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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Press Review

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
How can word choice affect a political speech? Middle and high schoolers examine the text of the 1999 State of the Union Address, and then determine how newspaper articles and television reports describe and analyze the event. Use this...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Word Up!

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Study the importance of word choice in informational text. Middle and high schoolers locate unfamiliar words and phrases in newspaper articles of their choosing, and use online word sites to explore the definitions and histories of each....
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Who Could Have Been Who

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Can word choice affect a candidate's likeability? Use a New York Times lesson to explore how a presidential candidate's likeability factor can fluctuate in public opinion polls. Young readers choose a presidential election from their...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

A Positive Spin

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Study word choice and connotation in advertising. Readers examine campaign ads, both negative and positive, from the 2006 mid-term election before discussing an article and analyze a campaign of any candidate they choose. Finally, they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson plan focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Shakespeare and Poe Teach Six-Trait Writing

For Teachers 5th - 8th
A Six-Trait Writing instructional activity helps your middle schoolers liven up their word choice and shows them how to evaluate their own writing. Class members take a close look at the language used in poems by Shakespeare, Kipling,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Remembrance of Things Past

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
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,...
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Writing
Curated OER

Protest Letter

For Students 3rd - 5th Standards
What a fantastic resource to guide youngsters in persuasive letter writing. They read a brief letter to the editor and answer question about the author's purpose, word choice, and structure. Next, scholars draft their own letter by...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Strong Descriptive Writing: James and the Giant Peach

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...
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Handout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Core Analysis Frame: Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Dig deep into any piece of poetry with a set of analysis questions. Ponder the content, form, and language of poetry and provide some question for critique. The first two pages include general questions, and the remainder of the document...
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Handout
Write At Home

250 Ways to Say "Went"

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Getting tired of seeing went over and over again in student writing? Banish boring verbs with a list of 250 different substitutes for that mundane word went. Organized in alphabetical order, words such as bustled, inched, and tottered...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Prefixes Micro- and Mega-

For Students 3rd - 5th Standards
Explore vocabulary context clues with a prefix activity. Using the prefixes micro- and mega-, fourth graders complete sentence frames. They then make up their own word with the correct prefixes. Helpful as homework or during a writing...
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PPT
Curated OER

Antonyms: Opposite Words

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Learning about antonyms can help learners build a diverse vocabulary and better understand word meaning and choice. They work through eight different sentences by determining which words are antonyms. This nicely designed presentation...
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Writing
Curated OER

Writing About Talking

For Students 2nd - 4th Standards
The story of King Arthur is a fascinating one, and this retold excerpt offers an excellent example of narrative word choice in a dialogue. Learners read the text and examine the way the author uses synonyms for said. They write down all...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dead Word Wall Kills Overused Words

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Have your class attend a funeral for the words they overuse in their writing. They develop a list of alternate words for those overused words, and make an effort to employ alternatives whenever possible. This is a great way to improve...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Does Mother Nature Know Best?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Investigate herbal medicine in the science or health classroom with this activity from the New York Times. After a discussion about class members beliefs about and experiences with herbal medicines, pupils read an article that might...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jeffrey and Sloth: Six Traits of Writing

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Use drawings as inspiration. Have learners doodle for 10 minutes before beginning the lesson. Then, have them use their doodles to inspire a story. Several writing activities are included here to play with writing. One of my favorites...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Setting the Tone with Figurative Language

For Teachers 8th Standards
Explore figurative language with your secondary class. Extending a language arts unit, the lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine how an author's word choice establishes a story's tone, possibly using metaphors, similes,...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Sentence Completion 10

For Students 6th - 8th
Can your English language learners pick up on the subtle hints imbedded in each sentence? There are eight sentences provided, and your learner must read each and identify the best possible answer from five multiple-choice options...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Reading a Dialect

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
Reading a dialect can be difficult; show readers that it can also reveal fascinating details! They read two extracts from Jane Gardam's The Hollow Land, which is written in a British dialect. Readers answer comprehension questions,...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Choose the Homograph

For Students 7th - 9th
Practice homographs with this fun worksheet! Learners choose the meanings of ten homographs based on the sentence's context clues. The worksheet has a picture of bats - one flying mammal, and one used in baseball. Use this resource as a...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Less vs. Fewer

For Students 7th - 9th
When should you use less, and when should you use fewer? Straighten out this dilemma with a helpful resource about using less vs. fewer based on sentence context clues. After reading detailed instructions and examples, young learners...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Grammar Worksheets: Using Strong Verbs

For Students 7th - 9th
Strengthen your pupils' writing with this worksheet, which provides a reference guide to using strong verbs instead of forms of is and have. Learners then rewrite twelve sentences to make them stronger. This is a great activity to work...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Analyzing Poetry

For Students 10th - 12th
Use this poetry analysis worksheet to help your learners understand a poem of their or your choosing. This resource asks class members to summarize the poem and analyze it by looking at voice, word choice, imagery, and theme. The...