Have you spent hours reading quotes on Pinterest? Maybe it’s just me. Before Pinterest, I even found myself going down the quote rabbit hole. What is it about quotes?
I think my love of quotes comes from the that moment when you recognize something you’ve thought being said beautifully by someone you’ve never met. They can convey a thought or a feeling, spark a conversation, and touch you emotionally.
Quotes: Bell Ringer
Unfortunately, Students walk in the room with their own mental baggage. Maybe their parent’s were yelling at them on their way to school. Maybe they had a disagreement with their best friend at recess. By starting class with a quote, students have something else to focus on. The quotes in my Growth Mindset Resource and in my Quote a Day resource were all specifically chosen to be positive and uplifting in order to set a positive tone when walking in the room.
First, I like to display the quote on the interactive white board while students walk in the room. This gives them something positive to think about and talk about as they log into their chrome books. After giving them time to write/type, I like to have a brief discussion time where kids can share what they think the quote is about and what it means to them.
One option is to do four quotes a week. On the fifth day, students can choose one quote to go back to. They can take some time to revise and edit their writing (alone or with a partner). When students revise and edit with a partner, I have them use TAG which you can learn more about in this post. On the fifth day, students can have a discussion about what they chose and why or you could do a gallery walk. For a gallery walk, students press present and have their writing showing on the screen. In the end, students can walk around and read each other’s responses.
Quotes: Spark a Conversation
When you first start teaching, you feel like your job is to get the kids to be quiet. As you get classroom management under control, you begin to love helping your students find their voice. A quote can spark a conversation in your classroom. This gives you the opportunity to teach kids to debate, defend their ideas, and disagree respectfully. These important life skills also help students find their voice when writing.
Quotes: Writing Prompts
Using quotes as a writing prompt gives your students the opportunity to practice writing an argument while supporting their ideas. Students need a lot of practice taking a stance and looking for evidence to prove their stance. A quote can be an excellent way to do that as a daily Bell Ringer. Quotes can even be used as a personal narrative writing prompt by asking students to tell about how a quote relates to a moment in their life or a person they’ve known.
Quotes: Teaching Editing Skills
Often times, students struggle to use quotation marks and commas correctly. By giving a writing prompt where student respond to a quote, you open up an opportunity for students to practice using quotations marks in complex sentences. If your students struggle with using quotation marks, check out my Quotation Mark resource. Thankfully, using this resource has really helped my students to have fun repetitive practice with quotation marks.
Quotes: Social Studies
Unfortunately, Social Studies is getting harder and harder to fit in to the day, especially with schools with a STEM/STEAM push. Luckily, using a quote related to a holiday or social studies unit can allow you to touch on a topic like President’s Day when you only have time for a Bell Ringer. At my school, most of our social studies has to be incorporated into reading and writing since we don’t have a separate social studies/ history block. Quotes are a great way to touch on both. You can find all of my seasonal quotes resources here.
Where can I find quotes to use in my classroom?
You can create a Pinterest board full of quotes like I have. You may want to start one specifically for your classroom to make sure the content is correct. Check out my Quotes Board on Pinterest.
Warning: Of course, there are a lot of inaccurate quotes on the internet, especially for Abraham Lincoln. I find a bit of irony in the fact that Honest Abe is used for dishonesty. When I was creating my quotes resources for Abraham Lincoln, I about 25-50% of the quotes I found were questionable. I would paste the quote into Google and see what popped up. If a debate about the authenticity popped up, I didn’t use it. If a reference to when it was said or where it was published popped up, I felt safe using it.
I've put my love of quotes to work for my classroom and made resources where students can respond to quotes in Google Slides. Bell ringer with a positive quote for students to respond to. This digital resource in Google Slides allows students to choose a prewrite template to fit their response to a quote a day. Students write a paragraph in response to a quote each day. Great Bellringer / How do you help students develop a growth mindset? Give them the opportunity to set goals, track their data growth, and reflect. This paperless customizable technology resource gives your students a digital journal to use year round. The three main sections of this interactive journal are Goal Setting, Data Tracking, and Reflection. Goal Setting With this bell ringer, your students can respond to a quote by Martin Luther King. Perfect for MLK jr Day or Black History Month. This digital resource in Google Slides allows students to choose a prewrite template to fit their response to a Dr. Martin Luther With this bell ringer, your students can respond to a quote by famous African Americans for Black History Month. This digital resource in Google Slides allows students to choose a prewrite template to fit their response to a quote each day. Students write a paragraph in response to each quote. With this bell ringer, your students can respond to a quote by famous American Presidents for President's Day. This digital resource in Google Slides allows students to choose a prewrite template to fit their response to a quote each day. Students write a paragraph in response to each quote. With this bell ringer, your students can respond to quotes by Abraham Lincoln. Perfect for Lincoln's Birthday or President's Day. This digital resource in Google Slides allows students to choose a prewrite template to fit their response to a Honest Abe's quote each day. With this bell ringer, your students can respond to quotes by George Washington. Perfect for Washingtons's Birthday also known as President's Day. This digital resource in Google Slides allows students to choose a prewrite template to fit their response to a George Washington's quote each day. Digital graphic organizers take students through the process of writing dialogue. Students learn to use correct capitalization and punctuation with several opportunities to apply the use of quotation marks during creative writing activities. My students loved creating fun conversations.Using Quotes in Your Classroom
Leave a Reply