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...

American women have been working toward equal rights since the ink dried on the Declaration of Independence. Focused on the words and actions of Sojourner Truth, Shirley Chisholm, and Venus Williams, a language arts lesson takes eighth...

Study the impact and possible outcomes of the Exxon-Mobil merger in your language arts, social studies, or economics class. Secondary learners evaluate a series of graphs, write a paragraph interpreting the data, and engage in class...

Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...

“It was a miracle.” Basil Heatter’s “The Long Night of the Little Boats,” which details the miraculous rescue of the British army from the shores of Dunkirk in 1940, is featured in a series of exercises that ask class members to read,...

If your language arts learners have a hard time determining the universal theme of a written work, use a straightforward worksheet to help them find it. After reviewing a list of common themes, kids note the title, character, plot, point...

Challenge language arts learners with a crossword puzzle that focuses on vocabulary words from Walter Dean Myers' Monster. After kids read the clues at the bottom of the page, they complete the puzzle with their newly defined words.

Learners practice writing open-ended questions about a specific topic. They use proper grammar and syntax in their questions that are typed into a word processing file. A rubric is included in this lesson plan to help with assessment.

Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...

Turn the tables on your language arts pupils by letting them be the teachers! With a list of grammatical topics to choose from (subject, adverbs, direct objects, etc), eighth graders plan a presentation to "re-review" the concept with...

Covering vocabulary, literary analysis, and grammar, this worksheet would be a great study guide or homework assignment for an eighth-grade Language Arts class. Though the five stories by Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry, and Oscar Wilde are...

Who can tell the difference? Teach your class how to use who, whom, and whose - once and for all! One page provides an easy-to-understand instruction sheet, and the second page prompts learners to practice their grammar with thirteen...

Get the scoop with a fun, engaging newspaper project. After analyzing the parts of a newspaper, including the headline, subtitles, and pictures or images, young journalists get to work by writing their own stories in a newspaper article...

Help your young writers make their writing more descriptive and exciting in this figurative language lesson. Middle schoolers review their figurative language examples from Part One (linked to this lesson), and then write a paragraph for...

There is power in words. Readers take a close look at three text to determine how language structures affect meaning, including include poems and recipes. Scholars analyze the language authors use by circling important words, underlining...

Discuss the correct use of certain phrases such as "managed" and "could" in this English lesson plan. Middle schoolers listen to interviews on work customs in different countries and compare them. They make inferences after reading given...

Start your day with a quick warm up. Have your class identify the correctly punctuated sentence as a quick, informal assessment.

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...

The Cleveland Museum of Art presents this interdisciplinary model unit that asks class members to explore how the same themes are presented in the folktales and art of several cultures.

Have your young television viewers discuss popular shows among their peers. After choosing one show to analyze, middle and high schoolers read about the 2007-2008 network television lineup with the New York Times article "Gauging...

Does your language arts class have a hard time with writing transitions? Use this organizational writing lesson to create three effective transition sentences that middle schoolers will use in their research of renewable resources.

Famous quotations by American Presidents are the focus of this Six Trait writing activity, which could be used in a U.S. History class or in language arts. After reading the picture book Theodore by Frank Keating, have your 7th graders...

Aesop's Fables are the focus of this language arts lesson. Young philosophers study and discuss the morals found in the most famous of Aesop's Fables. They write an original fable that teaches a common moral. A "Fable Listening Library"...

The contributions of African-Americans to the American Revolution are the focus of this Social Studies and language arts lesson. After reading and discussing Linda Crotta Brennan’s The Black Regiment of the American Revolution, class...