After reading Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (and possibly shedding a few tears), middle schoolers work on their own sixteen-word poems with a Six Trait writing activity. They focus on word choice in this activity to capture an...

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a writing project for which participants write an entire novel in a single month. If you have decided to this in your class, this resource will be useful for you. This is an editing...

Bring your class's study skills into the 21st century with this digital teaching tool. Offering an easy way to create and share customized sets of flash cards with students, parents, and other educators, this resource is a...

Fourth graders use dance moves to perform narratives. In this dramatic performing instructional activity, 4th graders use strong and soft movements to show what character's voice is portraying. Students also use movement to show the...

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...

Scholars of all ages can use the various tools of technology to construct and illustrate a story. Utilizing this resource, learners work with a partner to brainstorm and draft a story based on personal experience. They use computer...

Put your class in the shoes of someone - or something - else with this lesson, which encourages writers to keep a diary from the perspective of a living creature or an abstraction. Use Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm and the Six Trait...

Young writers will love examining  Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type for examples of good persuasive writing. Generally, when we write persuasive pieces, there are common words we use. Encourage your writers to...

Study high frequency words and illustrate them with young scholars. They will use charts to practice the words. They will also do a picture walk with the book they are reading and use the high frequency words in sentences. In the end,...

Are you looking for a way to bring writing into your history lesson - or history into your writing lesson? This cross-curricular activity is helpful and fun, no matter what class you're teaching! Using "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by the...

Take advantage of Banned Book Week to pique students' interest and get them reading! Create a classroom display of previously banned books and allow each member of your class to choose one to read. After they have read their book, get...

What's missing from most studies of the American Revolutionary War is information about the role African Americans played in the conflict. To correct this oversight, middle schoolers research groups like the Black Loyalists and ...

Investigate and report on three issues related to a current election. Elementary aged learners research information about specific issues, develop an opinion, and write a persuasive essay using supporting details and evidence to support...

There is nothing more exciting than allowing learners to express themselves through a creative medium. In groups, they write narrative stories, focusing on building a strong storyline and dialogue. Next, they transform their stories into...

Students analyze narrative voice in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. In this novel analysis instructional activity, students analyze Faulkner's writing style and the narrative voice of Benjy. Students create a reading journal...

Students read a New York Times article to examine strong first person voice in essays about reading. They write their own first person essays about some aspect of reading, participate in peer review, and re-writing.

Young scholars read and compare and contrast a variety of books by their favorite authors. They sort books from various authors and identify themes and patterns in writing and drawings. They also create their own book in the style of...

What were the virtues and values that helped form America? Pupils watch and discuss a video, read biographies of early Americans, chart the differences between early American religious movements, write journals and letters, draw, and...

The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...

Bring the world of video messaging into your classroom with this creative communication application. Offering the ability to create animations with customized characters, backgrounds, and recorded messages, this resource is guaranteed to...

High schoolers research the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, as well as other primary source documents, to determine Reconstruction's impact on the North and South. The 34-page inquiry-based lesson includes a staging question and...

Students collaborate to create a children's book. In this visual arts lesson, student study the components and procedures that go into making a children's book including the shape, size. layout, biographical information about the author,...

Seventh graders create an original narrative story in a diary or journal format involving a fictional character with conflict, plot, resolution and falling action within the story line. They follow the steps of the writing process with...

And the beat goes on! Finding a way to connect during the isolation imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic can be challenging. This activity from the Amani Project offers a way to stay close during a time of physical distancing....