Understanding Myself: Language Arts

Here's a richly detailed unit, designed for second graders, that focuses on decoding figurative language, including similes, metaphors, personification and idioms.

Use short stories to teach English? Yes! Designed as a professional development opportunity for English language teachers, the ideas in this booklet can easily be adapted to advanced ESL/ELL classes.

When it comes to learning a language and literacy, understanding nonverbal communication is often as important as verbal communication. An interactive body language activity incorporates role play to demonstrate the difference between...

Guide young readers through their first book report with a story map designed for a Dr. Seuss book. After your class finishes their story of choice, they list the title, characters, conflict, and other elements of literature on the book...

If readers don't understand key portions of a text, it may seem more like a foe than a friend. The second resource in a series of three ESL lessons designed to accompany the texts in Nature: Friend or Foe makes the texts easier to...

A packet full of old-fashioned short stories could be a review activity for a reading comprehension lesson. Learners read 14 stories before answering multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank sentences, and vocabulary exercises.

How can you teach a text to a group of readers who struggling with the language? The second in a set of three ESL lessons related to Theme 4: Problem Solvers engages English language learners by introducing vocabulary and grammar...

A terrific and meaningful presentation on story writing awaits your class. This really is a good one! Young writers are led through a series of slides that do a terrific job of teaching story elements, but the slides also stimulate their...

This worksheet provides a picture of a picnic and 5 questions to help young creative writers get started. The questions pertain to the characters, setting, sequence of events, and ending of the picnic. They then write a story about the...

"But I don't know what to write about!" Now, there's a very familiar complaint. And here's a very creative solution. Young authors are given a writing prompt chart, spin three wheels that provide suggestions for the who, what, and where...