Screening the Silver Screen

Ready to integrate technology into your ELL instruction? Check out this reading activity that has language learners using the Internet and apps, joining online book clubs, and creating blogs. A fine model of what can be done.

This comprehensive end-of-year language arts test requires that sixth-graders demonstrate their listening, writing, grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills. It includes 9 essay/short answer questions; however, the story, "A Winning...

Time to pick a side! Building on the Fishbowl activity from the previous instructional activity, scholars choose a position about whether the American Academy of Pediatrics should raise its screen time recommendations. Using notes,...

Adding details and figurative language makes any story more fun to read! After reading two versions of the same story, one devoid of figurative language and one embellished, young writers are asked to add alliteration, hyperbole,...

Bells, bells, bells abound in a worksheet designed for Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem "The Bells." Middle schoolers are asked to identify the various poetic devices Poe employs.

The Pledge of Allegiance, the Gettysburg Address, the National Anthem, and the Preamble to the Constitution all get close attention in an exercise that asks learners to rewrite these formally-worded documents into informal language....

Reinforce understanding of five literary terms with a single-slide flow chart. Learners figure out if various words and phrases are examples of simile, metaphor, hyperbole, understatement, or personification. 

Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...

Use art museum paintings as inspiration for your class's creative writing works. Observing the paintings closely, middle and high schoolers list details and write descriptions. Their completed stories are displayed on bulletin boards...

High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a...