What's the best vacation you've ever been on? What was your craziest dream? This plan details a wonderful activity that encourages youngsters to partake in public speaking and/or4 giving a speech. An effective blackline master is...

Engage critical and social thinking by exploring the value of language and word choice. The class considers the article "The Silence of the Historic Present" and analyzes several presidential speeches. They engage in class discussion,...

From content and language to eye contact and body language, this rubric includes the most essential criterion for reviewing a speech or oral presentation. Ratings are based on clear and concise standards displayed in the Excellent column.

Investigate articles from the daily news and share opinions with classmates. Using current events, learners view a news program without sound and predict what news is being discussed by analyzing the visuals. Then they read news articles...

Explore bullying, how it feels, and how it feels to stop it! This plan begins with a discussion about bullying in which learners share their personal experiences with the all too common issue. Then as a class read The Meanest Thing to...

What is liberty rhetoric? Examine how people have used it in four different time periods and situations. High schoolers investigate original source documents and compare them with the Declaration of Independence to decide how liberty...

Analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous and powerful "I Have a Dream" speech as a primary source document. After reading up on rhetorical devices and working in small groups to define terms, class members identify and explain the use of...

Analyze the inaugural speeches of selected presidents in this primary source analysis instructional activity. Middle schoolers collaborate to analyze an excerpt from Lyndon B. Johnson's inaugural speech and evaluate the speaker's...

Use famous orators of the past to teach rhetoric to your middle schoolers. In groups, they examine speeches by Malcolm X, Barack Obama, and John F. Kennedy, creating and presenting Wordsplashes to display keywords and their stance on...

Third through sixth graders complete a unit on the art of storytelling, folktales, and fairy tales. They explore various websites, create a story, and demonstrate storytelling techniques. Additionally, they listen to classmates retell...

Your class can increase their production of the target phoneme /sh/ through the use of video, the Internet, and hands-on activities listed here. Sound out the phoneme altogether, then model words that include  /sh/ at the beginning....

Students engage in a lesson plan that is concerned with the creation of The Gettysburg Address set within a modern context. They read the entire speech and then brainstorm to create modern ideas that are similar. Students compose a...

Teach your class that they can use interjections to make their writing more interesting. Individuals read a selection of sentences from their book using great expression and then explain to the teacher how interjections can make their...

A review of types of figurative language leads to an opportunity for learners to make up their own examples and share. They are also introduced to four idioms, and then write a poem incorporating figurative language. While the directions...

Have your class examine the use of rhetorical devices, communication, and speech after reading Words Change the World. They analyze speeches, compose a paper, and use rhetorical devices in their own speech. This is an extensive lesson...

Research the Bill of Rights and the necessity for each of the protections that it provides. They choose one of the rights and, pretending to be a framer of the Constitution, give a speech as to why that should be included in the...

Do your class members complain they don’t know what to write about? Give them disposable cameras and ask them to take pictures of 12 things that make them happy. After the pictures are developed, they are pasted on a poster board and...

Are you looking for ways to enhance a persuasive writing or speech unit? Use this lesson to prompt your young writers to investigate a school recycling program. After conducting research, they present a persuasive, well-organized speech...

What a way to teach the parts of a play! Use Michelle Anthony’s adapted script of Falling for Rapunzel to demonstrate for your young readers the differences between stories and dramas. While no lesson plan is included, the script could...

Get everyone talking! It's rare that a lesson can potentially span from third to twelfth grade, but this one really can! Get two paper bags. Fill one with the names of each learner, and fill the other with random topics you brainstorm....

Reading aloud is a great way to engage learners in pacing and pronunciation! They practice using voice, pitch and intonation correctly. The teacher introduces the lesson by example, correctly stressing punctuation and using appropriate...

Youngsters read seven jokes with multiple meaning words, with answers at the bottom of the page.

Learners explore the words of Abraham Lincoln. In this Abraham Lincoln lesson, students analyze segments of "The Gettysburg Address," his annual address to Congress in 1862, and his letter to Mrs. Bixby. Learners conduct further research...

Students use new vocabulary words in their speech and writing and spell them correctly. In this vocabulary lesson plan, students create portfolios of their vocabulary work.