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"My Holiday Diary"
Students participate in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book "My Holiday Diary" by Jason Telford. They scan the text to locate specific information, write a statement taken from the text and change it...
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Controlled Narrative Writing
Learners add details to their narratives. In this narrative writing instructional activity, students look at a simple four sentence narrative and add adjectives and adverbs to make it more descriptive. They do this activity whole class,...
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Reading Word Recognition, Fluency, and Vocabulary
Eleventh graders analyze words that derive meaning from Greek, Roman, and Norse myths. In this myth vocabulary instructional activity, 11th graders work in learning groups as visual learners, kinesthetic learners, and artistic learners...
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Read Aloud/ Narrative Analysis
Fourth graders read passages of Koya's Cousin Del before answering questions in a discussion setting. They listen to a variety of musical pieces before detailing how the music makes them feel in a short piece of writing. They share their...
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Independent Reading Responses
Young scholars participate in independent reading activities by reading a book at their independent reading level and selecting activities to complete after reading. Activities are broken up into C Level, B Level, and A Level activities.
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Beanie Baby Biographies
Learners write a biography for their favorite Beanie Babies and then share their biography out loud. A simple, yet effective idea! Everyone loves their Beanie Baby!
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Fever 1793: Anticipation Guide
Introduce the themes of Fever 1793 and determine your class members’ level of background knowledge with an anticipation guide for Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel about the yellow fever epidemic that swept Philadelphia. For each prompt,...
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The Outsiders: The K-W-H-L Strategy
What does your class know about the 1960s? Introduce your unit on S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders with a K-W-H-L chart, which encourages kids to list what they already know about the time period, what they would like to know, how they plan...
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Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban: KWHL Strategy
J.K. Rowling's world of wizards and magic focuses on some topics that relate to our own society, especially in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Have kids complete a KWHL chart (what they know, what they want to know, how they...
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Twelfth Night: The K-W-H-L Strategy
Readers of Twelfth Night use a KWHL chart to record information about what they know about Shakespeare's play, what they want to find out, how they plan on finding this information, and what they have learned or still want to learn about...
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"Postcard From Bear"
Students complete various activities related to the book "Postcard From Bear." They participate in a shared reading activity, identify the locations in the book on a map, and write a postcard to the bear in the story.
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Start Book
Young scholars review their notes, drawings, photos and writing from the field trip to share with the whole group. They make a fiction or nonfiction storybook as a group. They include writing from all students and can include artwork and...
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Flipped: After Reading Strategy
Everyone can be an expert! After finishing Wendelin Van Draanen's book Flipped, divide your class into small groups. Then, assign each group a topic to become experts on. The resource suggests topics such as characters, themes, setting,...
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Read it and Remember it!
Young scholars are divided into small groups, read a section from an assigned book, and draw a picture of what they read. They list the main characters, theme, setting, and plot of the book. They share their information/drawings with...
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Understanding Other People's Decisions
Students analyze people's choices from different points of view. They read different scenarios and explain how they would react personally in that situation. Then they analyze what they would do in another character's position and...
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St. Patrick's Day: James Joyce
Whether it's St. Patrick's Day or not, this lesson can be a great way to study James Joyce and how his heritage has influenced his writing. The lesson is meant to be used with the Gale database, specifically the Student Resource Center...
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"I Spy": Using Adjectives and Descriptive Phrases
Students define adjectives and use adjectives and descriptive phrases to write a descriptive paragraph. They write a description of a sensory item, and read and discuss a five senses chart. Students then complete a chart using adjectives...
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Why Transition?
Help your class transition into better writers with this lesson plan, which guides them through the process of adding transitions to increase sentence fluency and organization. The activity is designed for a classroom with a SMART board,...
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Narrative Writing
Are you the oldest in your family? The youngest? The middlest? How do you feel about your place in your family? After reading such stories as My Rotten, Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by...
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My Secret War: Lesson 5
Fifth graders determine how freedom comes with rights and responsibilities through literature and poetry about World War II. In this World War II lesson, 5th graders use the letters in the word "infamy" to write an acrostic poem. They...
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Identifying Setting: Expository Writing
Your class can take turns describing a well know location or setting without giving its name, and the rest of the class can try to identify the location, based on the details given. They chart the elements that helped in the...
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Christmas Bells
Learners read and analyze the anti-slavery poem, "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They discuss the content and form of the poem, write an essay, write an original poem, examine how this anti-slavery poem was converted...
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Counting Up/Down Stories
Mirroring Jerry Spinelli's style in Wringer, chapter 5, pupils use the "counting up/down technique" to recall an important moment in their lives. In the book, the character is being punched, and between blows he remembers details that...
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Special Sunflowers
Students view a picture of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. In this caring and kindness lesson students read Camille and the Sunflower and explore the feelings of the characters. Students complete worksheets related to Camille's feelings in the book.