Study some of the most prominent poets and works of poetry in history with a language arts poetry unit. From Virgil to Shakespeare to Dickinson to Angelou, the resources present biographies and examples of poetic elements to...

The Rainbow Fish, Marcus Pfister's award-winning story about the joys of sharing, is the inspiration for this resource loaded with fun. Suggestions for language and language arts, math, science, and social studies activities are...

What do the words pizza, broccoli, and ciao have in common? Why they are all English words that originally came from Italian. Ask your middle schoolers to guess the origins of a list of words by matching the word with the language from...

"Lucky lady." "Straight as an arrow." Here's a figurative language worksheet that provides middle schoolers with six examples and asks them to identify the literary device modeled.

Help your class brush up on their spelling words and review lots of other English skills in the process. They are given 10 activities to complete to review parts of speech, compound words, synonyms, and alliteration. Creative writing is...

To practice English skills using spelling words, learners answer 10 questions, some of which ask them to use a spelling list, though none is included. The questions cover the following topics: spelling, parts of speech, alliteration,...

Focus on presentation techniques with this instructional activity, which prompts middle schoolers give an impromptu speech. They practice public speaking by giving a short unprepared speech. Some preparations are made to include an...

Learning to read is not a simple task, but there are methods for assisting pupils as they develop literacy skills. The first four pages of this resource include information about language development and reading development, as well as...

Scholars analyze the use of active and passive voice in The Montgomery Bus Boycott speech and refer to an Active and Passive Sentences handout while viewing the text. Pairs of learners then work together to identify passive and active...

Have your class doing everything from reading literature, analyzing literary devices, identifying independent and dependent clauses, discussing, and writing creatively with the rich resource found here. After a mini lesson on independent...

Practice listening skills while studying oral story tellers from different parts of Louisiana. Consider the regional dialects and insider language of folk groups with your class. Identify language as part of folk life and recognize that...

In this everyday editing instructional activity learners correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about the first woman to swim the English Channel. The errors range from punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar.

Play this slide show and then find out how much your class has learned with the included quiz. After jotting down the definitions of each term, class members label 10 examples with one of five terms: simile, metaphor, personification,...

Students view the film "Nell" and analyze it for presentation of language pathologies and dialects. They consider the definition of dialect, research phonetic representation of dialects and observe their own communities for speech patterns.

Examine the contributions of African-Americans in the worlds of art and literature. Over the course of a few days, young scholars will read and analyze a poem, a short story, and a piece of art. They complete a range of...

Students describe idioms and their use in everyday language. They describe the difference between literal and idiomatic meanings. In groups, students use iPhoto to create books that explain and illustrate a variety of idioms describing...

Discuss with the class the reasons for identifying and defining the term material culture as refering to a vast array of objects and activities that people make and do traditionally. Your class can identify diverse crafts and decorative...

A brief passage about the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo is accompanied by an array of language activities for ELD: cloze exercise, phrase matching, word jumble, multiple choice, sequencing, interview, group presentation, fluency writing,...

Incorporate sensory details into a piece of descriptive writing. First, elementary and middle schoolers improve a piece of writing by using precise, vivid language, as well as appropriate word choice. They then listen to a variety of...

Learners formulate a definition of art in the introductory lesson for a unit on various art forms. The learning emphasis is placed on Oregonian artist Duff Severe and reflective writing. Pupils compose an essay describing various art...

An interesting resource that might work best in an upper level art course, this handout provides a list of nine websites where young artists can read and study about all forms of art. These online resources range from a dictionary of...

Use online dictionaries to define vocabulary words and create a visualization of word meanings through digital art. Middle schoolers go online to define assigned vocabulary words. They visualize the meanings of the words in photo...

Students explore illusions by drawing and viewing images in class. In this art perspective instructional activity, students analyze a skeleton outline drawing which demonstrates the ability to draw in a two point perspective. Students...

Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth...