Students complete the Frayer Model. In this literature instructional activity, students review the concept of theme in literature. Students identify major themes in books they've read. Students learn the attributes of the Frayer Model...

Imagine being stranded all alone on an island for 18 years. How would you survive? Class members are challenged to makes necessities out of natural materials that would likely be found on an island.

Emerging poets design a website and then post seven original poems as well as their written critique of these poems. Although the resource mentions Inspiration and FrontPage technologies, any software could be substituted. 

Launch a study of Maya Angelou's "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings" with the Youtube video of Alicia Keys singing her "Caged Bird." Groups then read Angelou's poem and discuss the symbols employed. Although the text of the poem is not...

Eleventh graders discover the importance of the fortune teller in Shakespeare's Macbeth. After watching two interpretations of the play, they examine and compare the portrayal of the character. They create their own modern adaptation of...

Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. In this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...

Students examine the slave perspective and how it differs from stories we hear in text books. In this slave narrative lesson, students use primary source narratives to compare how slave life was expressed by the slaves to how slave life...

Students discuss impact and value of modern technological inventions on society, contemplate world without technology, skim magazines and newspapers for advertisements highlighting modern technologies, and work with partner to create...

Pupils identify heroic character traits that they admire and that inspire trust and result in service to others. They identify the heroic traits of a character of their choosing and defend their reasoning using evidence from the text and...

Students complete compare and contrast activities for two stories about racism and tolerance in the science fiction genre. In this literary analysis lesson, students read a Ray Bradbury short story and Walter Mosley poem, watch a related...

Seventh graders read, "The Witch of Blackbird Pond," and write an expository essay discussing choices they have in society today compared with the character Kit.

Third graders utilize technology to access, analyze, interpret and communicate information about Earth Day.

Fourth graders focus on the family's journey from Wisconsin to Kansas and their life there among the Indians.

Students discuss the pros and cons of being deserted on an uninhabited island. Then they write their own survival stories and complete a story jacket.

Students discuss which values are most important to them and their families. They read poetry and fairy tales to find a story that has the same value they find most important. They create a presentation and share it with the class.

Students practice creating and formating a new word document. They add tables with specific rows and columns. They also include design elements in their document.

This downloadable .pdf explains the research on graphic novels (comic books) as well as offering practical suggestions for classroom lessons and other resources. This is a large file, so it may take a few moments for this to load.

From cave drawings to the Sunday paper, artists have been visualizing ideas- cartoons- for centuries. New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly walks us through the many stages every cartoon goes through, starting with an idea and turning into...