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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Photographic Memories

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Explore how photographs can represent a whole story to a viewer. Middle schoolers work on narrative writing techniques in this lesson, focusing on photographs from the New York Times to write first-person descriptive narratives....
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Ballad

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young balladeers analyze examples of ballads and generate a list of common traits (story, quatrains, rhyme schemes, refrains, etc.), then identify these traits in Robert W. Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and a ballad written by...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Personification

For Teachers 7th Standards
Spongebob Squarepants helps teach middle schoolers about personification! After discussing the human characteristics demonstrated by the cartoon character, scholars identify the personification in poems by Emily Dickinson and Langston...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Tone

For Teachers 7th Standards
Identifying the tone in a piece of writing can be tricky. Readers don't have the advantage of studying the images and colors used in a painting or the instruments and sounds of a song. The second lesson in this poetry unit teaches tweens...
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Unit Plan
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Core Knowledge Foundation

Unit 7: Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex Teacher Guide

For Teachers 7th Standards
Frequently banned, often challenged, a mainstay of middle school curriculum, Tales from the Secret Annex, is the featured text in the seventh unit in the Teacher Guide Core Knowledge Program. The 134-page guide includes an introduction,...
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Unit Plan
1
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Core Knowledge Foundation

Unit 5: Realms of Gold - Vol. 2 Poetry and Short Stories Teacher Guide

For Teachers 7th Standards
Seventh graders have a golden opportunity to learn how to read poems and short stories with a unit that introduces them to the techniques writers use to craft their works. They examine poems by William Carlos Williams and Edgar Allen Poe...
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Unit Plan
1
1
Core Knowledge Foundation

Unit 4: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells Teacher Guide

For Teachers 7th Standards
Lead your readers into the fourth dimension as time travelers with a Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) Teacher Guide of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. The 144-page guide includes a unit calendar, introduction, nine lessons, teacher...
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Unit Plan
1
1
Core Knowledge Foundation

Unit 2: The Tempest by William Shakespeare Teacher Guide

For Teachers 7th Standards
Massive storms, shipwrecks, survivors stranded on an island ruled by an aging magician, and strange creatures—Shakespeare's The Tempest appeals to today's middle schoolers. For this unit, seventh graders read selections from an adapted...
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Lesson Plan
Beyond Benign

Intended Occupants

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Here's a lesson you can really build on! Middle schoolers describe the occupants of an imaginary house during a character-building lesson. They create a cast of characters who share living space and provide details about their attitudes,...
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Lesson Plan
1
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Making Your Mark: Free Verse Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Using the insight they have gained into the experiences of detainees at the Angel Island Immigration Station, young poets create their own free verse poems that they feel captures what it may have felt like to be an immigrant interned on...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Writing the Children’s Book: Day Three

For Teachers 7th Standards
Illustrations are a key feature of children's books. Using the resource, pupils learn about adding illustrations to their children's books. Next, as they complete their storyboards and work on their second drafts, they consider their...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

The Performance Task: The Children’s Book—Final Draft

For Teachers 7th Standards
All good stories must come to an end. Writers review teacher feedback from their Children's Book Storyboards and make plans for revision. Next, they begin writing their final drafts and putting them together with their illustrations. 
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

End of Unit Assessment and Independent Reading Review

For Teachers 7th Standards
Reader, writer, illustrator ... scholars wear many hats! Pupils become experts in recommending books to their classmates as they write reviews of their independent reading books. Next, after finishing the second draft of their children's...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Writing the Children’s Book: Day Two

For Teachers 7th Standards
Following a brief mini-lesson on using dialogue in fiction, young writers continue day two of their writing workshop. They work on the second half of their Children's Book Storyboards, and then they turn and talk with partners to reflect...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Writing the Children’s Book: Day One

For Teachers 7th Standards
With a brief mini-lesson, scholars learn about using strong verbs, sensory details, and precise descriptions. Next, pupils continue working on their children's book storyboards before choosing their strongest pages for peer critiques. 
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Mid-Unit Assessment Part 2: Beginning the Writer’s Workshop

For Teachers 7th Standards
Writers learn about using sensory details as they revise bland sentences with more vivid language. Next, they begin writing the first drafts of their children's books, completing storyboards to effectively plan their writing. 
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Preparing for the Mid-Unit Assessment: Planning the Children’s Book

For Teachers 7th Standards
Pupils complete a My Children's Book Plan worksheet to carefully prepare for a narrative writing project. Scholars also continue working in their groups from lesson plan two, using their scavenger hunt worksheets to discuss what makes a...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Discussing and Identifying Themes: What Makes a Good Children’s Book?

For Teachers 7th Standards
Working in small groups, scholars look closely at a children's book to evaluate narrative techniques. Next, they complete a Children's Book Scavenger Hunt worksheet to analyze the literary elements of their selected stories. 
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Introducing the Performance Task: The Children’s Book

For Teachers 7th Standards
Using a Venn diagram, class members generate similarities and differences between narratives and summaries. Next, pupils co-create an anchor chart to capture their thinking about how an author zooms in on a particular part of a story. 
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Launching the Performance Task: Planning the Two-Voice Poem

For Teachers 7th Standards
Two voices, one poem. Scholars learn about and write a two-voice poem using graphic organizers, model poems, and guides. They practice reading poems with a partner and discuss how a poem of this type could help compare Salva and Nya in A...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Gathering Textual Evidence for the Two-Voice Poem (Author’s Note)

For Teachers 7th Standards
Writers take a look at how to gather evidence from the information text in the unit that connects to Salva and Nya’s story. They complete a Gathering Evidence from Informational Texts sheet to guide their work. Pupils then use the...
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Lesson Plan
Penguin Books

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt - Teacher's Guide

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Children in foster care face a lot of uncertainty in their lives. A guide for the novel One for the Murphys introduces a main character, Carley, who is thrust into the foster care system. Chapter-by-chapter questions cover key details in...
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Unit Plan
Louisiana Department of Education

How to Write a Memoir

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Who are we and what shapes our identities? Seventh graders work to answer this question as they learn how to write a memoir. Full of non-print resources and supplemental texts that range from fiction to non-fiction, scholars write their...
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Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
A picture's worth a thousand words—and even more inspiration! A visual activity uses photographs to inspire writers. The process teaches aspects of narrative writing, such as point of view and characterization.