Houston Teachers Institute
Alice in Wonderland: Nonsense and Logic in Literature
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is known for its fantastical imagery and nonsense verse. This unit plan offers a basic exploration into nonsense verse through poetry and teacher read-alouds. It incorporates activities involving...
Curated OER
The Last Lecture: Power Word Search
Powerful verbs. Significant nouns. Great adjectives. Readers of The Last Lecture conduct a power vocabulary search and create a list of words drawn from the text that will be used to craft a found poem.
Residential College in the Arts and Humanities
Poetry Lesson Plans
Need some ideas for poetry lessons? Check out this packet loaded with suggestions for elementary, middle, and high school writers.
Curated OER
Alphabet Photo Book
Students use iPhoto to create a class alphabet book. After the teacher reads several alphabet books to the class, students brainstorm the names of objects that start with each letter of the alphabet.
Health Smart Virginia
Mental Health Journals
Eight prompts, designed to accompany the Health Smart series of lessons, provide high schoolers an opportunity to reflect on and learn from the issues raised by the various activities.
Curated OER
the Naturalist's Notebook
Third graders, after brainstorming what they already know about trees and what effect the seasons have on them, create a model of a hollow log. They participate in a young naturalist's notebook writing activity while walking outside...
Curated OER
A Character's Decalogue Using "Because of Winn Dixie"
Students read the book Because of Winn Dixie and then create a personal decalogue, which is a list of 10 personal beliefs. In this decalogue lesson plan, students then write a decalogue of a fictional character and write a story based on...
Curated OER
CEENBoT Takes a Dive
Students create a map to scale using technology. In this algebra instructional activity, students navigate through a shipwreck to perform rescues. They use he CEENBoT program to perform the different tasks.
Teacher Created Resources
Complex Sentences Made Easy
Support scholars' ability to write complex sentences with a two-page instructional activity designed to inform and reinforce. Here, learners obtain a brief overview of what a complex sentence is and how one is made; then apply their...
Curated OER
Who's Confused? Not Me!
The class works together to tackle easily confused words. Each learner receives a word and he or she must create a flashcard with the following things: the word, its definition, an original sentence that uses the word, and a picture...
Santa Ana Unified School District
The Power of Point of View
Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: “Medicine: Then and Now” Pre-Reading Activity
What did medicine look like a hundred years ago? Two hundred years ago? Invite small groups to conduct research on the history of a chosen medical advancement before reading Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science....
Curated OER
It's Opposite Day
Celebrate Opposite Day by using a Visual Thesaurus to match words to their antonyms. They match a list of vocabulary words to their antonym counterparts using the Visual Thesaurus, and then they play Antonym Bingo with the words from...
Curated OER
Revision Checklist for the Accordion Essay
Encourage your class to revise their writing and check over their work by requiring them to complete an organization checklist. The checklist, created specifically for a accordion-style essay, asks writers to look over their formatting,...
Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, University of Texas at Austin
Lesson 12 - Ed Suffix with Unchanging Base Words
Understanding different verb tenses begins with knowing how to decode words. A lesson on the -ed suffix with unchanging base words introduces readers to the past tense. Teachers present the skill with oral reading and spelling...
Smithsonian Institution
Solomon G. Brown: Letter Writing
Personal correspondence in the form of letters is not as common as it once was. This resource presents an opportunity for you to introduce your class to letter writing and cover topics in social studies. Learners read a letter written in...
Curated OER
Getting Ready to Write
Learners watch an online slideshow that shows Cornelia Funke's transition from an illustrator to a writer. They discuss her writing process from the way she gathers ideas to how and where she writes. Next, they work in groups to choose a...
Curated OER
Roller Coaster Robot
Students calculate the area under a curve. In this calculus lesson plan, students use Riemann sums to find and approximate the area under a curve. They use the derivative and differential equations to solve.
Curated OER
Found Poetry Finds Popularity
Writers use non-fiction pieces to craft found poems across all domains for a New York Times writing contest.
Curated OER
Lesson Four: Developing a Narrative Writing Piece
Second graders practice writing a narrative piece. For this narrative writing lesson, 2nd graders fill out a Rough Draft Organizer then write a narrative composition. Students then conference with the teacher to show their personal...
Curated OER
Multi-cultural and Multiple Perspectives Literacy Lesson
Third graders compare their thoughts about Africa before and after reading an associated book. For this cultural understanding lesson, 3rd graders write down their thoughts about Africa. They receive information from the book, Somewhere...
Curated OER
Using Lists to Generate Ideas
Students create lists about a topic that they choose to generate ideas for writing without worrying about grammar or punctuation. In this lists lesson plan, students first create a list about snow with their teacher.
Curated OER
Blogging
A fun, modern twist on journaling! Instead of responding to prompts in their composition notebook, writers use the Internet to complete blog entries. A sample blog (with prompts) is shown here, and writers are assessed on conventions and...
Curated OER
Foreshadowing and Making Predictions
"What happens next?" Using real-life scenarios, movies, images, and other prompts, pupils practice making predictions based on inferences from clues. A SMART board activity takes them from making predictions to writing a prediction...