Look it up. Scholars use a dictionary and thesaurus to verify the meaning of the research vocabulary words they defined in the previous activity. They then use sticky notes to write a synonym for each word. Finally, individuals choose a...

Invite your class to investigate racism and civil rights by analyzing the great Dr. Martin Luther King's speech. Your learners will read the words from the "I Have a Dream" speech and analyze the political and racial overtones. They will...

What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...

Students explore English by completing a word definitions worksheet. In this dictionary lesson, students practice locating a list of vocabulary terms in a "Dictionary Race." Students complete a worksheet based upon word cards and...

Young scholars use a database as a vocabulary resource during writing/reading. They preview stories and list unknown works into their reading notebooks. Students find the definitions, and enter their words into a database using a teacher...

Students understand the way the dictionary is laid out as well as the purpose for why people use dictionaries. In this language arts lesson plan, students recognize the need for alphabetical order and are able to find words using a...

A reading of Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter opens a discussion of justice and fairness. Using a Venn diagram and an Idea Wheel graphic organizer, class members consider the similarities and differences in these two terms. They then...

Teams practice decoding and using context strategies to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. After verifying the meanings of words through the use of dictionaries, the Internet, thesauruses, and other sources, learners write the...

Students brainstorm a list of potential uses for micro-video technologies. After reading an article, they analyze the development of a new pill-sized camera. In groups, they create a children's book that shows them the various systems of...

Riddle me this! What do kennings, caesura, and alliteration have to do with the Nowell Codex? Introduce class members to Anglo-Saxon poetry and prepare readers for a study of Beowulf with a series of activities that...

Adult learners, examine the Internet to answer life skills, use an online dictionary, evaluate web sites and fill in online forms. They will also write about web sites in this series of activities.

Students explore a variety of reference resources while seeking information. atlases, almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and online search engines as well as library card catalogs are utilized in this lesson.

Students create a one-page family newsletter about a selected person in their family. They bring in a photo or use a digital camera to take a picture of their selected family member, and use a newsletter template to write and publish...

What do the words alligator, armadillo, and cockroach all have in common? Each one is an English word with Spanish origins. Introduce young etymologists to the joys of discovering word origins with a instructional activity that asks them...

Students, assessing a variety of formatting tools with Microsoft Word, utilize a bank of vocabulary words to make a personal dictionary of nouns. They classify nouns for people, places, things and ideas and separate them into common and...

Youngsters complete a unit of lessons based on the story "Little Miss Muffet." They predict what will happen in the story, and use context clues to look for meaning in the words. They research information about spiders using the Internet...

I'm compressed. Groups do a rapid research of different file types to determine what kind of compression the formats use and how it works. They share their information with the rest of the class until everyone has all the information for...

Entitled American Studies, this small unit covers various topics related to the study of the United States. Learners warm up by creating a dictionary of democracy, then dive into three different lessons focused on government, famous...

Students find words that begin with the letters in their own names, using a variety of sources including word banks and online dictionaries. They create an acrostic poem. Pupils revise poems as needed, for meaning and conventions. ...

Who named the shapes, or the days of the week? Should words be removed from the dictionary if they're no longer commonly used? Are there too many words in the English language? Language arts students explore these and additional...

Here is a lesson which may be best suited for a library science teacher, or one that can be done by a regular teacher when in the library. In it, learners explore the best ways to use print and electronic resources to find information...

Students are assigned a separate species of plant or bird to research. Using a worksheet, they are responsible for finding a variety of information on their assigned plant or bird. They also complete a mini-poster and give an oral...

Students write and contribute one page for a class picture dictionary. They discuss how to alphabetize words, and examine both regular and picture dictionaries and how they are organized. Next they create a page for the class dictionary...

Students research the states, gathering information and creating questions and answers. They play a form of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? using the student-generated questions and answers.