Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 10: Author's Purpose Seminar
Why did Chinua Achebe write "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" in response to Conrad's novel? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members conduct a socratic seminar focused on Achebe's purpose and...
California Education Partners
The Road Not Taken
An effective lesson plan truly can make all the difference. Seventh graders read, analyze, and annotate Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" before writing an essay about what they believe to be the theme of the iconic poem.
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Planning The Two Voice Poem
Scholars build background knowledge to understand the life and work of the union leader and labor organizer César Chávez. As they read teacher-selected resources, they complete a Building Background Knowledge worksheet and engage in...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Soldier: Experiencing the Battle of Franklin
Fighting a war over home soil makes a living nightmare even more real. Class members describe the experience of a Civil War soldier during the Battle of Franklin, poised right at a major turning point of the war, after researching the...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Parts of Speech Adverbs: Building Blocks of Grammar
What is the difference between an adjective and an adverb? Encourages scholars to explore the answer to this question while building a foundation of the English language. The lesson comes complete with an attention grabber, notes, and a...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Nature: Friend and Foe: English Language Development Lessons (Theme 6)
If readers don't understand key portions of a text, it may seem more like a foe than a friend. The second resource in a series of three ESL lessons designed to accompany the texts in Nature: Friend or Foe makes the texts easier to...
Curated OER
Frindle: A Guiding Reading Unit
Guide your class through a reading of the popular children's book, Frindle, with this comprehensive literature unit. Starting with a brief introduction to the guided reading process, the class goes on to read the story two chapters...
Curated OER
Organizing Ideas
Eighth graders investigate varous writing skills as part of larger course of study. The lesson is essentially a rough guide for conducting a class for writing. The main focus of the plan is organizing ideas using various strategies that...
Curated OER
Have a Backone
Students create a visual organizer that describes different groups of vertebrates in this pre-writing activity. They view and discuss a video on descriptive writing and then form small groups to research vertebrate classes using the...
Curated OER
Test Taking Tips
Assessment, and for some the accompanying test stress, is a part of classroom life. Show your class members how to prepare for exams and steps they can take to reduce anxiety. Although the referenced PowerPoint is not included in the...
Curated OER
Ordinary People: Anticipation Guide
Activate your pupils' thinking before reading chapter five of Ordinary People. Learners decide whether they agree or disagree with six statements and discuss their ideas in small groups. They then read chapter five and determine...
Novelinks
The Hobbit: Anticipation Guide
Prior to reading Tolkien's The Hobbit, class members respond to a series of statements in an anticipation guide that introduces many of the central concepts of the novel.
University of North Carolina
Summary: Using it Wisely
Sometimes summarizing keeps a writer from going deeper into their analysis—don't fall into that trap. Learn the difference between summarizing and analyzing using an insightful resource. Focusing on introductions, the lesson shares...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Exploring Character Development in The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
How did the Civil Rights Movement affect young people in the United States? Scholars read Christopher Paul Curtis' novel, The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963. Next, they write compare and contrast essays showing how the main...
Curated OER
Prereading
Fourth graders participate in think-pair-share reading strategy in this lesson. They identify their purpose for reading as well as purposes for reading fiction/nonfiction. They list and discuss several prereading activities, and then...
Curated OER
Picture Writing
Learners use pictures to help them communicate their ideas. They write personal books or journals using pictures. Students can create daily blogs usig the internet and create a weekly newsletter.
Curated OER
Language Arts: Awesome Authors Website
Students examine the writing techniques of professional authors and apply them to their own work. In pairs, they email authors to discover the tricks of the trade. Students create their own Website for their work.
Curated OER
Building Classroom Community
Students practice critical-observation and pre-writing skills as they recognize and embrace diversity. They discover how even though all people share some traits, we are also unique and name some physical traits that we all have in...
Curated OER
Writing about Internal & External Conflicts in Lois Lowry's The Giver
Seventh graders examine the internal and external conflicts that Jonas faces in "The Giver" in an essay. Students use SMART Board and Inspiration to organize their ideas graphically before combining them into their paper.
Curated OER
Anticipation Guide Heart of Darkness
The whys and wherefores of anticipation guides are detailed in a resource that models how to craft statements for this reading strategy.
Curated OER
Vocabulary Lesson-Pre-K Through Grade 2 and ESL
Young scholars say the name of pictures of simple objects, people and places, choosing 15 to use for the lesson. Students glue pictures in a scrapbook and write the word for each picture beside it. Young scholars complete word...
Curated OER
Writing a Research Paper
Learners work through the steps of writing a research paper in this lesson. They define their problem and decide what sources of information to use. They read, take notes, and organize the collected data. Finally, they write the...
Curated OER
Revising Character Descriptions
Learners effectively revise character descriptions. In this revising character descriptions lesson, students work with a partner to give and receive constructive criticism to improve their character descriptions.
Curated OER
Pre- and Post-Reading Plan
Students are introduced to pre- and post-reading strategies. Individually, they read excerpts of a story while making predictions about what they believe is going to happen next. After reading the selection, they answer comprehension...