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Introduce Vocabulary: Peter's Chair (Keats)
A new baby means a lot of changes for Peter! Ezra Jack Keats presents this common childhood experience in his story Peter's Chair, the context of a detailed vocabulary study. Before you read, introduce the three new words scholars...
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Jay Gatsby's Souvenir Scrapbook
Pupils create a Power Point scrapbook that compiles memorabilia representing the life of Jay Gatsby. They read the novel, "The Great Gatsby" and conduct internet research using the "American Twenties" website. In small groups, they...
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Cornell Notes with I Tunes
Note taking is an invaluable skill and requires practice. This instructional activity incorporates the Cornell Notes format, however the plan itself could be implemented to teach any style. The basic idea here is to use university...
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Characteristics of Anne Frank
Eighth graders read selected passages from The Diary of Anne Frank. Working in pairs, 8th graders determine what qualities and characteristics they would assign to her from their selected diary entry.
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Dancing through Poetry
Get your class up and moving as they explore how to express movement and dance through words. Designed around two poems by Lillian Morrison about break dancing, the activity truly captures the creative and multi-sensory aspects of...
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Bible Lesson
Take a creative approach to teaching about community in a religious context. Learners read Acts 2:42-47 and choose the verse they feel exemplify the importance of community. They then pair share, write journal responses, and then...
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Autism
Students with autism increase their knowledge about autism, communication, life skills, and goal setting. They read selections from authors who have written about their experiences with autism.
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Character Sketches
Students are introduced to the types of characters found in short stories. They read a short story in class and produce sketches of the protagonist and antagonist. Finally, they create their own characters and write about them in their...
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A Good Man is Hard to Find
Students, in groups, read and analyze the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor. They present their findings tot he rest of the class and then connect the various themes discussed to outside material, events...
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Hooks
Pupils examine how a hook grabs the readers attention. They read an example of a hook from the book "Charlotte's Web," and discuss the process of writing a hook. Students listen to the story "Hey Al," identify the hooks in the story, and...
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The Song of the Lark
Using the internet, class members research the biography of Willa Cather, view photographs of Red Cloud, Nebraska, and read the novel, The Song of the Lark. They discuss the film, its setting and characters, and explore the...
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The Civil War: Up Close and Personal
Pupils take an in depth look at different aspects of the Civil War. Using primary source documents, they discover that people who lived during the war are not so different from them. They read about the experience of a Confederate...
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Historical Fiction Project
Students be engaged in a history project that is combined with Language Arts with the purpose of teaching students how to cite bibliographic information. This is important for doing future research.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Using Maps to Inspire Personal Narratives
A solid description of one way to teach narrative writing, this resource outlines the writing process from concept to completion. Class members create concept maps of moments in their lives and follow the writing process to publish their...
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Writing Prompts for High School
Are you teaching a high school language arts class and stumped for writing topics? Five pages of writing prompts for all kinds of writing should help you out. Many of these prompts refer to texts that are not included in this resource,...
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Make a Social Skills Superhero Comic Book
Get creative as you teach a lesson on positive peer and social interactions. Discuss good social interactions through a scenario, brainstorm a positive response to the scenario, then creat a comic book superhero that exemplifies the...
San Francisco Symphony
Beethoven's Sixth Symphony and the Expression of Feeling through the Arts
Here is an activity used originally to finish off a unit on country life and nature. It requires learners to have a basic understanding of harvest, rural life, and autumn. They'll use what they know to construct dance movements showing...
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Jubal's Wish
Students discuss the story "Jubal's Wish." In this literature lesson, students take turns making predictions about what will happen next in the story and state their own wish by taking turns as well.
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The Bill of Rights Today
High schoolers examine the Bill of Rights, They read the Bill of Rights and clarify the meaning of the material using different reading strategies. In groups, students brainstorm to compare and evaluate their conclusions with those of...
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Poetry and Visualization
Students use visualization techniques when reading poetry. In this visualization and poetry lesson, students work in groups to present a tableau that depicts a word from the poem as classmates guess the word. Students then...
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A Rose Is a Rose
Flowering learners explore the concept of figurative language as it relates to poems, songs, or creative written expression. In this creative writing lesson, they complete several phrases using similes, metaphors, and...
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Animal Coverings
Students read a book. In this animal characteristics instructional activity, students read the book Animal Coverings, answer comprehension questions, and complete a chart where they match animals with their coverings.
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5 W Questions
Second graders practice asking the 5 W questions by reading a Boxcar Children book. In this journalism lesson plan, 2nd graders read a single story from the Boxcar Children series and answer the 5 W's about each specific...
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Introducing Learning Strategies (Motivation)
Students examine how to develop the skill of motivation for learning. The application of this skill can be transferred to other areas of life. The use of print media is part of the lesson and students reflect upon the concept presented...