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Be your best English Teacher Self

EVERYDAY

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Introducing Pencils and Prologues Society & Membership

Pencils and Prologues is a Library of Bell Ringers that will not only allow you to start your classes with confidence and ease, but these activities are quick activities that can be used in so many ways including warm ups, exit tickets, stations, formative assessments and more!

 

Then, you can pull from a library of theme-based essential-question driven units which include options for short works, literature circles and/or full-length works.

Start each Class with Confidence

without sleepless nights or long after school hours

  • Are you scrambling to set up your warm ups everyday?
  • Are your warm ups meaningless time fillers?
  • Do your students wander into class without purpose or direction?
  • Is there pressure for your students to do better on standardized tests like the AP® exams?
  • Are you struggling to develop cohesive units?
  • Do you wish you could keep your lessons fresh without the pressure to do all the work?

Does it seem that everyday your students wander in and then socialize?  Or worse yet, they just get on their phones?

 

Say goodbye to wasted class time and hello to instant engagement with our ever-growing library of quick activities and theme-based units.

  • Decide once and create routines that you can use EVERY SINGLE DAY.
  • Establish a warm up routine that adds to your classes for the outcome of the day OR the outcome the year.
  • Be ready for your students to get to work immediately.
  • Encourage meaningful test prep that doesn't feel like test prep.
  • Build cohesive units around theme-based essential questions which provides a clear framework for skill building
  • Access curated texts, anchor charts, task cards, and mini-courses, designed to enhance student learning and engagement

& get more free time…

The time saving benefits of membership:

You will get all of this!

100s of Quick Activities

100s of activities that students can do in 10 minutes or less. Use them as warm ups, exit tickets, formative assessments, sponge activities and more.

Theme Based Units

Choose the theme, choose the style (short works, literature circles or full length text) and build units that focus on both the essential questions and building skills students need to do well on high-stakes tests and beyond.

New Content & Monthly Bonuses

Each month you will get new content and limited time bonuses.

Download & Use

Ready to use materials that you can download, print/post and use. Most activities come as PDFs, PNGs, Powerpoint and Slides.

Hey There, I'm Jeanmarie and I Can't Wait To Help...

I understand the daily challenges you face.  I face these same challenges because I am still IN IT.  Just like you.

 

I’ve spent years refining and perfecting the most effective activities to encourage student engagement and learning.

 

These strategies aren’t just theoretical; they’re tried and true, tested in my own classroom.

 

I’ve used these activities to establish a focused start to class, implement rapid formative assessments, build units that foster student interest and engagement and consistently achieve a 75%+ passing rate on the AP® Literature exam.

 

I’m excited to share these proven techniques with you.

This is exactly what I need! Sign me up!
Jeanmarie McLaughlin for Pencils and Prologues Membership for high school English teachers

All Members Get Full Access To:

a library of ready to use quick activities to use as bell ringers, exit tickets, assessments, stations and more.

Poem of the Week & Passage of the Week

Practice close reading with short poems and/or short prose over the course of a week.

Theme Based Units

Access editable unit plans centered around a theme-based essential question. Plans are designed for your needs: focus on short works, literature circles or full-length texts.

RA of the Week

Practice Rhetorical Analysis with excerpts from speeches and other nonfiction over the course of a week.

Theme and EQ focused

Themes include the Harlem Renaissance, The Byronic Hero, and Teaching Shakespeare. Each month is a new theme.

Allusion of the Week

Introduce Biblical, Mythological and Fairy Tale Allusions through origin stories and practice with poetry and excerpts from longer texts.

& More

Find units for full length texts like A Lesson Before Dying, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Frankenstein.

Here's what people Are Saying About Our Bell Ringers

Helping close the gap

I have been using the poem of the week with my AP Lit students to help close the gap they have in poetry. When we first began, my students read a poem and automatically said, "I don't know what that means." As we review poems three days a week, they are slowly getting more comfortable reading poetry and learning how to embrace the struggle. I am confident that this is helping my students get past the block they have in their minds and establishing a growth mindset for reading poetry.

Beske
AP English teacher
I am very grateful for this resource. I was able to pull some great ideas to incorporate into my short-story unit. It really freshened up what I already had. Thank you for an excellent resource, and for adding a little zest into a 19-year old unit plan!.
Nicole
English teacher

Pay attention to author's techniques

My students loved using [lessons in close reading] as an introduction to their short story unit. It enabled them to close read and pay attention to the author's techniques.
Bernadette
English teacher

So quick and easy

Love these [bell ringers] ~ so quick and easy to implement, even when I forget to prep for Monday morning. :o)
Jennifer
English teacher
I found Frankenstein an excellent resource to use with my AP Literature students. I liked the way in which the novel was divided and found the activities to be highly engaging and focused on pertinent topics with which we were able to employ critical thinking and analysis skills..
Meredith
English teacher

Get Instant Access to Awesome Membership

MONTHLY

Recurring payment, cancel anytime
$ 19
99
each month
  • Full Access to the Bell Ringer and Content Catalog
  • 100s of ready to use, quick activities including close reading, vocabulary, writing, argument and more!
  • New activities added each month
  • Limited time bonuses each month
  • Exclusive content!
  • Theme-based EQ driven unit plans
  • New themes each month
  • Quarterly Curriculum PD
  • Try for just $1
  • Cancel Any Time
Try it For $1

ANNUAL

BEST VALUE - Save $40.88
$ 199
99
per year
  • Full Access to the Bell Ringer Catalog (over $500 value)
  • Full Access to the Content Catalog (over $750 value)
  • 100s of ready to use, quick activities including close reading, writing, argument and more!
  • New activities added each month
  • Limited time bonuses each month
  • Exclusive content!
  • Theme-based EQ driven unit plans
  • New themes each month
  • Quarterly Curriculum PD ($104 value)
  • Cancel Any Time
  • Two months free!
I am ready for a full Year
2 Months Free

Try for just $1

I want you to be sure about your decision to join Pencils and Prologues and because I am so certain that you will be, I am going to let you try it for 7 days for just $1.

 

If at the end of 7 days, you decide that the membership is not right for you, then you can cancel.  No harm, no foul.

 

But I am so certain that you will be amazed by all the content, that I will gladly let you in to see everything for less that a vending machine bottle of water.

Frequently Asked Questions

Think Netflix or Hulu or Disney+.  You pay a monthly fee and for as long as you pay that fee, you get access to the content.

And sometimes the content changes.  New things are added and others are available for only a limited amount of time.

The great thing about the activities in the library is that they can really be used in a variety of ways:  they can be exit tickets, formative assessments, filler activities or even sub plans.  

You will have immediate access to hundreds of quick activities when you join including: poem of the week, passage of the week, rhetorical analysis of the week, allusion of the week, Greek and Latin roots, Roots in Context and so much more.

 

Additionally, each month, new quick activities will be added and you will have access to limited time bonuses.

You will find most materials in the form of PDFs.  Many are also provided as PNG files as well as PowerPoint and Google Slides.

 

Additionally, there are web based previews for many of the activities. (Exclusive to the membership)

TPT is like a hotel.  You get access to a room, it’s generally clean and you get short term access.

The membership is more like an AirBnB.  You get access to the whole house, the freedom to poke around in a variety of rooms and access to the host.

TPT gives you access to just the room, a single purchase.  You download and hope it’s right.

The membership gives you access to all the rooms, previews before you download, video support and direct access to the host. (Oh, that’s me!)

And your host is a super host with 30 years of classroom experience.

I will be honest:  that depends.

 

I design my curriculum specifically for upper level high school students.  (That’s my area of expertise–I have exclusively taught 11 and 12 for the last 20 years, but I did teach 10 for the decade before that.)

 

BUT, I run many of my ideas and products by my daughter who is in ninth grade.

 

Many of the materials are adaptable and I feel confident you will find something for your students in grades 9-12.  

 

If you teach middle school, I would definitely take advantage of the $1 trial to see if what I offer is right for you.

It is easy to cancel.  With just a few clicks you will be able to stop payment.

 

I want you to be happy, so if you decide the membership is not right for you, it should be easy to leave and it should be easy to come back.

The Bell Ringer (ie. short activity) Catalog includes 10+ styles of quick activities:

  • Poem of the Week
  • Passage of the Week (Prose Fiction)
  • Rhetorical Analysis of the Week (Nonfiction)
  • Allusion of the Week
  • Vocabulary including Roots in Context (of texts like Macbeth, Hamlet, The Importance of Being Earnest, Of Mice and Men and more) and Roots with vocabulary words for daily or weekly study
  • Activities to use with any text like 3-2-1s, character pyramid, symbolism pyramid and more.
  • Activities for specific texts like Macbeth, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Of Mice and Men, Our Town, Frankenstein and more.
  • Writing Activities
  • Archetypal Activities

 

**new content added each month

**video trainings

**limited time bonuses