Background about me: I have been teaching 7/8 grade English for 8 years. I have worked with standard, inclusion, and advanced classes.   Awards: Last year I won teacher of the year for my division and teacher technology of the year for my region.   Standardized Test Scores In my state, (which is Virginia and has SOLS) students take two standardized tests in reading and writing/editing concepts. In the past four years of using this curriculum I have create I earned an average of 97.5% in writing and 93.75% in reading which isn’t too shabby!   Snapshot of my classroom: As soon as my students walk into my classroom they have a bell ringer that covers all aspects of topics covered within the classroom, and a journal question that requires them to write 3-5 sentences daily. (Journal Q’s really help to get to know students personally)   I made it my personal goal a few years ago to introduce almost every literary concept in my classroom with songs and movie clips so that the segue into identifying them in literature would be smoother and less painful for the kids! I scoured every resource I could think of to find songs and movie clips to do this. Every single literary concept I teach has either a prezi with movie clips and/or songs. Kids LOVE this!    I created an entire year program in which students interact with root words, prefixes, suffices, and context clues three times a week. Monday students get a list of 6 roots/prefixes that they must define and place in context or the correct multiple meaning. On Wednesdays students read a high interest nonfiction article with Monday’s prefixes and roots within the article (they must use knowledge of the roots and context to determine the meaning of the word). There are 5 comprehension and analytical questions on each article. On Fridays students take a 20 question multiple-choice test on the words of the week.   For writing I teach a modified version of Step-Up-to-Writing which incorporates colors into the writing process, which has worked wonders for me! I like to give students a wide range of writing prompts so they are prepared for any possibility. I also like to err on the side of caution when it comes to editing and proofreading and have my students edit a myriad of sentences.   My students have weekly homework that they must read one assigned story from the textbook and fill out a short story form on the story that we go over every Friday.   All of the novels I teach have pre reading prezis that I have created to get the students to “buy into” the book before we start reading! My goal for this shop I hope to share with people fun an engaging lessons that will help to awaken both teacher and student imaginations!