memento.
I’ve got a great activity that will take your students through the entire writing process to create a heartwarming essay to share with their loved ones. Here are the details…
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My favorite thing about February is that it seems to be the designated month of love. It’s the time of the year when people seem to make a conscious effort to show LOVE to their family and friends in one way or another. Even people that find it hard to say “I love you” and secret admirers feel as though they have a free pass to do so on Valentine’s Day!
Love has many levels of implication, which makes it hard to define and sometimes even harder to understand. Thankfully, the ancient Greeks tackled the subject long ago and devised terminology to clarify the 7-States of Love:
Storge: natural affection; the love you share with your family
Philio: the love that you have for friends
Eros: the romantic desire kind of love
Agape: this is the unconditional love, or divine love
Ludus: this is playful love, like childish love or flirting
Pragma: long standing love; the love in a married couple
Philautia: the love of the self
The 7-States of Love represent seven different feelings, yet the same word is used to name each one: LOVE. That’s so confusing, but think of it like this: Even though you might say ‘I love you' to two different people and mean it, the truth is that you don’t love your mother the same way that you love your significant other, and so on!
So, how can you clearly communicate your feelings when you say ‘I love you’ without using the actual terminology used by the ancient Greeks? (I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say something like, “I have philio-love for you!”) One way is to try using a simile to clarify. For example: I love you as a friend; or I love you like family. (There's your ELA connection!)
Love is one of the most important parts of our lives, so understanding the 7-States of Love and how to convey our feelings of LOVE will make a huge impact.
Remember: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Need a new idea to get the creative juices flowing in your classroom?
The Haiku offers that opportunity to your students by channeling their creativity into this unique form of Japanese poetry.
Here is a great lesson plan to get you started. (By the way, you can find this lesson, along with many others, in the Unit Studies Section of your Shurley English book!)
EXPAND THE LESSON: VALENTINE'S DAY
You can adapt the directions by creating an example with your students that focuses on the desired holiday or season. For this example, I focused on creating a haiku to include in a valentine for a mother or grandmother in the life of the student.
Loving me each day
Never giving up on me
My Valentine Mom.
Missing you today
Happy Valentine’s Day, Mom
Hugs up to heaven.
She wakes me each day
With a smile and a big hug -
Now filled, love others!
No other mother
Can fix my crushed, broken heart
She’s just right for me!
Just Grandma and me
Baking her special cookies
Making memories!
Of course, the students can use whatever craft supplies you provide to design a special valentine card, which includes their haiku to bring a smile to someone. Just think, you can help to create lifelong treasures in the families represented in your classroom! I saved many of the special creations of my own son, most of them prompted by his wonderful teachers throughout his elementary school years. What a privilege you have to be a part of making memories to last a lifetime!
When the excitement of a snow day or a long weekend is over, you may want an activity to teach your students how to find interest in nature’s resting time. It's an opportunity to find the beauty on display right outside the window! Take a classroom field trip outside and have your students paired up with clipboards to record the details they observe. This is a great time to review descriptive writing to spark their imagination. We've provided a few descriptive writing resources for you at the bottom of this page!
Read MoreDuring the first few days of January, many people across the globe participate in the age-old tradition of writing a New Year’s Resolution. The custom of making a promise to do something differently to improve one’s life (mind, body, & soul) in the coming year has been going on since ancient times.
Writing a New Year’s Resolution is not the same thing as coming up with a goal for the New Year. Goals require
Read MoreAs a classroom teacher, returning from holiday break was always bittersweet. On one hand, I knew the pressure for “test prep” would be more intense, but on the other hand, the satisfaction of witnessing my students grow into wiser beings put a validating smile on my face.
It was a common practice of mine to re-assign the Shurley English Pretest the day my students returned to class from their holiday break. The Teacher’s Manual did not tell me to do this; I simply felt it was an important way to
Read MoreMy family and I have played a really cool game throughout our years together. My wife and I thought it up when we were traveling on vacation several years ago, and it remains as one of my all-time favorites (not sure anyone else agrees!!). It only requires a brain, a vocabulary, and a voice.
It’s a kind of free-word association game. It is loosely modeled around the psychological test called
Read MoreShurley English is the best English Language Arts curriculum available to public schools, private schools, and home educators.Shurley English is a rigorous curriculum that brings back student-teacher interaction, promotes higher-order thinking skills, and provides students with a successful base from which they can achieve mastery, retention, and enthusiasm for English.
Our mission is to inspire and empower ALL students to become competent, confident communicators by providing superior educational solutions and innovative teacher training tools. This will enable all students to positively impact their school, community, and future work environments.
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