Students read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, define asylum and identify when people have the right to asylum. They examine specific cases of asylum in recent times and consider some of the difficulties refugees face.

After answering comprehension questions (good for a homework reading check), class members analyze "Comin' Thro the Rye," and using the included guidance questions, discuss Holden's misreading of Robert Burns' poem. The URL to text of...

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...

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.

Students 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...

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...

The contributions of Ida B. Wells to the Civil Rights Movement are the focus of this social studies lesson. Middle schoolers read a handout regarding Wells, discuss the handout, and write about non-conformist behavior.

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...

Note taking is an invaluable skill and requires practice. This 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 lectures on podcasts...

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.

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...

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...

Students 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,...

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...

Students 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...

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.

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,...

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...

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...

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...

Students discuss the story "Jubal's Wish." In this literature instructional activity, students take turns making predictions about what will happen next in the story and state their own wish by taking turns as well.

Students 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 others.

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...

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...