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Writing in Math Class
Students brainstorm and discuss ways math is all around them, explain in writing how they solve math problems, describe mathematical ideas in writing, and create original story problems.
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The Highwayman
Fifth graders re-read the story "The Highwayman" understanding the term "narrative verse". As a paired activity, they predict who or what might be the audience and provide feedback.
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Let's Make Stew!
Students investigate how to create a vegetable garden and complete related activities. In this vegetable garden lesson, students receive agriculture notebooks to complete vocabulary for the gardening lesson. Students read 'Still-Life...
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Where are your borders?
Students explore the meaning of borders, both real and symbolic. After viewing film footage and visiting poetry websites, they develop their own point of view. To express their perspective, they are to write a journalism poem, or...
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Graham's Appalachian Spring: A Study
High schoolers explore choreographic narrative. In this choreography lesson, students explore the elements of Appalachian Spring as they develop a series of written responses to assignments that challenge them to investigate the...
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The Harlem Renaissance Births a Black Culture
Students examine the men and women who were a part of the Harlem Renaissance. Individually, they recreate their favorite pieces of art from the time period and create their own original works after reading poem from the movement. In...
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Halloween Counting Book
First graders recognize and write numerals from 1 to 10. They estimate and count to identify sets with more, fewer, or the same number of objects, listen and respond to others in a variety of contexts, and take turns speaking in a...
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Poetic Justice: Understanding the Life of a Tethered Dog
The Humane Society provides a lesson in which class members explore the issue of tethering dogs. Through the resources used -- a comic, a poem, and narrative and expository writings -- class members realize that messages can be conveyed...
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The Time I Got Lost
Third graders go through the writing process but substitute paper and pencil with the computer to create a story about "The Time I Got Lost".
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Journeys
Pupils write a story using their journey to school as the setting. In groups, they discuss their experiences and browse through books to get ideas for their story. They practice using a thesaurus to find new verbs or adjectives they...
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Lessons of the Indian Epics: The Ramayana
Students read a version of Ramayana and explore the elements of the epic hero cycle. In this Ramayana analysis lesson, students retell the basic narrative of the Ramayana and identify the main characters. Students identify elements of...
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Lesson Plan for Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood by Cynthia Rylant
Sixth graders examine the elements of writing poetry. In this creative writing lesson, 6th graders discuss a book of poetry in the setting of Appalachia. Students incorporate childhood experiences into the development of visual and...
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A Picture is Worth a Million Words
Learners practice composing digital photographs by documenting activities in their lives. In this photography instructional activity, students utilize digital cameras to create beautiful art from things they find around the campus...
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A Life Lived Well
Students write poems based on words and phrases found in an obituatuary. They write autobiographical obituaries that imagine their own lives and future accomplishments.
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Out of the Dust
Students create a poem that expresses the physical and emotional turmoil of living through the Dust Bowl. For this Out of the Dust lesson, students research facts about the time period and discuss the cause-effect patterns...
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The Write Stuff
Fourth graders share a previously written portfolio piece and the class guesses the genre. Students use tally marks to keep track of how many of each piece there are in class. Once the data collection is complete, 4th graders create a...
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Illinois Biodiversity
Students examine the amount of biodiversity in the state of Illinois. They practice using new vocabulary and listening to stories about animals. After given time to reflect, they write their own haiku. They work together to create a...
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Poems that Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost
Students read and discuss poems by Robert Frost. Students collaborate in small groups to draw inferences about speakers' character and motives and to gather evidence supporting those inferences.
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Cloudy Days Are for Reading and Writing
Middle schoolers consider a variety of well-known proverbs that refer to the weather. They research the scientific validity of these proverbs, conduct interviews about public perception of the proverbs and summarize their findings in...
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Chronicling the Journey
Students chart the order of events in literature. In this literature activity, students read The Odyssey and summarize the epic journey in their own words. Students then write about journeys they have taken in their own lives.
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Adventures in Alice
Students create a haiku and illustrate it on the computer. For this haiku lesson plan, students review the history of the haiku while they are outside and then write their own. Students then use a computer program to illustrate their poem.
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The Odyssey Lesson 2
Ninth graders read and discuss part 1 of The Odyssey and create a mind map and visual images to represent vocabulary. In this reading lesson plan, 9th graders are introduced to poetry, and the Hero Cycle.
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The Odyssey: A Deeper Appreciation
Students read "The Odyssey" and identify the ways it relates to their own lives. As a class, they also examine the history of the story and identify the various Greek gods and goddesses. In groups, they focus on the geography of the...
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Storytelling Traditions
Students demonstrate an evaluation of how the culture of a time period influences storytelling narratives by comparing Adeline's story to the plot summary of Cinderella and Anne Sexton's poem Cinderella. They write a poem which reworks a...