English Teacher Fun Box
A carefully curated collection of resources that promise to surprise, delight, and engage.
What’s In This Month’s English Teacher Fun Box?
English Teacher Fun Box is a carefully curated collection of timely lessons and resources, designed to engage your students based on what's relevant and trending during any given month. You’ll have everything you need to make teaching exciting, impactful, and deeply connected to the world your students live in.
- Teach Argument With Taylor Swift's "Ruin the Friendship" — Taylor Swift dropped her newest album just days ago, and while some of her latest songs have stirred some controversy, the album is not without rhetorically complex arguments that promise to engage our students in close reading and rhetorical analysis at a high level. This lesson bundle uses "Ruin the Friendship" as a central text for analysis; it includes a comprehensive, line-by-line close reading activity, exercises for unpacking the rhetorical situation, a lovely activity for argument mapping (that can be easily extended to any other text your students may be reading), and an essay to tie it all together!
- Teach Argument With Pumpkin Spice Lattes! — Pumpkin Spice Rhetoric is Back (For a Limited Time!) ...Sound familiar? Of course it does. This lesson bundle prompts students to unpack, analyze, and compare a series of pumpkin spice latte advertisements before synthesizing their analyses in essay form. And, if you’re looking to make this engaging lesson even more memorable, brew a pot of pumpkin spice coffee and distribute “samples” to your students at the start of class. A little whipped cream goes a long way. (Who said rhetorical analysis can’t be absolutely delicious?)
- Teach Argument With Billie Eilish — Billie Eilish's songs, their themes, and even the image with which she brands herself are all “darker” than what we might typically expect in popland... but they're an optimal fit for October, and provide a wealth of compelling language for our students to unpack! This lesson bundle provides in-depth guided rhetorical analyses for students to engage with across two of Eilish’s biggest hits: “Bad Guy” and “Bury a Friend.”
- Teach Argument With Serial Killers — This is, in all likelihood, the creepiest lesson on TeachArgument. If you’re looking to engage and spook your students by prompting them to apply their analytical skills to the language of serial killers, look no further. If you teach younger kiddos and/or have a particularly sensitive bunch, you may want to peruse some of our less-creepy materials. But, if you’re still reading, you’ll be happy to know that this lesson bundle, albeit hair-raising, is incredibly engaging and promotes deeper reading. Students will analyze authentic excerpts from the likes of H. H. Holmes, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and David Berkowitz for rhetorical situation, purpose, and more.
- Teach Argument Trick or Treat: Horror Films & Candy Commercials — This awesome lesson uses a trick-or-treat-like structure for providing students a bit of choice (and a bit of fun) in determining which video clips they’ll be analyzing. In the spirit of Halloween, students will be shown a combination of trailers for horror films and candy commercials — to be analyzed and synthesized throughout the course of the lesson.
- The core of the lesson revolves around a corresponding PowerPoint Presentation (included). Students will have the option of selecting one of two doors, as shown in the graphic above. Once clicked, one of those doors will lead to a “trick” (i.e. a horror movie trailer deliberately chosen for what it offers in the way of rhetorical analysis), or a “treat” (i.e. a candy advertisement, also carefully selected with rhetorical analysis in mind). In this manner, your students will have the opportunity to “choose their own adventure” — and the journey will be different for every class!As students watch each short video clip, they are to conduct a rhetorical analysis on the corresponding handout (with graphic organizer). Then, at the teacher’s discretion, students will share their answers and/or discuss – either in pairs, small groups, or as a whole class. This process of “trick or treating” can be repeated up to five times (there are five sets of doors, and ten possible video clips for analysis).
- The lesson culminates with a reflective analysis. Students will be prompted to (#1) compose a paragraph that compares and contrasts the strategies employed across all horror film trailers and/or candy commercials, and (#2) compose a paragraph in which they reflect on their personal learning. Either of these paragraphs can be composed at the lesson’s end to provide closure, or can be assigned for homework. (Homework on Halloween? Booooo!)
Wondering What Was In Last Month’s English Teacher Fun Box?
- Teach Argument With The Comprehensive "Introducing Argument" Lesson Series — If you're looking for the best way to introduce argument, close reading, rhetorical devices, and synthesis to your students this school year, THIS IS IT! This comprehensive resource includes a four-pack of introductory lessons designed to ease students into some of the most complex and rigorous skills in ELA, in the fun and accessible manner that TeachArgument is known for. (Disney examples abound!!)
- Teach Argument With Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club" — Chappell Roan’s "Pink Pony Club" is a wildly popular anthem that's just begging to be closely read, analyzed, and deconstructed in our classes. The song offers a layered argument that explores of identity, freedom, and belonging, and this comprehensive lesson bundle invites students to engage in close reading and rhetorical analysis of Roan's vibrant lyrics and narrative voice. Students will unpack the argument embedded in the song’s celebration of self-expression and individuality, while also synthesizing it with broader popular texts that touch upon similar themes.
- Teach Argument With Teddy Swims' "Lose Control" — Teddy Swims' "Lose Control" has dominated the music charts for years, likely because of the compelling manner in which the speaker captures the raw intensity of love, vulnerability, and emotional surrender. Best of all, the song provides fertile ground for an engaging rhetorical analysis, offering students the chance examine how the speaker builds his case for the necessity (and danger) of losing oneself in love through close reading, rhetorical analysis, and synthesis.
- Teach Argument With Morgan Wallen's "I'm the Problem" — Morgan Wallen’s "I’m The Problem" offers a strikingly self-reflective narrative about personal flaws, accountability, and struggle. Students will analyze how Wallen crafts an argument that is a bit different than what they might be used to, as the speaker using rhetorical strategies to shift blame from himself to his partner ("If I'm the problem, you might be the reason"). This bundle is packed with exercises for close reading, rhetorical analysis, synthesis, and more.
- Teach Argument With Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" — Shaboozey’s "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" offers an argument that is dressed up as a fun party anthem, but that ultimately opens up into a deeper exploration of how people seek connection and reprieve. Students will analyze the rhetorical moves within the song, evaluate the strength argument, and synthesize their insights across other related texts. This lesson promises to be a hit, whether you're focusing on close reading, rhetoric, comparative analysis, or synthesis.
- Teach Argument With Benson Boon's "Beautiful Things" — Benson Boon’s "Beautiful Things" is one of the most popular songs of the last year, likely because it profoundly resonates with themes of gratitude, fear of loss, and the importance of cherishing fleeting moments. This lesson bundle helps students to unpack how Boon builds an argument through a comprehensive guided analysis, activities for unpacking the larger argument, and exercises that extend their analysis of Boon's argument across other texts.
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