Maine Content Literacy Project
Understanding Theme
The ninth in a fourteen-lesson series, this plan marks a sort of midpoint in a unit devoted to the study of short stories. Pupils learn about theme and work on their short story projects by adding to their blogs, checking in with the...
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Developing Student Web Pages for Showcasing Research
Students employ information literacy skills to research topics. They develop topics using a graphic organizer. They draft, revise and edit research projects. They write an expository essay. They create a web page in Microsoft Publisher.
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Creative Writing/Historical Journals
Students research primary and secondary sources to find information about their ancestors. They write a series of journal entries, from the perspective of one of their ancestors, on what life was like in that given time period.
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Apples Personified
Students write a creative writing piece by personifying apples. In this creative writing instructional activity, students view a PowerPoint about the writing process and brainstorm about apples. Students write a rough draft about their...
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Digital Storytelling
Sixth graders write a creative story and turn it into a digital storybook. For this digital storytelling lesson, 6th graders write a creative story, illustrate the story, and then use computer technology to turn their story and...
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End of Unit Assessment, Part II: Storyboard Draft, Sections 2 and 3
It's time to demonstrate knowledge. With the instructive resource, pupils complete the second part of the end of unit assessment. They develop sections two and three of their storyboards about an invention, add visual elements, and then...
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Acting Out
Sixth graders investigate peer pressure, gangs, drinking, and using drugs. In small groups, they conduct research, develop, edit, and write a three-minute script, and perform the script for the class.
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Recycling: Creative Uses for Items
Third graders list creative uses for old objects. In this recycling lesson, 3rd graders work in groups to brainstorm creative, new uses for old, everyday items. This is the first lesson in a unit on recycling.
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Sound/Story
High schoolers combine creativity with the rigor of careful editing by adding music to their story. It forces them to focus on how they communicate the meaning of their story to the listener.
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Music in Words
Your class can build strong, well-represented opinions about the music they hear. They listen to, and share thoughts about, a piece of classical music. Then they write a piece of music or a poem, and analyze their peers' work and their...
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The Important Thing About Technology
Students assess the advantages of modern technology tools by creating a page in a class book utilizing pattern writing as well as the writing process. They organize and develop a composition on a selected topic after going through the...
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The Important Things About Nouns
Students create pages to be published into a eBook. Students read a story and identify nouns and attributes that describe the noun. Using a creative writing process, students write paragraphs and combine them for their eBook. Students...
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Mountain Myths
Students become familiar with Native American myths and legends created to explain volcanic activity. They apply the clustering, writing process and peer-editing techniques to the writing of an original myth about Mount St. Helens
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Swirling, Twirling, Glistening Jewels... Glass Art In Words
Students examine the art form of the glass sculpture. After viewing a three dimensional object, they write creatively describing the object through the use of metaphors. They use peer editing to check for grammatical and spelling errors.
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To Whom It May Concern
Fourth graders produce and peer edit typed rough drafts of the business letters following the guidelines illustrated in the Eight Essential Parts of a business letter and save to disks. They complete the Where's the Math? scavenger hunt...
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Children's Book
A great way to publish students' stories is by having them create a picture book using Pages. This simple lesson plan has them take a short story they have written and create a book with a title page and dedication. After they have...
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What Kind of Student Do You Want to Be?
Third graders write an essay which answers the question, "What kind of student do you want to be?"
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Audio Aesop: Listen to the Lesson!
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"...
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Behind Closed Doors
Students explore different types of doors from an artistic point of view. In this creative thinking lesson plan, students look at different types of architectural doors and doorways and analyze them. They create a project of a door as a...
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First-Aid Newspaper
Eighth graders research, write, edit and publish a class newspaper focusing on topics related to first aid. They research how to care for injuries and write informative articles for the paper. Students compile the articles to produce a...
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Story Writing
Second graders review the basic elements of a story. Individually, they write their own original story as they use a software program to help them map out their ideas. With a partner, they exchange papers and read them for grammatical...
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Language Arts: Take Me to the Hall of Fame
Students write persuasive letters supporting a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Once they have written the letter, they respond to it from the coach's point of view. In addition, students compose various conclusions to their letters.
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Writing Places American Communities
Students interview a member of the community and write a piece of poetry using the voice of the interviewee.
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Fun With Formatting
Students investigate the concept of using a word processing program with the intention of improving formatting skills like centering text. They also highlight different text sections and demonstrate how to save changes made to a document...