Jump back into expository writing and analysis at the start of a new school year! Start with a review of an authors' stylistic choices in diction, syntax, treatment of subject matter, and figurative language. Writers choose a text to...

Learning to analyze language, symbols, and codes is part of becoming a deep and critical thinker. Young analysts consider their ability to see hidden messages as they analyze the work of Paul Chan. There are two fully developed...

Elementary writers practice writing descriptive paragraphs by adding adjectives and sensory words to their writing. They use a picture of a monster for their descriptive paragraph. This 12-page lesson should increase your charges...

Can literacy get any more fun than this? Learners not only have fun, but gain confidence as well when presented with familiar text in another language. Select books, songs, poems, even recipes written in another language, and using the...

Here's a resource that deserves a place in your curriculum library, whether or not your school has adopted the Common Core. Designed for middle and high school language arts classes, the packet is packed with teaching tips, materials,...

Language is fluid, especially the English language. See how it is currently changing and will continue to change. Using the example of the term "hoodie," learners work through a week's worth of vocabulary, spelling, and critical thinking...

Have your class practice their comprehension skills using this resource. After reading Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George, learners engage in cause and effect activities, identify story elements and figurative language, and...

Everyone loves the tales involving King Arthur and his knights. After reading Knights of the Round Table by Gwen Gross, learners draw inferences and conclusions, analyze story elements, and discuss figurative language, including...

To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...

Upper grade and middle school writers study the art of parody. In this language arts lesson plan, learners study the work of Lewis Carroll, read and discuss parodies from the book, Alice in Wonderland, and construct their own parody...

Students read excerpts from Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and discuss his difficulties in learning the language, cultural clashes and how cultural perceptions shape our understanding of the world.

A fabulous language arts lesson has readers focus on the vocabulary in the key words, expand and build new vocabulary, and practice three grammar concepts. They recognize key words as they relate to communicating at work. Pupils build...

Have your middle and high schoolers analyze instances of celebrities using racial slurs or making prejudiced comments in public. After reading an article, they consider the roots and effects of prejudice and bias. As a class, they...

One, two, three. Un, deux, trois. Eins, zwei, drei. Primary learners love to count and this lesson contains a series of games that encourage learners to count in English, French, German, and Spanish. The exercises develop literacy and...

Researchers say that we need to hear and see new language 12 times before we remember it! Here's a plan that details a series of games that can be used as memory exercises. Bingo, Noughts and Crosses, Pelmanism, and repetitive speaking...

Use your tablets to participate in a culture-sharing project with a class in a foreign country. Your class can communicate and share ideas with a class in another country, swapping information regarding language and culture. Together you...

Have your class explore the effects of war by reading Eleanor Coerr's story, "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes." This is a story about a sixth grader who lives in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb is dropped. Learners answer questions,...

The book, A Week in the Woods is the focus of the very interesting language arts instructional activity presented here. After the book has been read, learners engage in study of certain parts of the book in order to gain a better...

Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The lesson presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...

Explore the relationship between U and I with a video and related activities. First, pupils have some fun with the alphabet and discuss text message language. Next they practice coming up with words that have the same sound a I and...

"Now is the summer of our happiness/Made winter by this sudden, fierce attack!" Luke Skywalker meets Hamlet in a 10-instructional activity unit based on Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope. Using Star...

Engage critical and social thinking by exploring the value of language and word choice. The class considers the article "The Silence of the Historic Present" and analyzes several presidential speeches. They engage in class...

Was the fatal crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 cause by mechanical failure or was it an act of sabotage? The crux of the debate and the subsequent controversy centers on translation of an Arabic phrase uttered by the pilot. The New York...

Students examine the painting, The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan based on a poem by Lord Byron. They compare how Romantic artists and writers made choices about visual elements and language to depict their subjects.