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Euro English
Eighth graders read a short essay and cull out the directions. Then students rewrite the essay using standard English spellings. They create a paragraph of their own using Euro English and ask fellow students to translate to standard...
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All's Well That Ends Well
Students examine and discuss the parts of a speech and how to organize them. They read sample speeches, then write a short presentation to read to the class, identifying the beginning, middle, and ending of their speech.
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Young Learner's Writing Workshop 2
Students choose a short story and role play one of the characters in the story. They interview each other about the character they are playing to research them.
Virginia Department of Education
Adding Specific Vocabulary
An exercise and activity tackle the struggles young writers have in expressing and adding details and specific vocabulary to their writing. The instructor guides the class with an example paragraph, where the learners discuss what...
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Using Transitions
Students explore the importance of using transitional phrases in their writing. They discuss why transitions are important to their writing and various types of transitions that they can use. Students practice using transitions in their...
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Stop Talking
Third, fourth, and fifth graders practice the correct usage of grammar rules through the editing and correction of a variety of poorly written paragraphs. You create (or find) the paragraphs, as they are not provided here. And be sure to...
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Connotation and Denotation:
Eighth graders investigate the effect that connotations can have on writing. They are shown examples to build background knowledge before attempting the exercise. They finish by writing a paragraph to practice what they have learned.
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Main Idea in Informational Text
Readers identify main ideas and supporting details using informational texts. For this literacy lesson, they make predictions and read the text to find the main ideas. They use a table diagram to define the main idea and supporting...
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Fish Tales
Have your class learn about marine life. Learners write a story about a fish, create an art project, and share their work with the class. This experience could be enhanced by having them conduct Internet research to discover some of the...
Virginia Department of Education
Elaborating with Showing, Not Telling
This engaging activity is a great change of pace for the classroom. The activity starts with a simple message on the board “The teacher is angry.” The instructor is to stomp around, drop books and glare—anything to show anger. The...
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Time For Change
Students examine and discuss the inventions and changes created by the Industrial Revolution. They create posters or clay models about inventions, write paragraphs about the advantages and disadvantages of the changes, and develop a...
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Introduction to Greek Theatre and Antigone
Young scholars compare and contrast a website layout and the layout of a Greek theatre. In this Greek theatre lesson, students research the Greek theatre and produce a bulleted list of five facts about the Greek theatre. Young scholars...
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Be a Good Sport!
Students explore the sport of lacrosse to improve their reading and grammar skills. In this reading and grammar instructional activity, students read and discuss the sport of Lacrosse. Students complete a Cloze activity, a grammar...
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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day
Second graders interact with the story of Alexander's horrible day by connecting it to their lives. They practice predicting, writing paragraphs, reading aloud, discussing his problems, making a card to cheer him up, and designing a pair...
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Algebra 1
Students study the functional relationships of a variety of problems. In this functional relationship activity, students determine the dependent and independent quantities of a given set of data. Students record the data and...
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Taking a Stand on Bullying
Middle schoolers stand up against bullying in a character-building activity. After discussing historical figures who became advocates in times of adversity, they brainstorm ways to end bullying at their own school, and use a formal...
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From A Different Perspective
Emerging writers create a response to their reading. They read Notes from the Trail and discuss whose perspective the journal entry is written from. Then, they write a response to the journal entry in first person perspective as if...
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Music for Alice
Third graders explore Japanese culture. They read the story Music for Alice. Students write a paragraph defining what happiness means to them. They discuss Alice's culture and their own cultures. Students create a brochure about Japanese...
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Comparison and Contrast - D. H. Lawrence
Read The Horse Dealer's Daughter and The Rocking Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence, then write an essay comparing and contrasting the two stories. Learners choose some aspect to write about, such as themes, characters, setting, or plot.
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Literary Analysis of The Minister's Black Veil
After reading The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a homework assignment your class will complete a literary analysis. Learners will analyze important element of the story and take notes to help support their...
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No Foot, No Horse
Why do horses wear shoes? Why do people wear shoes? Using worksheets, which are embedded in the plan, learners write descriptive paragraphs about their own shoes, classify a pile of shoes, and also engage in math games about the variety...
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Comparing Themes
Compare and contrast the themes of two works by J.R.R. Tolkien. High schoolers read The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, Then they write an essay that compares the themes found in each novel.
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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...
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Insects
It's a fact: kids love bugs! With this instructional activity, young learners explore reading informational texts and conducting research while learning about their favorite insects. Spark learners' interest by reading a book about one...