Expression, current events, and art can go hand-in-hand. After analyzing a multi-media piece entitled, Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, the class explores their own expressive process. They create collages that show a current event or issue...

A Dorothea Lange photograph launches this study of metaphors. Using the questions provided, the class examines the image and the title to consider how Lange uses her photo as a metaphor. Class members then select an object they can use...

Students define metaphor in both art and writing. In this metaphor lesson, students examine a photograph by Dorothea Lange and discuss the metaphor that is displayed in the picture. They write about an object that symbolizes a personal...

Learners dance the image of falling snow. They move, swing, fall, and rise to music working to depict snow falling, the sun, and high/low movements. This is a well-thought out lesson that aids them in seeing movement as a form of...

Kids use poetry and contemporary art to start thinking about logic and personal expression. They read Sylvia Plath's poem "Metaphor," and critically examine the art of Urs Fischer. After working though a few logic problems they write...

Explore concepts of audience, purpose and symbols in this lesson from Media Smarts that asks students to consider all the functions of music. Through a series of discussions and activities, your class will brainstorm possible functions...

In order to understand figurative language, learners read 5 poems, each exemplifying a different literary device. They discuss and write responses to each poem. They then choose one literary device which they will use as the basis...

Ninth graders explore poetic technique and figurative language in this ten lesson unit. Comparisons are made between a variety of forms of poetic expressions and the lives of several poets are studied.

Students create a poem on about spring. They read final version of their poem chorally. They write reflections of their experience in creating the poem.

Duke Ellington, jazz, and jive kick-off a fun and creative lesson on responding emotionally to music. The class will learn about jive talk used in the 1920s and the life and music of Duke Ellington. They'll listen to a selection of his...

Aspiring writers complete and discuss fill-in-the-blank cliché expressions, define cliché as a form of predictable writing, take cliché expressions and turn them into new, unpredictable ones, read poetry that illustrates writer's use of...

Students create their own environmental art after the teacher shows them a variety of example and has a discussion about it. They then write an initial personal definition of environmental art.

Eighth graders empathize with how colonists felt when they were taxed without representation. They use a metaphor of students and a school principal to describe the strained relationship that developed between the colonies and Britain.

Students explore the environment by learning about nature. For this art lesson, students go on a walk and find objects to help in creating a picture, or collage representing whatever season is being discussed. Students write similes...

Students express themselves artistically while learning about China's ancient river civilizations. They are given a Dragon outline that needs to include revelant life of China. Students can do it through words or pictures. Some things...

Sixth graders compare their lives to trees and make connections between the two, consider how trees are metaphors for people, and draw and label trees to represent themselves. Students then read brief stories, fables or nursery rhymes,...

Students create a mobile of various geometric designs to be usend to display information from a variety of texts. They add graphics as well as graphs and charts, color, design and artwork to express the ideas learned through the...

Take a break from vocabulary development and have your Spanish scholars immerse themselves in Spanish culture. What are common Spanish proverbs? In short sessions over the course of a few weeks, the class will learn about different...

Middle and high schoolers remember their most memorable experiences, and then connect their own narrative with an exposition about the topic associated with their experience. This New York Times lesson would be a great addition to...

Trench art is a nontraditional art form created by soldiers in trenches during wartime. Artist Allison Smith connects her art to the American Revolution and the question: "What are you fighting for?" Kids examine her art, how it connects...

Students look at websites about Down Syndrome and respond to how the media has impacted this disability on society. In this Down Syndrome lesson plan, students respond to different situations on worksheets. 

Students use the music of Bruce Springsteen to learn literature techniques.

Students empathize with the colonists. In this lesson on the Declaration of Independence, students collaborate to problem solve a school dilemma that enables them to understand the issues and difficulties that occurred in the creation of...

Students connect their examination of the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to a historical and contemporary study of the issue of human rights and civil rights by creating a HyperStudio stack.