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Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself
Foster reader confidence when encountering complex text and reinforce the skills readers have acquired to build and extend their understanding of text. The plan uses a section of Douglass’ narrative as an exemplar text. Directions for...
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Maus: Cubing Questioning Strategy
Maus is the text for a postreading activity that has class members using a cubing strategy to analyze, in depth, topics (racism, past and present, forgetting/remembering the Holocaust, representing the Holocaust) associated with Art...
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Mississippi Trial, 1955: Pre-reading Strategy
Pink and Say, a picture book by Patricia Polacco, and an anticipation guide, set the stage for a reading of Mississippi Trial, 1955, Chris Crowe's novel based on the true story of the murder of Emmett Till. Instructional routines, the...
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Artistic Interpretation of a Classic: The Author's Role
Reading the original Hans Christian Andersen tale of “The Little Mermaid” and viewing the Great Performances: The Little Mermaid from the San Francisco Ballet video offers class members an opportunity to consider how artistic decisions...
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What is Theme?
What is theme, and how can you find themes in literary works? These and other questions are answered by a colorful and engaging presentation that not only defines the term but also provides easy to understand examples. The slides...
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Arkansas' Top Ten Events of the Century....Says Who? Why? Deciding What is Important in History
Middle and high schoolers work in small groups to compare four different lists published in the Arkansas Times newspaper which chose the "top ten" Arkansas news events of the 20th century. Learners look for similarities and differences...
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Formal and Informal Language
ESL students use the graphic organizers to record different phrases of speech with an emphasis upon the use of slang.
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Informational Text Features
How can you tell if the text you're reading is informational or narrative? Show your reading class this basic PowerPoint to illustrate the characteristics of an informational text. What makes this presentation especially effective is...
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A Walk on the West Side
Learners comprehend what makes up the physical community. Read and construct scale drawings and models. Explore the history of infrastructures and how the contributions of science, math and industry have led to the development of their...
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Double Jeopardy Clause: A Fifth Amendment Constitution Trivia Game
Here is a wonderful way to introduce your learners to the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. There are 16 questions designed to generate thinking and discussion questions about the Fifth Amendment. This lesson is extremely...
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"You're Probably Tired, Dear Diary" - Children's Diaries during the Holocaust
As part of the study of WWII and the Holocaust, class members read a series of diary entries written by children during the onslaught of Nazi occupation. Each entry is accompanied by biographical information and discussion questions. The...
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Biography Chat
Students profile a mock television talk-show format to conduct mock interviews with famous people in history. Students read biographies of famous people in history. Students assemble questions for interviews.
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Gold Rush California and its Diverse Population
Students compare contemporary cultural differences with historical differences based on population percentage. In this cross-curriculum Gold Rush/math lesson plan, students analyze aspects of California's Gold Rush population and...
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The Cowboy Life
Travel back in time to the 1800s and research the Old West! Elementary and middle schoolers work with a partner to complete at least four activities from a list provided by the teacher. They use these activities to present their...
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Yellow Pages Ad-dition
Young scholars determine the revenue generated by sample pages from the Yellow Pages. They discuss the value of advertising a business in this venue. They use the local telephone directory and some fictitious ad rates to lead their inquiry.
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Tone and Mood
How are mood and tone similar? Different? Help your readers understand the difference between the two with this helpful guide. On the first page, they read the definition for both tone and mood and identify words that are describe each....
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Deconstructing an Advertisement
Bring in a stack of magazines and distribute this advertisement analysis worksheet to your emerging analysts. As your class members ponder an ad, they answer a series of questions to help them perform a complete analysis. They consider...
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Narrative Writing
Binoculars are used as a metaphor for good descriptive writing. Class members first view a small picture and then an enlarged view of the same image in which the details come into focus. Next, learners examine a paragraph lacking sensory...
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Where Were Your Ancestors in 1871?
Here is a nicely designed lesson on ancestry and family history. In it, learners read an article entitled, "Where Were Your Ancestors in 1871?" Then, they make up a series of questions to profile their family and their community 100...
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Graphic Novel Writing Workshop
Khaled Hosseini’s video “Using Real People and Events” motivates learners to reflect on their own experiences and to use those experiences as the basis of a graphic novel that expresses a universal truth. The richly detailed plan...
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How Old Is Illinois?
High schoolers use fossils found in rocks to determine the age of the strata between Rock Island and Chicago. Pupils pretend they are geologists. They must determine the age of all rock layers between the Mississippi River and Lake...
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Hyperbole Lesson Plans: Ideas for the Art of Exaggeration
Hyperbole lesson plans and ideas that make figurative language instruction relevant to students' lives. Discover how to help learners better understand the figurative concept of hyperbole. A fantastic article which includes multiple web...
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How to Implement Project Based Learning to Engage Students
Can a math teacher employ project-based learning? Learn how one great math teacher uses PBL to design math projects that provide learners with a more challenging and holistic learning experience. A wonderful article, that includes three...
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The Atom
If you are beginning a unit of study on atoms, this presentation would be an excellent way to begin! In it, learners discover many facts about atoms. For example, it would take 50,000 aluminum atoms stacked together to equal the...