Curated OER
Lesson Plan 18: Art Project! Design Your Own Book Cover
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...
Curated OER
Imagery: Show, Don't Tell
A vampire, the beach, a bedroom, the school cafeteria. Writers are encouraged to add sensory details (sight, touch, taste, smell, sound) to bring these things to life.
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Narrative Nuts and Bolts
After viewing slides and reading about child labor, young authors compose an original narrative story. They practice note-taking skills and work to effectively engage a reader by incorporating plot, logical order, complex characters,...
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Narrative Writing
Imagine a day in the life of a child who has to work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week. After viewing images and reading stories of child laborers, class members select an image and write a richly detailed narrative about a typical...
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Analyze Your Handwriting
Students explore the science of graphology. In this graphology lesson, students analyze a writing sample using the letter slope, line slope, and pressure to determine the personality characteristics of the writer. Students also analyze a...
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The Words that Surround Us
Students investigate writing that we read daily by analyzing advertisements and articles. In this language arts instructional activity, students discuss the images and writing they see daily, where it comes from, and what it represents....
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ACROSTIC POETRY
Learners use newspapers or magazines to create an acrostic poem where words are divided into parts of speech.
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A New Point of View
Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in text....
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Nudging Questions
Students choose one topic to write about. They brainstorm ideas about their topic or incident. They use sensory details to visualize their topic. They answer a variety of teacher directored nudging question to help them describe their...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3
Teach your class the basics of narrative writing! The resource first describes the Common Core standard for narrative writing in-depth, and then moves into how to apply the standard. Show your class the example essay and quiz them...
Curated OER
Things Fall Apart: Research, Writing & Presentation Project
A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few gaps to...
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Powerful Poetry Presenting the Writer's Soul
Students research Langston Hughes poetry for his use of figurative language. In this poetry analysis instructional activity, students research the life and poetry of Langston Hughes and his use of vivid words. Students complete 23...
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The Magic Words
Students investigate the truth behind several magic tricks by conducting the illusions in class. In this slight of hand lesson, students create an illusion using a coffee can and shoe box. Students perform their trick for friends and...
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Can You Believe Your Eyes?
Students investigate hidden messages by analyzing images. In this art analysis lesson, students assess specific photographs by their use of light, framing, distortion and size. Students create their own juxtapositions in images and...
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Writing Descriptions of "My Favorite Place"
Young scholars write a descriptive writing piece. In this writing activity, students use a visualization exercise to add more descriptions to their writing.
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Making a Treasure Your Own: Lesson Two
Students write an essay describing the Curtis Center and what they learned there. In this descriptive writing essay, students discuss the five paragraph essay and review sensory discoveries from their trip. Students draft an outline and...
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Oliver Twist Goes to Hollywood
How does Oliver Twist, the novel written by Charles Dickens, compare with its screenplay adaptation? Although the activity doesn't require learners to have read the novel, the similarities and differences of the highlighted passages...
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Narrative vs. Expository Texts
Young scholars use examples of narrative and expository text to analyze and compare the two styles. Students read articles on life in Lesotho and Madagascar and use graphic organizers and discussion to compare them. Young scholars write...
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Locational Writing
Students go outside to the playground and write a piece in the style of beat poets based on what they see and hear outside.
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Mandela The Man
Ninth graders explore civil rights by reading several biographies. In this Nelson Mandela lesson plan, 9th graders discuss the trials and tribulations Nelson Mandela had to face in South Africa and how they were similar to the problems...
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Meet The Artist
Students investigate art history by researching a particular artist. In this biographical lesson, students are given a brief summary of a artist's life and are assigned to create a report on the person. Students create an outline based...
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Photojournalism
Learners choose a historical or present-day event to portray through photographs. They narrate this event with photographs and text to communicate its significance in history or our current daily lives.
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Writing a Personal Narrative
Students learn characteristics of an effective personal narrative. In this personal narrative lesson, students discover ways to show rather than tell, adding richness and detail to their writing. Students evaluate a news article for...
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A Piece of the Puzzle
Discover the process of writing a story by comparing it to a puzzle. Begin by examining a diagram shaped like a puzzle which contains important elements of a story. Learners mix and match the pieces with elements of a story they are...