EngageNY
Speech Writing: Identifying Reasons, Evidence, and Linking Words
Enjoy the view. Scholars continue viewing a video of an opinion speech, this time identifying the supporting evidence the speaker employs. After watching, they work in small groups on their shared writing projects, crafting a body...
Curated OER
Word Up!
Study the importance of word choice in informational text. Middle and high schoolers locate unfamiliar words and phrases in newspaper articles of their choosing, and use online word sites to explore the definitions and histories of each....
Curated OER
Word Origins
Understanding a word's etymology can really help with decoding and building vocabulary skills. Readers compare and contrast words of similar origins but with different difficulty levels. They focus on prefixes, suffixes, and affixes....
Novelinks
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: Vocabulary List
A staggering amount of work went into compiling this vocabulary resource for Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. The overview provides a rationale for the strategy and information about tier 1, 2, and 3 words. The 19-page...
Curated OER
Mythological Word Origins
Review myths and the characters therein, connecting them to vocabulary words in the English language today. Begin by searching online for myths and character names. With at least ten names that are familiar English words, students use...
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Making an Argument: Effective use of Transition Words
Work on using transition words in context by prompting elementary and middle schoolers to write their own persuasive essays using transition words. They explore new forms of transition words and examine how they are used in an editorial...
English Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Identifying Synonyms
"Let the hunt begin!" As an introduction to synonyms, second graders generate a list of word pairs that have similar meanings. The words pairs are written on sentence strips, cut apart, shuffled, and distributed to class members who must...
Curated OER
Word Association Poetry with Visual Thesaurus (or Not)
Young poets get inspiration and guidance for making word association poems with the Visual Thesaurus. Your class could complete this project with nothing more than a pencil and paper as well. A nice one-off for a substitute during your...
Curated OER
Mystery Word
Help spellers hear words that have the same beginning letter in them and guess the letter. Each speller has a piece of paper where they are to write down the letter once they have identified it. For instance, the teacher will say, "may,...
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Connotation: Three Lessons for Effective Word Choice
Over the course of three days, middle schoolers explore the concept of connotation. They differentiate between the connotative and denotative meanings of sports team names, develop their own team names, logos, and text, and revise a news...
Curated OER
The Power Of Possessives
The whole class with get when to use an apostrophe after this activity. They use apostrophes to show possession or ownership. This activity includes a discussion starter, a practice exercise, a story activity, and a practice worksheet.
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Building Vocabulary with Word Fun
Learners discover palindromes. In this vocabulary skills lesson, students participate in 3 palindrome activities that require them to read and create number and word palindromes.
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Compound Words ESL 1 Beginners
Bring vocabulary to life with this SMARTboard activity! With a list of (linked) compound words, learners combine each part of the word to complete the compound word. They then read a narrative and identify the compound words. The last...
Roald Dahl
Matilda - Miss Honey and The Trunchbull
As the instructor reads aloud several quotes from five chapters of the story Matilda, class members mime their interpretation of the scenes. Then, after reading "Miss Honey" and "The Trenchbull" (chapters seven and eight), the class...
Curated OER
The War of the Words
“Who’s This Guy Dylan Who’s Borrowing Lines From Henry Timrod?” The basic question in this lesson from the New York Time’s Learning Network is whether artists and authors who use the words of others are stealing from that artist or...
Novelinks
Nightjohn: List-Group-Label Strategy
Encourage readers of Nightjohn, Gary Paulsen's young adult novel about slavery set shortly before the Civil War, to develop their categorization and organizational skills with a strategy that asks them to list all the words they can...
Curated OER
Go for the Gold!
The options are vast with this Ancient Greece and Olympics research project! Using Scholastic online resources, historians have interactive and educational supports to guide them through researching and writing about the 2004 Olympics in...
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Nothing But Problems
Here is a fabulous lesson on problem solving in the mathematical world. In it, third and fourth graders get lots of great coaching on how to approach word problems, and how to best find a solution. They watch an episode of Reading...
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Press Review
How can word choice affect a political speech? Middle and high schoolers examine the text of the 1999 State of the Union Address, and then determine how newspaper articles and television reports describe and analyze the event. Use this...
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Poetry & Word Families
Students study a word family before listing rhyming words in that family. They use the words to begin developing lines of poetry. They continue writing poetry individually and finally, they illustrate their work using graphic software.
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Exponents III- Squares and Square Roots
Students explore the process of inverse operations to solve square root problems. After exploring the perfect squares and area, students examine methods to find square roots by observing the teacher, taking notes, and listing vocabulary...
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Clicking Your Way to Poetry: Composing Word Association Poems with the Visual Thesaurus
Use a Visual Thesaurus to compose word association poems. Discuss poetry and word association, create word maps, then practice creating poems based on playful word associations. A perfect way to celebrate "Poem in Your Pocket Day" (April...
Curated OER
Irregular Word Fluency, Bam!
Build word fluency! With this word recognition lesson, first and second graders play a game to practice saying irregular words with automaticity. They play in small groups using a set of word cards provided by their teacher. This lesson...
Curated OER
Building Character: Holocaust Survivor Testimonies
Host a fishbowl discussion to help your class recognize and articulate the relationship between words and the character traits they describe. They analyze Holocaust survivor testimonies and apply the character traits they observe. No...