Curated OER
Persuasive Speech in Julius Caesar
After reading Julius Caesar 1.2 and 1.3, break your class into pairs for this role-play. Each pair will receive one of four prompts (or more, if you create additional examples), in which one person tries to persuade the other to do...
Curated OER
Mad-Libbing Your Way Into Modern Poetry
Use a Mad-Libs like activity to create modern poetry! Writers will identify different words and their parts of speech and study "The Red Wheelbarrow" by Williams Carlos Williams. Then, use the sheets attached to craft your own poem! An...
Curated OER
Creepy Read Week
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
High schoolers analyze modernist poetry and the role of speaker in example poems. Learners study modernist poems from the Romanticism and Victorian periods as well as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Using a...
Curated OER
This Isn't Your Little Sister's Poetry: Analyzing and Understanding a Variety of Acclaimed Poets
Eleventh graders are introduced to various basic and advanced poetic devices. They read several poems and practice identifying poetic elements. They identify at least two different poems and substantiate why they belong in the canon.
Curated OER
Teaching Selected Poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems
Students explore the basic elements of poetry through Appalachian life poetry. For this poetry lesson, students read seven poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems and complete poetry analysis activities for each poem.
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: There Once Was?
Students explore limericks. For this poetry writing lesson, students listen to and read a variety of poems written by Edward Lear. Students count syllables and identify meter by clapping as they read aloud. Students complete a...
Curated OER
A Separate Peace: Chapter 13 Reading And Study Guide
In this comprehension check worksheet, students define 3 vocabulary words, define 1 literary term, and respond to 6 short answer questions pertaining to chapter 13 of A Separate Peace by John Knowlesin order to help them better...
Curated OER
The Voices Within Theirs and Mine
Students create new words to convey their thoughts. They find, list and discuss the poetic devices used by the poet in creating his or her war poem and create their own war poems. They use sensory perception words and memory in...
Curated OER
Reading the Movies: Another Approach To Teaching Critical Thinking Skills And Writing
Students explore the elements of film to analyze character, action, and the themes in the movie, "Quiz Show." The lesson encourages students to make personal connections and real life applications as they view the movie, critically.
Curated OER
Identifying Personification in Poetry
Improve your young poets' descriptive writing with this lesson on personification. A SMART board and PowerPoint presentation guide your class through the process of identifying human qualities attributed to various non-human objects. A...
Curated OER
Foreshadowing and Making Predictions
"What happens next?" Using real-life scenarios, movies, images, and other prompts, pupils practice making predictions based on inferences from clues. A SMART board activity takes them from making predictions to writing a prediction...
Curated OER
Perfecting My Pal's Poe Paragraph
After analyzing the compelling first paragraph of Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death," high schoolers draft original opening paragraphs using techniques identified Poe's writing. The relationship between suspense...
PBS
Discuss 22-year-old Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb”
Two poems by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman are spotlighted in a PBS lesson. Young scholars conduct a close reading and watch videos of Gorman reading her inaugural poem "The Hill We Climb" and "The Miracle of Morning." They...
K20 LEARN
The Most Dangerous Game
Readers of "The Most Dangerous Game" must argue which of Richard Connell's characters is the protagonist or antagonist. The lesson begins with scholars reading selected passages from the story and making predictions about who they...
Curated OER
It's All an Allusion: Identifying Allusions, in Literature and in Life
To allude, or not to allude, that is the question: whether ‘tis better to make a reference and engage your audience or risk confusing them or sounding dated. After reading an article about, and loaded with allusions, class members take a...
Curated OER
Poetry Lesson
Eighth graders discuss imagery and why it is important in poetry. They read and discuss the poem Harlem by Langston Hughes. They create a web from teacher given words. They read and discuss the poems On A Night of Snow by Elizabeth...
Curated OER
"The Hidden Feast"
Second graders identify action words and read and discuss the book "The Hidden Feast" by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss. Students answer story comprehension questions, match animals with their animal family names, and complete a simile...
Curated OER
Larger Than Life
Students research the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya and his use of fantasy and allegory in his artwork. After reading either classic or contemporary fantasy stories, they discuss how Goya might have illustrated the stories. Students...
Curated OER
Grammar - Revise Your Symbols
Explore the different symbols of grammar. Middle schoolers write two sentences using different symbols, including asterisks, apostrophes, and ellipses. They also read and answer guided questions.
Curated OER
Our Poetic Planet - Writing Poems about the Earth
As a way to combine language arts and science, try this lesson on writing cloud poetry. Begin by showing a PowerPoint presentation and images of cloud types. Take meteorology masters outdoors to explore the sky using the provided "Cloud...
Curated OER
Exploring Contrasts in "The Lanyard" by Billy Collins
Middle schoolers analyze the speaker's ideas and tone in the Billy Collins poem "The Lanyard." After identifying how each of the five senses is addressed in the poem, they compare images to draw conclusions about the speaker and his...
Curated OER
Foreshadowing and Prediction: W.W. Jacob's, "The Monkey's Paw"
W.W. Jacobs' story "The Monkey's Paw" provides plenty of foreshadowing which readers use to make predictions in this tightly composed, sound instructional plan. Your class reads the story, recording predictions and checking for veracity...
Curated OER
We All Need Speed Limits
Pupils consider fluency and speed of reading. In this speed limits lesson, students discuss the importance of speed when reading and how the rate affects comprehension and listening skills. Teacher models think aloud as a strategy.