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Coast-to-Coast Book Design-Part 3: Brainstorming the Book
Middle schoolers examine the process of designing a book and identify the steps necessary to publish a book. In small groups they analyze ABC books, and discuss the similarities and differences between the books. Students then brainstorm...
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Meet Louis Prima!
Young scholars discover the difference in major and minor tonality after a brief introduction to Louis Prima. They discuss swing dancing and Louis Prima's role in the "Jungle Book" as the character King Louis. Students listen to the...
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Creative Writing Lesson Plan
Students practice recognizing the elements needed to produce a piece of creative writing and become aware of those elements in their own original pieces of writings. In groups, they creatively write a new story utilizing all the major...
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The Ultimate Athletic Background
Eighth graders analyze the criteria used to identify "Soul of a Champion" athletes. In this Current Events lesson, 8th graders write, edit and organize a script for a “live” documentary on the athlete. Students rehearse and perform...
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Christmas Carol Project
Eighth graders create a researched presentation comparing and contrasting holiday celebrations from the period surrounding Charles' Dickens 'A Christmas Carol.' In this Christmas celebrations lesson, 8th graders discuss differences...
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It's Your Birthday! Expository Writing Unit 2
Students create an expository essay. In this writing lesson Students are assigned a country and must conduct research surrounding a historic event that occurred in that country at the time of their birth.
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Storyboard for Persuasive Text
Students demonstrate their knowledge of the main elements of a story by creating a storyboard. In this persuasive writing lesson students create storyboards that are intended to persuade a director to make a movie out of the short...
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Step-by-Step to the Final Destination
Learners write their own radio plays. In this writing process lesson, students script their own scary radio plays based on the radio plays they read in class in previous lessons. Learners also perform the plays for their classmates.
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Ugly? Says Who?
Students explore biology by writing animal poetry in class. For this animal characteristics lesson, students research the Internet for facts about an "ugly" animal such as a bug or small critter. Students complete worksheets about animal...
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"The Block": Romare Bearden's and Mine
Students study Bearden's style of collage and create their own collage that reflects their neighborhood. They are read "The Block" and poems about neighborhoods and write one about theirs.
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Getting Down and Dirty: An Exploration of the 1930's
Pupils complete an exploration of the 1930s. Using artwork and primary source documents, they compare, contrast and identify cause and effect relationships in the events of the decade. They discover how the events then affect people...
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Egg-ceptional Poetry Writing
Students recognize that eggs have nutritional value. In this eggs instructional activity, students create poetry for a shape book on eggs. Students participate in additional games and activities about the egg.
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Getting to Know You
Students explore the concept of communication. In this communication lesson plan, students create collages featuring their likes and dislikes. Students present the collages to their classmates.
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Fables and Trickster Tales Around the World
Students analyze fables and trickster tales from various cultural traditions. In this fable analysis lesson, students identify the elements of fables and trickster stories. Students read Aesop's fables and Ananse spider stories....
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Lesson Plans for History: The Annunciation
Students analyze The Annunciation and complete related art activities. In this art analysis instructional activity, students analyze the art piece The Annunciation and create an altar piece. Students discuss the importance of a label and...
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Researching Using Books
Students investigate researching techniques by exploring their library. In this literature references instructional activity, students identify the different types and genres of books that are readily available at their local library as...
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Conversation Lesson – Music
Students discuss the type of music they listen to and discuss a set of music related words put on the board by the teacher. In this music lesson, students work in pairs to discuss words and complete an activity asking questions of...
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Post- Modernism
Students participate in a lesson that investigates post-modernism in American literature. They conduct the lesson with the help of reading "America" by Ginsberg to create context. Then students define the genre and the culture that has...
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"What is an American?"
Eleventh graders ponder about what it means to be an "American." They discuss the impact of an author's word choice and sentence structure on text. They identify some major themes and development of the Letters... Compose paragraphs and...
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Blending Fiction and Nonfiction to Improve Comprehension and Writing Skills
Young scholars explore a content area by reading both fiction and nonfiction texts on the topic. They do more research online about the topic. After comparing the texts, they create their own written original work, using both narrative...
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Rehearsal and Sightreading Techniques
Eighth graders prepare the two pieces "American Celebration" and "Patriotic Bits and Pieces" for an upcoming performance. This lesson is a forty-five minute lesson geared towards a middle school advanced band (8th Grade). National and...
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Edgar Allan Poe and Anna Katherine Green
Students analyze the genre of detective fiction through stories by Edgar Allan Poe and Anna Katherine Green. In this detective fiction lesson, students read "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Second Bullet." Students read the summaries and...
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Predicting a Mystery's Solution
Sixth graders explore the genre of mystery. In this language arts lesson, 6th graders predict the solution to a mystery based on the text. Students read a text and predict the solution.
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Character's Motive
Why do people commit crimes? Middle schoolers investigate characters' motives for committing a crime in a character analysis lesson. First, they read the book Chasing Vermeer and identify the suspects. They then record the details about...