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A Moment in Time
Eighth graders study poems to see how punctuation, line length, rhythm and word choice can be used to create a memorable moment. They read and discuss poems by Shel Silverstein.
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"What is an American?"
Eleventh graders ponder about what it means to be an "American." They discuss the impact of an author's word choice and sentence structure on text. They identify some major themes and development of the Letters... Compose paragraphs and...
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Using Descriptive Language
Students examine the use of adjectives in a product review, then write their own descriptive review. In this writing and word usage lesson, students first analyze the choice of adjectives in a New York Times article about the iPhone,...
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Imagery and Sound Devices: In Preparation for Reading Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine
Twelfth graders analyze Ray Bradbury's use of techniques and elements of fiction as well as nonfiction in the novel Dandelion Wine. In this novel analysis instructional activity, 12th graders analyze the sensory techniques in Dandelion...
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ACROSTIC POETRY
Learners use newspapers or magazines to create an acrostic poem where words are divided into parts of speech.
Civil War Trust
Civil War Soldier: Experiencing the Battle of Franklin
Fighting a war over home soil makes a living nightmare even more real. Class members describe the experience of a Civil War soldier during the Battle of Franklin, poised right at a major turning point of the war, after researching the...
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From Ordinary To Extraordinary Writing
High schoolers investigate the quality of writing while focusing on the use of sensory words to convey meaning and ideas. The power of similes and metaphors is emphasized while they create and edit works of writing. The skill of...
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Descriptive Writing
Third graders have fun using descriptive words in an expository format to describe a food that they hate. They utilize a planning worksheet that's imbedded in this plan before they begin their drafts.
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Using Descriptive Language
Students explore the technique of descriptive writing. As a class, they observe a poster and describe it using adjectives. They discuss how descriptive words can be used literally and figuratively in the world of advertising. After...
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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 lesson, students research the life and poetry of Langston Hughes and his use of vivid words. Students complete 23 different activities...
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Putting It Together
High schoolers read aloud the book "Courage" by Bernard Waber and discuss the examples that compromise the defintion of courage. They describe another word such as joy and work with a partner or group to brainstorm and write sentences of...
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Making a Treasure Your Own: Lesson Two
Pupils 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. Pupils draft an outline and work...
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Amazing Adjectives
Fourth graders compose sentences that use descriptive adjectives to describe a specific food and day that they both like and dislike. They should really enjoy coming up with words that describe their favorite and least favorite foods!
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The Malnourished Paragraph
Students revise writing to improve style, word choice, sentence variety and subtlety of meaning after rethinking how questions of purpose, audience and genre have been addressed. They recognize the importance of details in writing.
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Cesar Chavez Biopoem
Students demonstrate their learning about Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union by writing a biopoem. They word process the poem.
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Praise for a Color
Students discover the 5 senses by analyzing poetry. In this poetry lesson, students read a poem with their class and analyze how each sense plays into their understanding of the poem. Students write a poem based on a specific color...
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Writing with Style: Six Traits of Good Writers
Fourth graders listen as the teacher reads a picture book that emphasized word choice. They discuss words and how word choice impacts a piece of writing. Students view various passages on the overhead, and highlight adjectives and verbs...
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Italy
Students read stories about Italy and identify main events and characters. They take an imaginary trip to Italy and write a story about their adventures. In addition, they practice several italian words and phrases.
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Publishing a Group Book
Students examine various alphabet books. They write several sentences for their assigned letter of the alphabet, type them onto a word processing program, and create an illustration for a class alphabet book.
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Putting It Together in Writer's Workshop
This lesson about writing can be taught in small groups or large group settings. They examine basic writing techniques and practice using them to improve their writing.
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Mission System of Texas
Students create a storybook about Texas missions including the history of why they were built. They research and create pictures depicting how and why the missions were built. They write and illustrate the primary groups of people found...
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Flying Freudian Fun: A Look At Ethical Decision Making
There are not many more apt examples of ethics gone awry than William Golding's Lord of the Flies.. Ninth graders focus the ethics of decision making with the examples provided in the plot. They focus on the concept of the psyche and how...
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Knowing the Essential Elements of a Habitat
First graders compare their environment with that of Belize by researching via the internet on the sites provided. Students participate in various activities/centers utilizing the information they discovered.
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Do Touch!
Students explore the sense of touch. They investigate unknown solids using the sense of touch. Pupils use their senses of touch to match feely gloves. Students explore body parts, by tracing their hands and feet on paper. They create a...