Next Level Literacy

Literacy in its broadest sense describes particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing. In short: it’s a foundational skill required in every course and content area. And when it’s taught with a playful twist: it’s a game-changer. Browse libraries of similarly themed collections of literacy resources inside of the blue section located just below, or scroll down to the white section to explore stand-alone activities to help your students get the “write” stuff.

NEXT LEVEL LITERACY COLLECTIONS:

Emc2 Resources

Poker Chip Chase

Let’s face it: getting students excited about reading a text closely can often feel like an assignment straight out of Mission Impossible. But what happens when we scatter top-secret reward items throughout the pages of our required reading? Poker Chip Chase is a surefire way to punch up your students’ eye for detail.

Story Dice Switcheroo

Mix things up for your next lesson plan with a friendly bit of student-centered storytelling and peer review! Story Dice Switcheroo challenges learners in any content area to find creative ways to account for a random assortment of virtual story dice of your choosing. Game on!

Territory Takedown

Let your students take control of your classroom as you transform any ordinary lesson plan into a larger than life game of command and conquer! In the Territory Takedown, rival teams of students will compete to stake their claim onto an oversized game map by taking notes on all sorts of items related to your content.

Text Quest

One simple pedagogy + Three small choices = Limitless classroom potential. Text Quest is a step-by-step lesson planning framework that show helps teachers transform any day’s instruction into an interactive Role Playing Game — with your students gleefully digging for relevant text evidence in hopes to win the game.

Tower Topplers

Take a single text. A few mischievous teams of students with the power to monkey with the work of their rival squads. A couple hundred LEGO bricks. And a challenge to build a sky-scraping tilty towers. What could possibly go wrong, eh? Tower Topplers takes close reading and content review to new heights.

Traps & Treasures

In the immortal words of Dr. Frank N. Furter — “I see you shiver with antici…PATION!” Research has consistently shown that the human brain is hardwired to seek resolution for incomplete tasks. And Traps & Treasures leverages this phenomenon into a close reading activity that is guaranteed to hook your students.

EVEN MORE NEXT LEVEL LITERACY RESOURCES:

From close reading activities to writing practice and vocab review, these resources are student tested and teacher approved.

Mind Meld Museum

Hang it in the Louvre! This content acquisition activity is one for the ages. Working in timed rounds, students will read a section and then try to match annotations with others. For each match, teams earn notecards to serve as the foundation of their new art piece.

Write, Right, Fight!

Write, Right, Fight! gives students the chance to practice stating a position, expanding on arguments, and countering opposing claims—all in a low-stakes, engaging format inspired by Two Truths and a Lie. Fast-paced and low prep, fighting over content never felt so fun!

P.I. Discoveries

P.I. Discoveries is a fantastic one day protocol for any course or grade level. Give your classes their chance to practice at research, writing, and a bit of argumentative debate as you place students hot on the trail to discover the truth in your current unit of study!

Kenning Clash

Prepare for battle! Kenning Clash is a metaphor-driven game inspired by the legendary Vikings of old, where clever word-smithing students craft poetic two-word kennings to describe your course content and challenge their classmates to decipher their meanings.

Diamond Mind Miners

In Diamond Mind Miners, teams of students “dig” through assigned topics to uncover all sorts of shimmering insights. Dig in for fun as your students individually categorize findings, collaborate to prioritize information, and highlight the most critical details.

Tone Twisters

Feeling groovy? Take a trip through the colorful and kaleidoscopic world of Tone Twisters, where students put their heads together to try to remix and reword existing course content to help it make sense to all kinds of brand new audiences. It’s far out, man!

ICEE Paragraphs

Writing a rock solid body paragraph takes a ton of practice. It can be so hard to tell just what information to include and when! Thankfully, that’s where ICEE Paragraphs can help us keep cool every time. Give a click to help your students learn the recipe for success!

Déjà Voodoo

Welcome to Déjà Voodoo! Do you have what it takes to break the close reading curse? On this dark and stormy night, your students will be seeing double! But if they’re willing to take a second look, there’s actually a whole lot more to the true story than meets the eye.

Vocab Grapplers

Step into the ring and lay the smackdown on your opponents with this wrestling-themed spin on content review! Vocab Grapplers plays exactly like the Word Warriors activity, but comes with all of the color and excitement of the squared circle to beef up any lesson plan.

Word Warriors

Word Warriors is a hilarious head-to-head competition that challenges your students to attack and defend all kinds of concepts related to the current unit of study. Prepare to bring the fight to whatever wacky prompts and rule variations the battle arena throws your way!

Twisty Talkies

Don’t get it twisted! Because this hilarious, hands-on activity will challenge students to cast their very own “mini movie” and bring it to life using some old fashioned imagination plus the power of handheld video. Lights, camera, action!

Master Mined

Ready to blast away the competition in a challenge that totally rocks? In Master Mined, your students will have the chance to dig for some serious detail both individually and in groups while learning how to extract information that’s equal parts quality *and* quantity.

Stuck in the Mud

Stuck in the Mud takes one of the most famous playground games of all time and turns it into a sneaky team against team reading competition. The goal: see how much dirt each team can find by digging deep into randomly selected Mud Puddle Paragraphs without getting stuck!

Big Picture Pinpoint

Think you’ve got what it takes to hit the target with pinpoint accuracy? This playful pedagogy will challenge your students’ ability to hone in on the most important details while still keeping a close eye on the big picture of what they’ve learned. Ready, aim… fire!

Superstar Sentence Smackdown

Superstar Sentence Smackdown helps your students pump up their confidence while flexing some serious writing muscle through a series of timed rounds. Best of all, learners will be fired up to receive lightning fast feedback from their peers at every stage of the game.

Database Deep Dive

Independent research can often leave students feeling like they’re in over their heads with too much information all at once. But the Database Deep Dive helps classes keep tabs on the content they’re discovering as they go. Give a click to dive into some deep learning.

Pillar Builders

If you’re looking for an activity to help your students get a feel for the proper way to structure an evenly balanced argument, then Pillar Builders is the perfect way to play. This mythology inspired collection offers a dozen different sample thesis writing challenges.

Happy Green Boxes

Using color helps folks learn. (Pretty cool how every word in the previous sentence was exactly five letters long, eh? Thanks, Wordle!) This activity draws inspiration from the hottest new word game to help take the sting out of any writing assignment you can think of.

Research Raiders: Ultimate Edition

Research Raiders: Ultimate Edition is a giant collection of two different adventures in one. In the first challenge, your students will browse the open internet to find articles relevant to your course content. And in challenge number two: it’s time to hit the archives!

QFT Full Court Press

The QFT Full Court Press is a fantastic activity if you’ve got a classroom full of aspiring attorneys or students looking to brush up on their argumentative writing. Using this multi-step protocol, your classes will be full of all kinds of probing questions in no time.

QFT Throwdown

The Question Focus Technique (“QFT”) is a power player in the action-packed world of Mixed Mental Arts. And this high energy cage showdown will test your students’ strength, speed, and stamina in churning out all sorts of questions to help them punch up their learning.

St. Patrick’s Day Magnetic Poetry

Faith and begorrah! This seasonal twist on the traditional magnetic poetry activity gives your students the chance to craft original drag-and-drop poems on all kinds of topics inspired by the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. Leprechauns, pots of gold, and lucky charms await.

Research Raiders Annotated Bibliography

Transform any dusty old research assignment into an action-packed adventure that will take your classes on an exciting, self-paced crusade through forgotten tombs, forbidden temples, and abandoned archives. Share a copy of this fully editable template with each student!

Magnetic Poetry

With a simple click of a mouse, students will be drag-and-dropping their way to all kinds of creative new poems inspired by your course or content area. Magnetic Poetry helps take the sting out of the creative process for learners of all ages. Writing never felt so fun!

Emc2 Resources