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Borrowing Narrative Skills from Mr. Fletcher: Using a "Prompts in Reverse" Technique to Inspire Your Writers
Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...
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Sense, Sensibility and Sentences: Examining and Writing Memorable Lines
Involve your readers in finding works of literary genius. Have each individual write down compelling sentences that they read or hear, whether in a newspaper, advertisement, book, movie, song, or any other place! Once each person has a...
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Tasty Topics
Students analyze a graphic from an article and predict what the article might be about. After reading an article, they discover a journalist's experience of traveling across the United States to compare fast food restaurants. They...
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A BIOGRAPHICAL JOURNEY: USING THE LITTLE PRINCE TO EXPLORE BIOGRAPHY & CREAIVE WRITING
Students integrate Author and Biography study with Students personal perspective. They make connections between research and creative writing. Students enrich research and critical thinking skills. They encourage students to think about...
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Adventurous Magic
Students investigate storytelling by creating their own dialogue. In this writing development lesson, students read the story Jeremy Thatch, Dragon Hatcher in class and discuss their own magical object they wish to write a story about....
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Writing a Storybook
Students explore language arts by creating their own stories in class. In this book making lesson, students read the story City Pig in class and create storyboard illustrations in order to analyze the story. Students utilize these...
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A Whole Lotta Changin' Goin' On
Here's a fabulous lesson on the life cycle of a butterfly. Youngsters are able to identify and understand the four stages of life. They construct models of a caterpillar and write a sequence story about the life of a butterfly. This...
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Teaching Awareness of Human Development
Students examine the process of human development and identify the reasons for a good nights sleep. Individually, they write a list of the situations in their lives which are stressful. As a class, they discuss myths about stress and...
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Using Artwork to Develop Personal Narratives
Students use a work or art as a springboard to a personal narrative or descriptive writing. They represent an idea in an artistic product which connects to composition.
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Comic Book Characters
Explore gender stereotypes by analyzing how male and female characters are depicted in comic books. Using the provided Comic Book Analysis sheet, students record the attributes of male and female comic book characters. Then the whole...
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Twisted Tales
Experience how a story can drastically change when the point of view is altered. Young scholars first read a review of Disney's film Tarzan, focusing on how the point of view in the classic story is important. They then select another...
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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...
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Life Cycle of Butterfly
Second graders investigate life cycles of insects by writing a story. In this butterfly life lesson, 2nd graders create a checklist of the many steps a caterpillar takes before growing wings and flying. Students utilize creative...
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In Their Own Words: Slave Narratives
Students identify primary sources, explain the strengths and weaknesses of personal accounts in history, and negotiate the Library of Congress Database. They also analyze documents and write a summary that compares and contrasts the...
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Dear Diary
Students analyze a piece of writing by creating diary entries based on a character. In this reading comprehension lesson, students read an assigned book with their classmates and create a sketch of what they believe the main character...
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When Something's Missing: Diagnosing Vitamin Deficiencies
The New York Times "Education" section posts an extensive lesson plan on vitamin and mineral deficiencies. It involves class discussion, examination of food packaging labels, and the reading of a blog post about Vitamin D. The highlight...
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Fractured Fairy Tales
Students use familiar characters, plots, and settings from traditional fairy tales to create "fractured" versions, while experimenting with satire, irony and parody. A fractured fairy tale is designed to be humorous by changing the story...
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Illinois Biodiversity
Students examine the amount of biodiversity in the state of Illinois. They practice using new vocabulary and listening to stories about animals. After given time to reflect, they write their own haiku. They work together to create a...
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The Rise and Fall of the Jim Crow Era
Students explore African American history by researching the Jim Crow laws. In this Civil Rights lesson, students define the Jim Crow laws, the reasons they were put into place, and how they were ultimately defeated. Students write a...
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Who Gets to Invent and How Do Inventors Change Our Lives?
Students examine the way various inventions have changed their lives. As a class, they create a timeline of the most important inventions during their lifetime and another timeline of how old they were when it was invented. ...
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The Influence of Jazz Music in Twentieth Century Art
Learners examine the effect of music on society. While listening to music, they identify the beat, rhythm and write down their reaction to it. Listening to longer selections, they assign a color to the music and share it with the...
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Lincoln, Douglass, and Black Emergence (Literature and Politics, 1840-1865)
Young scholars examine the ideas of Lincoln and Douglass. In groups, they compare and contrast writings from each man and how they formed the nation with their ideas. After watching "Glory", they discuss how people like Lincoln and...
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Wanted Poster
Students examine a fairy tale character of their choice in great detail. They create a wanted poster that includes the following: a picture of the character, a written description of his/her appearance, a reward amount, and reasonthe...
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Rain Forest
Young scholars discover three aspects of the rain forest. They describe the people, animals, and vegetation in the rain forest. They identify the changes the rain forest has gone through and the reasons behind the changes. They choose...