Students define and discuss personal pastimes, listen to the story Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, discuss owling as rural pastime, demonstrate comprehension by writing responses to story, and discuss how climate and geography often determine...

Examine artwork, research literature, and create art pieces for a monument to a literary figure. Young scholars analyze the sculpture Model for a Monument to Alexandre Dumas père and compare it to other well-known monuments. They...

Bring digital storytelling to your language arts class! To begin, learners select their own topic, such as a poem that reflects a life experience they had or a historical figure who interests them. Then they work to create a storyboard...

Fifth graders create a class Powerpoint presentation of historical figures. They each research six names for their assigned alphabet letter and include a thumbnail sketch for the persons. Students present the finished project to other...

Elementary learners study and research an important historical figure. They research a historical figure and use a four square organizer to take notes. They develop a timeline and poem that reflects the life of the historical figure....

Students investigate historical figures and how they play a role in tourism by reading and discussing the article "When Robin Hood Supped, Was it Yorkshire Pudding?" In groups, students investigate issues related in the article in...

“What’s in a name?” Just about everything. Barack Obama, Vincent van Gogh, Justin Bieber. Famous names evoke a multitude of reactions and poets often use the names of famous people in their works precisely because names carry...

The Humane Society provides a lesson in which class members explore the issue of tethering dogs. Through the resources used -- a comic, a poem, and narrative and expository writings -- class members realize that messages can be conveyed...

Transform a written biography into a video biography! Introduce your learners to the biography format by reading them a few examples (some suggestions are included). Then discuss the factors that make a good biography. What information...

How does the particular point of view in a situation affect the way it is presented? Focusing on perspectives on slavery during the Civil War, middle schoolers use research to write narratives from the points of view of their historical...

Most have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks, but few recall Elizabeth Jennings, Samuel W. Tucker, or Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher. Young historians research and then develop a presentation about the contributions of...

Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing lesson plan, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a historical...

Through a series of activities, learners are exposed to how artists use symbolic imagery to create the narrative of a subject’s life. They study The Birth of Alexander and some manuscripts kept at J. Paul Getty Museum. They then draft...

Way before the digital age radio was the medium of popular culture. After listening to excerpts from radio programs (easily available on the Internet), participants return to the radio age by creating a two-minute sketch based on a...

Looking for a great lesson on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography. They follow a...

Your pupils will be expected to determine the meaning of words and how those words affect the meaning of a text. Help them master this skill with the ideas listed here. First, look over the two activities that could be used for your...

Drill and practice phonemes, letter formations, written language, vowel correspondences, as well as consonant correspondences with youngsters. They will locate and identify the /b/ in written and spoken words from flash cards containing...

After a review of what suffixes are and how they are used, middle schoolers utilize a worksheet that is embedded in the plan to work in pairs to strengthen their understanding and skills in using these very important parts of our...

There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the lesson presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion ensues...

Six tasks make up a lesson plan designed to reinforce comprehension and language skills using the poem "The Pied Piper" by Robert Browing. Scholars discuss and define unknown words, identify adjectives and onomatopoeia, review...

A strong community acts as a family during difficult times. The evidence for the family aspects of Maycomb is abundant in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and it is the focus of a lesson on the importance of setting as it relates...

Help your learners work with difficult or archaic words. A continuation of lesson two of this module, the plan here focuses on deciphering the Inventory of John Allen, in particular the unfamiliar words that make up much of the list. Add...

Martin Luther King Jr's " I Have a Dream" speech and Atticus Finch's closing argument during the trial of Tom Robinson both address the societal need to overcome racism. After examining the rhetorical devices and figurative language used...

Take a break from vocabulary development and have your Spanish scholars immerse themselves in Spanish culture. What are common Spanish proverbs? In short sessions over the course of a few weeks, the class will learn about different...