What do writing and dance have in common? They both have a six-trait rubric for assessment. Just like a good story, a good dance must have a hook, beginning, middle, end,  logical sequence, and a climax. Learners use a...

Grading essays after reading a novel written by a lyrical master (think Nabokov, Morrison, Chabon) is a deflating experience. Why can’t your student’s display the same skill in diction as your favorite writers? Because you did not use...

Are your learners only talking about the plot of the story and not the richness of the characters? Then show them how important characters are to literature with the information available here. The learner will know how authors create...

Would you believe marine animals can make their own light? An online resource describes the process of bioluminescence and how animals in the ocean use it to survive. The lesson features a catchy tune that describes the behavior of ocean...

Students investigate the June 2004 Transit of Venus, write a screen play, and produce a movie or animation of the transit including a narration. The difference between storytelling and storyboarding is made clear in this lesson.

Learners write a scene.  In this creative writing lesson, students read The Lightning Thief and discuss the sentence fluency and word choice in the writing.  Learners complete a writing assignment where they create an...

Can your pupils change the world? Explore this question with Ben Harper's song "With My Own Two Hands" and John Mayer's "Waiting for the World to Change." After listening to the songs, they discuss the tools at their disposal for...

Take writing prompts to another level in this activity, which allows pupils to create scenes of dialogue based on the 1903 silent film, The Great Train Robbery. Useful for a language arts/history cross-curricular activity, the lesson...

What a great lesson! Learners discuss California history, including the state flower, the poppy, and then engage in an art activity. For the activity, they learn about value, shading, layering, blending etc. to produce a realistic...

Challenge your eleventh and twelfth graders with this reading passage. Whether you're preparing for upcoming state or school-wide testing, or you're just trying to give your class reading comprehension practice, print this for your...

Duke Ellington, jazz, and jive kick-off a fun and creative lesson on responding emotionally to music. The class will learn about jive talk used in the 1920s and the life and music of Duke Ellington. They'll listen to a selection of his...

Identifying an author’s choice, especially choices that concern craft and literary devices, is a difficult skill to teach. Here's an activity that will make your job easier. The resource breaks down how to teach the skill to novice,...

Don't sacrifice physical activity every time cold winter weather arrives. From walking or circuit training to warm, healthy recipes and safety reminders, this resource will help encourage learners to prioritize their fitness and stay...

Throughout 10 lessons, fourth graders learn how to plan, organize, write, and edit their own personal narratives. In the beginning, young writers come up with ideas of personal experiences and the emotions linked with those experiences....

An array of reading comprehension, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary activities are at your fingertips with a language arts practice packet. Second, third, and fourth graders work on various skills using reading passages and word banks,...

"Ye who believe...List to a Tale of Love in Acadie." Longfellow's epic poem, "Evangeline," launches a study of tragic heroines, epic poetry, the expulsion of the Acadians from Canada, and their subsequent migration to Louisiana. The...

Students, utilizing video clips and Web sites, compare specific passages from original texts to moments in Broadway musicals on which they were based, analyzing similarities and differences between them. They adapt literature into a...

How does Oliver Twist, the novel written by Charles Dickens, compare with its screenplay adaptation? Although the activity doesn't require learners to have read the novel, the similarities and differences of the highlighted passages...

Aesop's Fables are the focus of this language arts lesson. Young philosophers study and discuss the morals found in the most famous of Aesop's Fables. They write an original fable that teaches a common moral. A "Fable Listening Library"...

Learners research historical events of the past century to recognize that society impacts the themes within art and literature. They then interview an individual to develop a biographical narrative, a collage and finally an oral...

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,...

Eight various activities have your learners looking at hype in the media. Advertisements for films, politics, music, and philanthropy all contribute to emotional appeals and marketing strategies trying to convince consumers to...

Seriously, 93 slides of literary terms? Yes, and well worth the time, although perhaps not all at once. The beauty here is in the concise, easy-to-understand definitions for such well-known terms as imagery and personification, as well...