Â
Complete unit planning, lessons, activities, strategies, and ideas for teaching Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Can be applicable for both middle and high school students.
Complete 6-Week Unit for Tuesdays with Morrie - Tuesdays with Morrie is an amazing novel. It deals with death, love, hardship, family, friendship, faith, and positivity, and is an amazing book for high schoolers to read. In my student teaching experience, I created a full six-week unit for the novel, complete with standards-aligned assignments, assessments, projects, papers, and activities. This is it!
Compare & Contrast – Tuesdays with Morrie Movie - My kids finished reading Tuesdays with Morrie! Yay! To complete the unit, I wanted the students to watch the movie and to compare the book and the movie--understanding literature through multiple lenses.
Who Is Morrie Now? - As a closing and wrap-up activity for Tuesdays with Morrie, I asked my students to take out their drawings from the beginning of the semester, there initial pictures of who Morrie was.
Life Lessons From Morrie – Final Paper - For this assignment, students were to choose two aphorisms/quotes/life lessons and define them, define them as they were presented in the book, and relate them to their personal lives.
Peer Reading - Okay, I thought. We'll see how this goes. I stood at the front of the class. "Today we're going to finish the book. I'd like you to find a partner of your choice and read this final section, 'Afterward' aloud."
“Graduation” and “Conclusion” Scaffolded Notes - After reading aloud and realizing that my students were struggling with comprehension, I decided to create a set of scaffolded notes for them to take home over the weekend and complete while reading.
Journal 4 – The “Nightline” Show - As I begin to wrap up Tuesdays with Morrie in my English 10 classes, I wanted to give students the opportunity to form an opinion. Some of my students love the book. Some don't. I wanted to get them working on opinion-based narrative writing, dip into persuasive writing, and most importantly, make arguments and back them up with support!
12th Tuesday Comprehension Questions - Something I started doing with my sophomore English students was read aloud from Tuesdays with Morrie. This began as an idea to help my ESL student and other struggling readers, but then it became a necessary tool to keep all students on track with their reading. 
Reincarnation Activity - Today my students are taking their 5th-9th Tuesday Quiz, but after that, I wanted them to have a little fun. 
5th-8th Tuesday, Study Guides and Quiz - After reading the 5th-8th Tuesdays both independently and as a class, I wanted to give my students a quiz. This time, however, I wanted a more challenging quiz, as my students had done very well on the last, multiple choice and true-false quiz.
Poetry Workshop - To connect on a deeper, more personal level to Tuesdays with Morrie, I had my students write poems about their 'Morries', the influential people in their lives.
7th Tuesday Reading Quiz - Want to check that your students are reading? Here's a simple quiz you can give them over the "Seventh Tuesday".
Who’s My Morrie? - I wanted to switch up activities in my English 10 classes and instead of having them write another journal or essay-type of response, I decided to have them write two poems. These would be about people who influenced them positively--their 'Morries'.
Journal 3 – Family - To help my students connect their lives to the story, Tuesdays with Morrie, I wanted them to write about themselves--right now, in this moment.
5th Tuesday – Tuesdays with Morrie - The "Fifth Tuesday" in Tuesdays with Morrie is important because it talks about relationships, family, and family that goes beyond blood. These were important points I wanted my students to grasp, so I made worksheets and study guides to help with their learner development.
Tuesdays with Morrie, Mid-Book Quest - I needed to asses my students' comprehension. It wasn't enough to read their worksheets or to peek over their shoulders during individual work time. I needed to know exactly what my students had learned, so I decided to make a Tuesdays with Morrie Mid-Book Quest.
Is Love Rational or Irrational? [Part 2] - This lesson is a follow-up to Is Love Rational or Irrational? [Part 1], which is primarily focused on the question of love being rational or not. 
Is Love Rational or Irrational? [Part 1] - Today I started my English 10 class in a very strange way. I sat at a chair in the front of the room, and for the first five minutes, stayed absolutely silent. 
Journal #2 – Being Your Age - September 21: By this time, my English 10 students are up to page 60 in Tuesdays with Morrie. Perfect time to assign another journal.
Connecting to Tuesdays with Morrie – Making Bucket Lists! - Today was a shortened day because of Homecoming. Classes were only twenty minutes, but I still wanted my students to do something pertaining to Tuesdays with Morrie, while being fun! So I had them make their own Bucket Lists!
Tension of Opposites - One of the major themes early in Tuesdays with Morrie is tension, or 'Tension of Opposites,' as Morrie himself names it. I wanted my students to understand this, but I wanted to see how much they understood independently. So I made a worksheet.
Who Am I/My Culture Paper - For one of the first major writing assignments in my English 10 classroom, I decided to have the students write a paper about three items that define them, 'Who Am I/My Culture Paper'. This began as an assignment/mini-speech [to read more about that, click here].
Who Am I/My Culture Assignment - To dig a little deeper and connect my Tuesdays with Morrie unit to Narrative writing, which my students have and will be doing for the remainder of the year, I decided to create a 'Who Am I/My Culture' Assignment. 
Tuesdays with Morrie – Quiz 1 - After going through the book for several days as a class and having short Journal assignments and discussion, I decided to have a reading pop-quiz.
ALS Web Quest - Sometimes to understand a concept fully, students need to research and learn about the concept outside of the classroom discussion. This I've learned with Tuesdays with Morrie and his condition ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis].
Journal 1 – Connecting Student Lives to Tuesdays with Morrie - Students connect with a text when they are able to relate the content to their personal lives and make deeper, more personal connections.
Tuesdays With Morrie – Online Text - Let's face it. Students aren't always going to follow directions and bring their books to class, despite our best efforts to remind them. It's the sad reality about being a teacher. 
Who Is Morrie Schwartz? - To introduce my students to the book, Tuesday with Morrie, and the main characters, I had my students close their eyes and listen as I read aloud.
Connecting Lessons to Real-Life: The Ice-Bucket Challenge [and more!] - As an intro activity to my English 10 class' first major reading, Tuesdays with Morrie, I wanted to talk about ALS and the complications of that disease since the main character, Morrie, struggles with ALS. 
Pre-Planning the Tuesdays with Morrie Unit - This is what I call the Novel-in-a-Notebook, a way to pre-plan for your lessons by having all of the pages of your text copied into your notebook for easy access, reference, and smart note-taking.
Tuesdays with Morrie – Letter to Mitch, Student Example - As a part of the Tuesdays with Morrie Unit I did with my sophomore students at Mason City High School during my fall 2014 clinical placement, I had the students write a letter to the author, Mitch Albom, reflecting on the book. To reference the lesson, click this link: Letter to Author, Mitch Albom
Tuesdays with Morrie – ‘My Coach/Mentor’ Student Example - Going back to the ‘My Coach/Mentor Poem’Â [to view, click on link] lesson and activity connected to Tuesdays with Morrie, I had the opportunity to gather some student examples to keep with my portfolio. Students were asked to create 2 poems based on influential relationships in their personal lives. This helped to connect to the relationshipContinue reading "Tuesdays with Morrie – ‘My Coach/Mentor’ Student Example"
Letter to Author, Mitch Albom – Assignment, Rubric - To direct my students in the Letter to [Author] Mitch Albom activity, I created an assignment sheet and a rubric, grading them on their ability to connect the text to their personal lives [narrative writing], use correct letter-writing format, content, and conventions/grammar. 
Tuesdays with Morrie – Letter to Author, Mitch Albom - As my unit on Tuesdays with Morrie continued, I moved into a series of lessons I called ‘What’s the Point?’ which focused on the ‘why’ behind reading this book. I think it’s important for students to know the purpose of reading certain texts, and this lesson set discussed this and helped to make meaning between Mitch andContinue reading "Tuesdays with Morrie – Letter to Author, Mitch Albom"
Coach/Mentor Poem – Brainstorming Worksheet, Assignment, Rubric - In beginning the Coach/Mentor Poem activity, a lesson in my Tuesdays with Morrie unit, I first had the students brainstorm about a coach or a mentor in their personal lives. I created a Brainstorming Worksheet to assist in their pre-planning for this assignment.
Tuesdays with Morrie – Coach/Mentor Poem - In the fall of 2014, I completed over 50 clinical hours at Mason City High School with English Department Chair, Deadra Stanton. My experience consisted of taking control of her 10th grade English classes, teaching every Friday. One of my first set of lessons was on the book, Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom.