Water
Global Water Supply Middle School Curriculum
We take a steady shower stream and clean drinking water for granted, but in many countries around the world, the lack of water or a clean water supply is responsible for higher sickness and death rates. Taking a closer look at the water...
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High Frequency Words with Clip Art
Second graders invent sentences using high frequency words. In this literacy instructional activity, 2nd graders type simple sentences using high frequency words, and a clip art picture for each sentence.
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Capitalization and Punctuation
First and second graders explore writing conventions. They add question marks or periods to the end of teacher generated sentences on sentence strips. They locate punctuation marks in poems and write original sentences using appropriate...
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Speech! Speech!
Critical thinkers consider how word choice in speeches impacts the meaning and effectiveness of the message being presented. They examine and respond to some of the speeches made at the 2004 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
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Shaking the Movers: Youth Rights and Media
Children have rights! Exploring those rights and using media to express those rights is the focus of this Media Awareness Network lesson. Although some of the law links reflect the Canadian Articles of The Convention, the majority of the...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Parts of Speech Adverbs: Building Blocks of Grammar
What is the difference between an adjective and an adverb? Encourages scholars to explore the answer to this question while building a foundation of the English language. The lesson comes complete with an attention grabber, notes, and a...
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Parts of a Friendly Letter
The art of writing a letter has not been lost to email and texting! Teach kids how to format a friendly letter with a presentation about the parts of a letter, as well as prompting them to write a letter about their favorite holiday.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Mark Twain and American Humor
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. For this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...
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Blogging
A fun, modern twist on journaling! Instead of responding to prompts in their composition notebook, writers use the Internet to complete blog entries. A sample blog (with prompts) is shown here, and writers are assessed on conventions and...
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Classroom Capers: Creating a Magazine
Fourth graders build language skills in the context of creating a classroom magzine. They participate in activities which help students communitcate ideas and information for a variety of purposes and for specific audiences using the...
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Managing Medical Conditions
Your scholoars practice organizing and presenting information through written language. They gather information about a medical condition and share it with someone else. They then use a format where they organize their information using...
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A Sample Mini-lesson for Teaching Writing Conventions
Students study writing conventions. In this writing conventions lesson plan, students study writing they have already completed and look for conventions they are already using without realizing. In a small group, students discuss...
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Written and Oral English language conventions: Independent Practice
Sit or sat? Passed or past? Assess your pupils’ mastery of verb usage with 10 multiple choice questions. Learners must select the correct sentence from the listed four options.
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Written and Oral English Language Conventions: Independent Practice
Sit/set, past/passed, except/accept, rise/raise, lie/lay. Are some of your pupils still misusing these verbs? Here are 10 multiple choice prompts that will provide them with extra practice. The learning exercise could be used in class or...
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Can you Follow Me? Conventions
Use the present tense to create written assignments. Critical thinkers take a passage written in past or future tense and rewrite it in present tense. They then write a set of instructions in present tense.
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It’s Your Birthday! – Conventions: Revision and Proofreading
Happy birthday! Celebrate everyone's birthday with this writing activity, which prompts seventh graders to research historical events in a country at the time of their birth to create an essay. Working in pairs, they proofread each...
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Text as Object and Art: Aesthetic Impact on Audience Reception of Books in the Early Renaissance and Today
Tenth graders examine the role that aesthetics play in the publication of books. In groups, they apply the concept of physical affectation on each reader's experience to literature. They also compare and contrast the varied types of...
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Commas: Conventional Usage
This four-page handout explains in detail when and why to use commas. Three extended sentences provide an opportunity for practice splitting long sentences into shorter ones. Multiple examples help to clarify correct usage.
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Language Arts: Two Specific Documents
Students are able to read and analyze the essential parts of two specific types of documents, the informed consent document and the position paper, used by scientists to communicate information about their research to two different kinds...
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Language Arts: Living in "The Matrix"
Learners are able to identify, in a discussion mode, the ways in which the media uses persuasion to achieve their desired aims. They analyze, also in a discussion mode, the media's influence on our society by comparing media advertising...
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Language Arts: Sentence Variety and Fluency
Students are able to identify, create, and evaluate three kinds of sentences: simple, compound, and complex. They are able identify the purpose of various sentence types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory, and...
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Language Arts: Revision and Peer Editing
Young scholars are able to evaluate their peers' essays to determine clarity, completeness, and persuasiveness. They are able to revise their own essays for greater clarity and fluency, adding explanation where needed and cutting...
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Punctuation Review/Tic-tac-toe
Sixth graders play a tic-tac-toe game in pairs. In this language arts lesson, one student uses an X to show the correct sentences, while the other student uses an O to show incorrect sentences. Students use a T-chart to record the...
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Writing Conventions: Capitalization and Punctuation
Learners read the sentences, circle the first letter, and draw a line under the punctuation for the seven sentences.