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Creating Children's Books
Students collaborate to create a children's book. For this visual arts lesson, student study the components and procedures that go into making a children's book including the shape, size. layout, biographical information about the...
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Setting the Story: Techniques for Creating a Realistic Setting
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Thus begins the 1830's novel Paul Clifford and, of course, all of Snoopy’s novels! Encourage young writers to craft settings for their stories that go beyond Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s often-mocked phrase...
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Maniac Magee: Fishbowl Discussion
Split the class into two groups for a fishbowl discussion using of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee. The first group initiates the conversation by reviewing the important points of Chapter thirteen while group two members are listening,...
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The Call of the Wild: Activities
“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life” and an excitement that comes with finding a good teaching resource. Included in a richly detailed packet designed to accompany The Call of the Wild, are a tableaux exercise, a silent...
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Characters' Feelings Or Motives
Fourth graders use the text, "Fair's Fair" to examine how characters' feelings and motives are built throughout a text through descriptive phrases. They look at what a character does and says to record on their writing frames. Finally,...
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Stories
Students read and write a short story. In this short story lesson plan, students read a short story and answer comprehension questions on it that teaches them about the world around them. Then they write a short story to teach something...
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Twelfth Night: Thrusting Greatness Upon the Television 1
Students create skits based on pairs of words. In this Twelfth Night lesson, students create a cluster map in which they brainstorm a dialogue/scene based on their word pair. Students perform and record their scenes and discuss their...
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Motivating and Speaking Activities
Students participate in various activities to encourage speaking. They design a board game using the questions, dice and counters. Students are given partial information about a topic. They exchange information with their classmates...
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Reading Fiction - Character
The goal of this lesson is to have learners understand how character is created through a combination of what they say and do, and what others say about them. In pairs, learners construct a short dialogue between a parent and child after...
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Story Books
Students discuss a narrative work of art, then write stories describing the action and publish their stories and illustrations in books.
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The Palm of My Heart: Poetry By African American Children
Elementary students explore African American culture by reading children's poetry. They read the book, The Palm of My Heart which features poetry by an assortment of young African American boys and girls. Students define several...
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"The Three Billy Goats Gruff:" Retelling the Story
Youngsters retell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They write a sentence for speech bubbles for a character in the story, identify the phrases that can be used for retelling a story, and in small groups write a sentence for the...
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The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Second graders listen to the story, THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF and in pairs, discuss the theme of the book and two things that they liked about it. They then read the book OOPS and discuss the theme of the book identifying the things they...
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Clues to a Character through Text
Readers will read a text and fill out a character map based on the characters in that text. They will explore different qualities of each character for their map. this can be modified to support younger learners. They will learn about...
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From Formal To Slang
Tenth graders define the term slang, explaining its various social, historical, and racial contexts, so as to articulate when it can be appropriately used as a means of effective communication. They use their own personal slang lexicon,...
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Truman Capote: Other Voices, Other Rooms
Students read and analyze Truman Capote's autobiographical short story, "A Christmas Memory." They discuss writing styles, conduct Internet research on Truman Capote, write a book review, and write a short story based on one of Truman...
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Legally Wed
Students explore the controversial topic of same-sex marriages in a fishbowl discussion. They write balanced news articles based on interviews exploring people's opinions on laws that define marriage.
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KWHL Jacob Have I Loved
Your class has just begun reading Jacob Have I Loved, and they're coming upon the fifth chapter. Pause their reading and have them complete a KWHL chart (not included) to detail what they've learned from the novel's beginning. An example...
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A Test Case for Individual Rights
Young scholars examine the different points of view regarding testing students for drug use. They then work in pairs to create and perform dialogues that flesh out two sides of the argument around this controversial issue.
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Evolutionary Exchange
Learners discuss the difference between designed and natural elements. After reading an article, they discover information about current controversies in evolutionary science. In groups, they research and write dialogues between two...
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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dou
Ninth graders explore the concept that education is related to freedom. In this human rights instructional activity, 9th graders read The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. Students dialogue about their readings and education as it relates...
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Wolf Fact Cards
Students write a non-chronological report about wolves. They read and discuss wolf fact cards in small groups, complete a KWL chart, observe the teacher model the steps of writing a report, and conduct research and write an original...
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Far Out!
Students research and compare/contrast how routine tasks on Earth would be without gravity. They read and discuss the article "The Life Galactic: A Lot of Work, a Little Play, Plenty of E-Mail." In groups they write a pitch for a TV...
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Mission Possible
Students create blueprints for imaginary inventions based on real-world technological principles. They write explanations of how their inventions work in the form of movie dialogues.