Improving listening comprehension skills is the goal of this language arts lesson. Young readers listen to the story Two Greedy Bears, stopping to have discussions with a partner. They predict outcomes and make inferences based on...

After watching and discussing a video on the Voyage of Cabrillo, individuals craft their own origin story and design and build an artifact they feel best represents their history.

Explore communication through media by analyzing different advertisements and artwork. Budding artists view videos, websites, plays, and other artistic endeavors while discussing the true meaning of the work with their classmates. They...

Reciting poetry is a great way to build oral language skills and build classroom community. Pupils look at the text elements of poetry and choose a poem to read aloud. They focus on rhythm, fluency, and expression. This is a great way to...

Listen up! The game of Telephone launches a study of active listening. Class members watch a short video that demonstrates active listening and tips on practicing active listening. Pairs then interview each other and practice their...

Students display themselves using a small box decorated inside and out. They describe themselves on the outside of the box and describe how others see them on the inside. They share the boxes in an oral presentations.

Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....

Start by predicting what kind of character Ralph must be in the book Rotten Ralph. Then, read the book with your youngsters. After reading, provide each learner with the attached handout, having them write two rules to help Ralph be...

Ready to integrate technology into your ELL instruction? Check out this reading lesson that has language learners using the Internet and apps, joining online book clubs, and creating blogs. A fine model of what can be done.

English language development lessons are brought to you in poems, picture cards, and grand discussions in a We Can Do It! themed unit. Topics of discussion include daily challenges, parts of a whole, words that describe what we...

As the culminating activity in a unit study of poetry, class members demonstrate what they have learned about poetry by creating a notebook containing original poems they have written, published poems they enjoy, and analyses of...

Celebrate April's National Poetry Month or enrich a poetry unit with a wealth of language arts material. Class members develop an oral interpretation of a poem and/or develop a podcast interview with a poet. 

Third graders create posters of heroes and present their findings and what they think it means to be a hero. In this role models lesson plan, 3rd graders compare heroes and describe their characteristics.

Partners create oral presentations about a short story or poem incorporating audiovisual aids. Then they make presentations to their classmates. Linked story map will help guide readers' organization of their presentation;...

Who is a champion to your class? Elementary and middle schoolers think of a role-model from their lives. Then, in their journals, they write evidence of that person's perseverance. They identify the character trait of perseverance with...

Students participate in a conversation of three or more exchanges on a topic while exploring a large collection of large photographs pertaining to the topic. They are able to discuss and express their feelings in a comfortable climate.

Poems carved into the wooden walls of the Asian immigrant prisons on Angel Island provide upper elementary graders an opportunity to study not only the story behind the poems but to also focus on the figurative language employed by the...

Looking for a fresh approach to an end-of-unit project for The Odyssey? Check out a resource that has class members write their own hero's journey short story and then craft an illustration that depicts their tale. Apollonio di...

Kevin Henkes has composed a series of books in which Lilly the mouse is a main character. Third graders use illustrations and key details as they compare and contrast the books, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and another...

Encourage effective internet research and e-mail correspondence as scholars investigate a US capital city they've never visited to find pertinent and relevant information. They begin by picking a city, then visit that city's chamber of...

"First Appearance," Mark Twain's tale about overcoming stage fright, serves as a model of a personal narrative and gets young writers thinking about milestones in their own lives. After examining student models and considering the...

I Have A Dream ... that after the lesson, all individuals master the reading, writing, researching, listening, and speaking skills the biography project helps them develop. Martin Luther King, Jr. serves as a topic example for a model...

Want your class to digest text more thoroughly? Middle schoolers learn about the digestive system in the lesson and reinforce informational text reading skills through a variety of strategies. They engage in a close reading...

First through third graders observe and demonstrate a variety of reading expression strategies. First start by reviewing some common digraphs and the sounds they make. Then listen to the teacher read different sentences with and without...