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Letters to Poets
Add a strong poetry lesson to your literature unit. Middle and high schoolers investigate their writing voices with journaling and group discussion, then choose a famous poet to study. They write letters to their chosen poets, explaining...
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English Lesson Plans for Grade 8
Demonstrate how to engage in a polite and professional conversation with this banking and interfacing lesson. Focusing on explanatory and informaitonal texts, middle schoolers write sentences using banking and finance terminologies....
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Personal Experience Narratives
Help your middle schoolers identify personal experience narratives in their own lives through telling stories themselves and from family members or other adults. They study personal experience narratives in Swapping Stories and compare...
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Studying English Abroad
Students explore what it might be like to study English in another country. In this ESL lesson, students complete several activities that represent what it might be like to experience learning the English language in another country,...
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I am Special and You are Special Too - Project Children L.E.A.D.
Eighth graders recognize what makes them special through class participation and discussion of rap music, writing a poem about themselves, and designing their own special hat while working in groups.
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Speaker Report
Fifth through eighth graders think of themselves as newspaper reporters as they listen to a presentation by a guest speaker. As reporters, they take notes during the presentation. Using these notes, they create a rough draft and then a...
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Vanishing Verbs
Students analyze recent media trends, and develop critical thinking skills by summarizing main ideas, extracting details, formulating opinions, drawing inferences, and comparing and contrasting attitudes. They also practice paraphrasing...
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Just Off Mainstreet by Elmaz Abinader
Eighth graders read writings from Elmaz Abinader. In this author analysis instructional activity students read an essay from Abinader and discuss the story "Just Off Mainstreet." Students re-read the text and complete close reading...
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PhotoStory 3 Lesson Plan
In this lesson, PhotoStory 3, young scholars create a story board of an original poem through the use of PhotoStory 3 presentation. Students write a poem and use it to develop their storyboard. Young scholars publish and share their...
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Water: Read All About It!
Middle schoolers discuss newspapers and water and work in groups to develop their own paper focusing on water issues. In this journalism lesson, students discuss the value of newspapers and water as an issue. They work as a group to...
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Introductions
Students participate in the introductions at the beginning of the semester. As a class, they brainstorm questions that can be asked to gain more information about their classmates. Working in pairs, the students interview each other and...
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Eckstine, Stayhorn, and the Dorseys: Masters of Swing
Students explore the history of swing music. In this music history lesson, students research the Dorsey Brothers, Billy Eckstine, and William Strayhorn to learn about swing music. Students define swing, develop a timeline of events in...
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Animal Top Trumps
Students use adjectives to construct sentences. For this english lesson, students play a card game based on Top Trumps. They use superlatives and comparatives during the game.
Dream of a Nation
Big6 Research Project
Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...
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Aerospace Engineering
Students are introduced to aviation history and aerospace engineering achievements. They assemble a class aviation history timeline from individual student research on people and events.
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My View's Write!
After researching issues involving panthers, middle schoolers practice writing persuasive letters. They become familiar with a controversial issue related to panthers and write their position on the issue. This lesson would be a good...
American English
Welcome to the Color Vowel Chart
Focus English language learners' attention on word stress and phrase stress with a pronunciation chart that breaks the sounds into moving and non-moving vowel sounds. The chart tool uses colors and key words to indicate where to put the...
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Enough to Make Your Head Spin
Learners investigate the world of nonverbal communication by analyzing body language around the world. In this cultural communication lesson, students research the Bulgarian language and how we could easily misinterpret their...
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Puerto Rico: The 51st State?
Learners explore Puerto Rico. In this Puerto Rico current events lesson, students conduct a Webquest to answer questions about Puerto Rico's culture. Learners discuss whether Puerto Rico is a country or a state, and defend their...
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Everyone's an Author
Students examine variety of written pieces of quality fiction, discuss what different story elements are present and how those elements make stories as effective as they are, and create a class story.
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Poverty and Natural Disasters: Exploring the Connections
Students explore the connections between natural disasters and poverty. In this economic lesson plan students examine worksheets and activities for each level.
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Environmental Problems
Students explore the environment by completing environmental problem worksheets. In this pollution lesson, students identify the biggest threats to our environment such as deforestation, global warming, and pollution. Students utilize...
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Las Christmas: Favorite Latino Authors Share Their Holiday Memories
Eighth graders read Las Christmas and discuss their own cultural traditions. In this holiday traditions lesson plan, 8th graders write their personal story about a tradition or holiday memory. Students complete all stages of writing in...
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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...