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...

Personify your Inner Editor. After making a richly detailed paper doll of your Inner Editor, put him or her in your locker, under your bed or buried in a time capsule in your backyard, but not near where you like to write. Refuse to...

Students discover how to read with expression. By reading and rereading decodable words in connected texts, students study the importance of expressions and how it can make a book more enjoyable.

Young scholars conduct Internet research on the 1960s and use what they have learned to create a mural.

Students explore and evaluate poetry. In small groups, they read and summarize poems, complete a handout, create and perform a dramatization of a poem, and write a journal entry in response to their performance.

Students listen to a variety of books about immigration themes. They discuss immigration and some of the ideas presented in the books. They complete a variety of immigration-themed art projects.

Kids may be a little resistant to this rainy day idea, but it could produce some amazing art. They paint a watercolor picture of anything they like. When they are done, they take their paintings outside and let the rain work its magic!...

Challenge your class with this comprehensive list of literary vocabulary words. Learners take a pre-test, look up definitions, come up with an example, and then take a post-test. You might use this prior to a unit about poetic devices in...

Student explore feelings, how to deal with them and how to express feelings. In this feelings lesson, students discuss different ways they feel. Students sing songs about feelings and show actions for each feeling.

Ask learners about their personal writing habits, such as whether they keep a journal or a blog, or if they'd ever want to. Though this is not a fully developed lesson, you can use this article and question to provoke discussion and...

Whether or not your class is reading Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, you can use this exercise as the basis of a mini-lesson on how to determine the main idea of a passage or as a pre-test to assess mastery of the skill. A graphic...

These questions are designed to accompany Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," and could be used to guide and focus readers or as an assessment of reading skill and knowledge of the elements of a story. Page one focuses on questions of...

Rich in biographical information about Tenessee Williams, this PowerPoint is designed to accompany a lecture on The Glass Menagerie. Concepts covered include The Memory Play, the American Dream/American Nightmare, Modernism,...

Learners will research what life in Oklahoma was like prior to and after the Oklahoma Land Run. They'll examine photographs and paintings that show Oklahoma before and after the land run, then they'll draw their own representations of...

“. . .different men often see the same subject in different lights. . .” but the great orator Patrick Henry used all the skills at his command to craft a speech to convince listeners to see things as he did--that liberty was worth dying...

Fourth graders are introduced to the book THE SAND HORSE and discuss the title and cover illustration. They listen to the story listening for words and phrases to describe the setting. They then brainstorm key words to illustrate the...

Eleventh graders read and study Hamlet. Then they are introduced to close reading as a means of understanding what is being read--not only understanding the printed word, but also the nuances and connotations of language as it is used by...

Tenth graders develop response to witchcraft from a historical and cultural perspective. They evaluate the use of ceremonies and rituals in witchcraft. They develop a character and develop use of genres and styles of drama. They role...

Poetry can be fun! To set your pupils giggling, have them listen to poems from If Kids Ruled the School by Bruce Lansky. Then, they can study the different types of poetry on www.gigglepoetry.com, and choose one form on which to...

Under construction, this instructional activity focuses on Canto Familia, a collection of poetry about Gary Soto's experiences growing up in California's Imperial Valley. Representative of the experiences of many Latinos, the poems also...

Well into Catcher in the Rye, when things are looking bleak and your readers may be needing some levity, read the picture book The Perfect Square by Michael Hall. Then use the Venn diagram included to compare how Holden Caulfield and the...

Patterns happen everywhere, in music, math, and language! Fourth graders listen to the "William Tell Overture" visualizing the patterns that they hear. They then discuss and write an ABA poem that matches the ABA form found in the music...

In this feelings worksheet, students fill in the thought bubbles with words, pictures or writings that correspond to the emotions of the face on the page. There are 11 different feeling bubble worksheets to print, each has only one face...

Ninth graders watch soap operas online.  For this English lesson, 9th graders explore the story elements of the soap opera.  Students write a journal on their own interpretations of characters.