Curated OER
Rubrics for Assessing Student Writing, Listening, and Speaking Middle School
This is a fantastic collection of a wide variety of rubrics for writing, listening, and speaking! The resource contains over 14 rubrics for assessing such items as a summary, autobiographical sketch and narrative, speech, oral report,...
Curated OER
Examining the Form and Function of Campaign Speeches
An examination of stump speeches, one of the most important components of a presidential campaign, is made possible by accessing The New York Times Learning Network. After closely examining the form and function of stump speeches,...
Curated OER
Writing - Direct Speech
The art of writing dialogue is the focus of this language arts resource. After a review of the rules of writing direct speech, youngsters try their hand at creating dialogue used by characters they create in their writing. They focus on...
Curated OER
Writing a Newspaper Article
The perfect resource for a beginning journalism teacher or someone designing a journalism unit, this activity prompts students to write a newspaper article. It covers all aspects of the writing process, such as a guided warm-up...
Curated OER
Delivering a Persuasive Speech
To prepare to deliver a persuasive speech, class members examine not only how to craft a speech, but consider body language, articulation, pronunciation, pitch, pace, and volume as well.
Curated OER
"How To" Speeches Using iMovie
Challenge your pupils with this innovative how-to activity. Instead of simply having learners write an essay describing how to do a particular activity, this lesson has them create an iMovie describing a process.
Curated OER
We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution: The American Revolution
The contributions of African-Americans to the American Revolution are the focus of this Social Studies and language arts lesson. After reading and discussing Linda Crotta Brennan’s The Black Regiment of the American Revolution, class...
Curated OER
The Art of Persuasion-Analysis of Argument
Analyze advertising techniques in order to pinpoint persuasive strategies that writers use. These same techniques are then examined in persuasive speeches. You will have to find your own advertisements, but speeches are included. Finish...
Curated OER
A Look Through My Antonia's Eyes
Thoroughly delve into My Antonia by Willa Cather with a plethora of activities. Engage scholars with videos and web sites in this week-long unit that explains the historical context and creates pioneers in the field of research. An...
EngageNY
Planning for When to Include Dialogue: Showing Characters’ Thoughts and Feelings
Young writers examine dialogue conventions, including indentation, quotation marks, and expressing thoughts and feelings through a fictional text. By noticing where and when authors use dialogue, they decide how to incorporate dialogue...
Curated OER
Writing Skills: Statistical Report
A simple text analysis lesson, language learners transfer, order, and group information so that it is presentable. No apparent link to the five required worksheets.
Literacy Design Collaborative
A Pale Blue Dot: That's Here. That's Home. That's Us.
21st-century learners live in such a visual world that many are unused to letting their minds imagine the picture that words create. An excerpt from Carl Sagan's lecture, "The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space,"...
Curated OER
Homophone Cartoons
A terrific activity on homophones awaits your youngsters. First, pupils access a website that contains lists of homophones. Then, it's time to get creative! Everyone gets a piece of poster board and they create a homophone cartoon -...
Curated OER
Scrutinizing Stand-Ins: Working With Nouns and Pronouns
Use the Schoolhouse Rock episode, "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla," to introduce a study of pronouns. Learners consider antecedents, cases (nominative, objective and possessive), as well as types of pronouns, and then craft sentences using...
Curated OER
Blogging to Create a Community of Writers
One of the keys for successful teaching is connecting curriculum to real-life experiences. This lesson on blogging does this, by making writing, revising, and publishing a reality. Pupils create a character for a story, write about their...
Curated OER
Finding My Voice
Have your class learn the essentials of public speaking. They compose a speech for their fifth grade celebration using iPods and presentation software. This would be a great end of the year activity for any grade level.
Curated OER
Strategy Script #4
This lesson is designed for college students who are having anxiety regarding public speaking. In it, the speech givers go through a process of using imagery in order to reduce anxiety. The instructor guides the pupils in visualizing how...
Curated OER
Writing Skills: Fables
Use fables as a fun way for English Language Learners to gain confidence and fluency in their reading and speaking skills. After reading a fable in class, they retell their story to a group of their peers. When this jigsaw activity is...
Curated OER
Analyzing Word Use Through Guided Wordle
Even though this lesson is just a basic way to review verb usage, it takes a novel approach. First, pupils identify verbs that they use too often in their writing, and then they create a Wordle. Wordle is a website that provides graphic...
Curated OER
Teaching Correct Pronouns
I or me? Are your middle school grammarians struggling with pronoun case? Try this trick. Instruct your learners to look right before or right after the pronoun choice for the words and, or, nor. Have them cover the conjunction and the...
Make Take Teach
7 Syllable Types - Classroom Posters
Review r-controlled words, open and closed vowels, and dipthongs with a set of classroom posters. Each page features one concept with a colorful illustration, an explanation, and a list of applicable words.
PBS
Women's History: Parading Through History
Want to teach your pupils about debate, effective speech techniques, propaganda, and the women's movement? The first in a sequential series of three, scholars analyze real propaganda images from the the historic women's movement, view a...
PBS
Does Art Imitate Life?
Write what you know, sound advice for any writer and something many famous authors are known to have done. Use these materials to explore how Shakespeare's life influenced his plays. This resource is packed with readings, video segments,...
Student Achievement Partners
Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken" and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston's "Farewell to Manzanar"
Passages from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar provide the context for a study of the historical themes of experiencing war, resilience during war, and understanding the lasting trauma of war. Appendices include extension activities,...