University of North Carolina
Style
Just like you choose your clothes to ensure they fit the occasion, you should choose your words deliberately while writing. Style, the main topic of one handout in a series on writing skills, involves choosing words carefully and paying...
Curated OER
Communicative Choices & Linguistic Style
Start by watching a video entitled Do You Speak American? and respond to discussion questions about the various dialects showcased throughout the video to identify the regional linguistic styles throughout America. As a culminating...
PBS
Lessons in Leadership, Roosevelt Style
It's easy to criticize those in power until you're sitting at their desk, faced with the same decisions. A history lesson prompts secondary learners to research the Roosevelt presidencies through the lens of leadership and...
Curated OER
Thoreau's Writing Style
Students analyze Thoreau's writing style. In this writing style lesson plan, students describe Thoreau's literary style and use the devices he employs in a response to one of his essays.
National Endowment for the Humanities
A “New English” in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”: A Common Core Exemplar
To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...
Curated OER
Critical Consumerism
What are ads really selling? High schoolers examine persuasive techniques used by print and television advertisements. They generate a list of persuasive techniques they're familiar with, and review other types argumentation and...
Curated OER
'Twasn't the Night Before Christmas
Students describe the elements that make up particular writers' styles. Small groups then choose an author, write something in his or her style, and invite other groups to play 'literary detective' in identifying whose style they have...
Curated OER
Writing a Newspaper-Style Article
Help your secondary reader/writers assess texts by studying press releases from Statistics Canada and drafting articles based on them. They then compare the press release, their own articles, and actual news stories they find online. I'd...
Curated OER
Screen Play
High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a sample...
Curated OER
Create a Cookbook
Trios write, design, and produce cookbooks. In a truly collaborative project, they choose what content to include, contribute recipes, and decide on formatting. Then, they reformat all recipes to ensure consistent style, publish the...
Curated OER
Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": Bringing a Great City Alive
Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...
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...
Curated OER
Topic Sentences and Transitions
High school writers identify the purpose of both a topic sentence and a transitional statement. They write a topic sentence which denotes the paragraph topic and the author's stand on that topic. Then they write an effective transitional...
National Endowment for the Humanities
John Steinbeck’s "The Grapes of Wrath": The Inner Chapters
Here’s a must-have resource for anyone using The Grapes of Wrath. Everything from guiding questions to background information, from photographs to documentary films, from activities to assessments is included in a richly detailed packet...
Curated OER
Getting our Paws into the Cause
Twelfth graders examine local, state, and/or national animal welfare organization. In this Social Studies instructional activity, 12th graders research their identified organization. Students develop a planned intervention strategy to...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
High schoolers analyze modernist poetry and the role of speaker in example poems. Learners study modernist poems from the Romanticism and Victorian periods as well as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Using a...
Curated OER
Bermuda: Search for Deep Water Caves: Living Fossils
Students explore relict species. In this anchialine cave instructional activity, students identify relict species associated with anchialine caves, and explain the importance of preserving anchialine caves and species.
Curated OER
Kids' Newsbreaks
Group learners together to identify a question relating to an issue and create a 60-second kids news break highlighting information that begins to answer the question. They research and answer issue questions in a news story format.
Curated OER
Designing a Bus Stop
Students evaluate visual arts by creating a design for a small building. For this art analysis lesson, students identify the work of Keith Haring and discuss his uses of color and expression. Students collaborate in groups to create an...
Curated OER
"Live Out Loud" Celebrates Pride Week
Learners investigate human relationships by creating oil paintings in class. In this gay pride lesson, students discuss why the Pride parade is so important, who appears at the parade and how art is used to spread awareness of gay...
Curated OER
What Weather When and Where?
Students learn the difference between hard news and feature writing. They choose one of these news styles to write a compelling weather-related article based on interviews with local sources.
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 13: Unit Culmination - Symposium
To conclude a unit on the concept of diversity in world literature, class members conduct a symposium on "African Literature in Global Perspectives." In order to earn a spot on the panel, individuals craft an original thesis that...
Curated OER
Leaf Arrangement: Kinetic Cognitive Connections
Students use critical thinking to identify leaf patterns. In this problem solving activity, student compare leaf patterns by "acting out" the positions and structures they see. This is a kinetic lesson where concepts are attained through...
Curated OER
Reading Word Recognition, Fluency, and Vocabulary
Eleventh graders analyze words that derive meaning from Greek, Roman, and Norse myths. In this myth vocabulary lesson plan, 11th graders work in learning groups as visual learners, kinesthetic learners, and artistic learners to identify...