Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...

Lensey Namioka’s Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear provides an opportunity for young readers to observe how writers bring their characters to life. Each class member selects a character to trace through the novel, recording...

Practice reading strategies using Elizabeti's Doll by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen. Readers utilize decoding and comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading the story. A detailed list of text features, high frequency words,...

The Summer of the Swans, by Betsy Byars, is a 160-page chapter book about a family going through a difficult time. Complement your reading of Byars' book with this detailed outline of each chapter. Every section includes comprehension...

As part of their exploration of the American dream, class members examine primary source materials to compare immigrant experiences of those arriving early in our country's history to those arriving in the US after World War...

The 41 slides in a professional development seminar model how to use close reading techniques to examine the many layers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In addition to passages from the novel, slides provide biographical...

Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.

Explore women's history through films and filmmaking. An innovative research project prompts class members to create their own screenplay about a figure in women's history. After outlining their characters, settings, and plots, young...

Though often used in shows of patriotism, Bruce Springsteen's 1985 song "Born in the U.S.A." is critical of America's role in the Vietnam war and its treatment of American veterans. High schoolers analyze the song's lyrics in an activity...

Where does inspiration come from? Where do writers get their ideas? What about visual artists? A PowerPoint and a video introduce middle schoolers to children's author and illustrator Eric Carle and how he found inspiration in the work...

Your class participates in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book Julian Secret Agent. They complete a class story chart, examine how to use punctuation for dialogue, write an alternative...

Incorporate technology into a literature instructional activity with an innovative language arts instructional activity. Middle schoolers read an electronic version of original stories or fairy tales, and after determining the point...

This Veterans Day inspire scholars to say thank you to a veteran. Here, learners discover key details about a specific war using an interactive timeline, and then write a thank you letter offering their gratitude to someone who risked...

Track the transformation of Malcolm Little into Malcolm X and then into El Jajj Malik El-Shabazz with the second part of Make it Plain, a documentary on the famous civil rights activist. Viewers consider not only how events shaped and...

Jonathan Safran Foer's phrase, "heavy boots," becomes the focus of a class discussion of grief and sadness. During the reading of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, individuals place examples of their own experiences with these topics...

A handy guide offers high schoolers support as they read the American novel, The Great Gatsby. Complete with a biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, a timeline of the Roaring Twenties, discussion questions about the novel, and more, this...

Designed to be used with an independent reading book, this activity provides practice with identifying and explaining literary terms. While they read, individuals find instances of literary devices and elements in use in their books....

Dr. Seuss and Walter Dean Myers team up to cover the topic of prejudice. Using The Sneeches (about the culture clash between star-bellied and bare-bellied Sneetches) and The Glory Fields (about a boy coming to America on a slave ship),...

Such an ambitious lesson! Third graders with special needs listen to an audio recording of the novel, Moby Dick. They stop often to discuss each of the main characters and analyze their actions in the story. They then make puppets of one...

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.

Young writers generate descriptive words. They use pictures of various landscapes (from books, magazines, or the Internet) and complete a story pyramid. The pyramid (included here) asks to describe the main character, the setting, and...

Artifacts give us the privilege of learning about the past, may it be family, culture, or traditions. Here, class members learn about their family's past with the help of an artifact, or family heirloom. Once an artifact is...

Pass the tea! Using the resource, scholars participate in a Tea Party protocol to analyze text and images about inventions that helped meet societal demands. After sharing their observations with each other, they discuss visual elements...

Students explore Stephen Sondheim's contributions to musical theatre in the context of the dramatic cultural shift that occurred in American life in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.