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Reporting in Letters
Young scholars investigate the cultures and politics of different countries and write radio letters to listeners in those countries modeled after Alistair Cooke's "Letter from America."
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Revision Lesson
Students, through a series of 4 lessons, explore what it means to revise their written work. They revise a bland story together and then practice revising their own papers by identifying the main action and "exploding" that moment into...
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Who am I?
Young scholars develop their writing skills by creating a character sketch about themselves. Students read character sketches, view portraits by famous artists, select one personality traits, and affix a mug shot of themselves into a...
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Giving a Voice to Literature
Students explore podcast design. In this literacy and technology lesson, students read a novel during book club and design a promotional podcast to recommend the book to their peers. Necessary technology expertise and an explanation of...
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Word Choice in Writing
Sixth graders explore language arts by writing dialogue. In this vocabulary choice lesson, 6th graders identify synonyms and the importance of using a thesaurus while writing dialogue in their own original work. Students revise and edit...
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Wilderness Lesson Plan
Students investigate the wilderness by reading magazine articles and discussing with their peers. In this wild life instructional activity, students read a page from the Natural Inquirer magazine and examine photographs online of...
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Fable Writing
Learners listen to and discuss various fables, and identify the moral and central themes. They write their own personal fables and create illustrations to go with them.
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Write a Myth
Students explore myths in ancient times. For this mythology lesson, students read or view a video production of a myth to determine specific characteristics of myths. Students work in groups to write a myth that explains an occurrence...
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Study Skills- Fact and Opinion
Students engage in a variety of activities in order to achieve the objectives of a layered curriculum unit. They take notes on the differences between fact and opinion. Students also use a newspaper in order to recognize opinionated...
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Writing with Writers
Students identify unique characteristics of different writing genres such as biography, folktales and mysteries. They create original piece of writing using the writing process and then post their original writing online. They think...
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Coast-to-Coast Book Design-Part 4: Let's Create the Pages!
Students work in groups to share their lists of A-B-C ideas they came up with from the previous activity. They review page layouts taught during lesson two. Students complete a rough draft of their page. They create a colored...
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Looking Back to 1980
Students use clustering/mind mapping techniques to generate ideas, graphically represent inferences, organize their conclusions and write a report that presents conclusions the writer has reached, and facts substantiating those conclusions.
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Tell Me That You Love Me 5-7-5
Learners listen to several examples of Haiku poetry and discuss the strict format. Then students create and edit their own Haiku poems and enhance them with ink designs.
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Monster Magnet Rally
Students explore the properties of the N and S poles on a magnet. They attach small bar magnets to the top of "match box" cars and attempt to crash them into each other. They each write a summary describing their findings.
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Magnet Trackstar
Young scholars explore websites created by other young people on the topic of magnets. These sites are in the form of a TrackStar and are accompanied by a worksheet to guide them in their information gathering.
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Journal Writing
Students examine the published diaries of Anne Frank, or Zlata Filipovic, to gain an appreciation for journal writing, a form of autobiographical writing in which the writer records personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences. They...
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Reporting Live From...
Students examine the many disasters in West Virginia. In this US history activity, students write about and give an oral presentation of one of the disasters as if they were reporters.
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Short and Sweet Science
Readers learn how to summarize scientific text and evaluate the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges in writing summaries. They select science-related articles you've pulled and collected from the New York Times and, with a partner,...
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Sports and Hobby Math
Explore math concepts as they relate to real world situations. Young analysts consider a personal hobby or favorite sport and list three ways math is involved in the hobby. They create several related math story problems and write a...
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Keeping Yourself Organized During Writer's Workshop
Writer's Workshop can be a wonderful way to develop a classroom of authors.
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Myths, Folktales, & Fairy Tales
Srtudents explore the folktale and folklore genres as well as the world of myths. They read myths and folktales to increase knowledge of world cultures and traditions and follow the writing process to create writing in different genres.
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Lesson Plan: Before and After a Moment in Time
Think about a moment, frozen in time. Now take a critical look at the painting, Better, Homes, Better Gardens. This painting works to provide learners the opportunity to analyze art, critique artist's choices, and write a story inspired...
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Blogging to Create a Community of Writers #6: Writing a Review
Looking for a good social media lesson for your class? Then, this lesson is for you! They study various written reviews, then must choose an item to review of their choice. They can choose from: a book, restaurant, CD/musical...