Curated OER
Details and Observations IQ or the Eyes Have it
Fourth graders study Chaucer as a master of details. Then, they create a short story linking unrelated details into a logical plot with a clear setting and established characters. This lesson has some excellent worksheets attached!
Beacon Learning Center
Challenging the Human Spirit
High schoolers select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern-day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric...
Curated OER
Zulu King, Zulu King
Students listen to story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, brainstorm everything they know about Mardi Gras, create pages relating to Mardi Gras for class book, type information on computer, play slide show, and take turns reading their books.
Curated OER
Preposition Pizazz
Young scholars examine examples of poems and identify the prepositions in them. They write original poems using prepositional phrases and create illustrations to go with them.
Curated OER
Memory of a Kiss
Third graders read, discuss, and memorize the poem "Jenny Kissed Me." as an example of lyrical poetry. They write a letter to Jenny reliving the memory of her kiss from an elderly person's point of view. They illustrate their poems.
Curated OER
Family Cookbook
Second graders, in groups, produce a Family Cookbook by bringing recipes from home.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Working with Words Teacher Directed Activity by Mark Cogan for Elem. Test Prep
Learners build word families. For this interactive language arts activity, students visit a website where they play a game creating word families. Learners may print out their work when finished.
Curated OER
Where No Student Has Gone Before
Young scholars create a story about an unknown planet invaded by humans as a pre-reading activity for the novel, A Wrinkle In Time. They discuss good versus evil, and identify examples of the theme good vs. evil in books, film, and their...
Curated OER
All About Me, My Family and Friends
Students use general skills and strategies of the writing process to show their role in their family, school, friendships, the community and the world. They demonstrate their self-motivation and increasing responsibility for their own...
Curated OER
There's a World of Science to Read Today!
Students read a current science article. They write a summary of the article, take notes, write and edit a summary, and print their work.
Curated OER
The Land and the Water
Third graders read "The Land and the Water," a fictional short story and an article about John F. Kennedy, Jr. and compare and contrast fictional tragedy to a non-fiction tragedy. They fill out a Venn diagram and write an essay using...
Curated OER
Sidewalks to Success in Middle School
Students write a brochure that educates incoming middle school students on how to succeed.
Curated OER
Persuasion and Use of Language
Students discuss connotative language, hyperbole, allusion, and rhetorical question. In small groups, they read one section of the "Speech to the Virginia Convention" and analyze these devices. Groups present their results to the class.
Curated OER
Persuasion and Figurative Language
Learners study and discuss definitions of metaphor, simile, and personification. In small groups, they read a section of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and identify those devices. The group presents their examples with the class.
Curated OER
Novel Analysis
Students read the novel, Lord of the Flies, then write an essay analyzing the novel. They analyze, in small groups, characters, plot, setting, style, symbolism, theme, critical responses, and historical influences
Curated OER
Multicultural Canterbury Pilgrimage
Students create travel brochures that detail various people and places that are encountered on the way to Chaucer's Canterbury.
Curated OER
Living Biographies
Third graders create a multimedia slide presentation containing facts, graphics, and sounds relating to a biographical figure based on their reading of a biography or an autobiography. They present their slide presentations before the...
Curated OER
Fragments Wanted (Not)
Learners rewrite newspaper employment ads using complete sentences.
Curated OER
Connecting Characters and Themes in Julius Caesar
Fourth graders prepare for the literary analysis. They locate, interpret, evaluate and analyze the relationship between a character and the theme. After a lecture/demo, 4th graders write topic and detail sentences, then correctly put...
Curated OER
Beginning and Ending Sounds
First graders practice the beginning and ending sounds of words. In this phonological awareness lesson, 1st graders use picture cards for one syllable words and pronounce each word. Students match other picture cards with the same...
Curated OER
Beginning and Ending Sounds
First graders practice their letter and word recognition skills. In this initial and final sounds lesson, 1st graders participate in a classroom activity that requires them to blend phonemes into spoken words and sound out multisyllable...
Curated OER
Perspectives on Written & Spoken English
Students explore issues surrounding language norms, including the distinction between prescriptive and descriptive norms, the differences between norms for spoken English and those for written English, how word meanings change, and...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Pictures and Print: What's the Difference?
Students watch a PowerPoint presentation. In this early literacy lesson, students watch a PowerPoint presentation describing print from pictures and the difference between the two.