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...

Students choose one topic to write about. They brainstorm ideas about their topic or incident. They use sensory details to visualize their topic. They answer a variety of teacher directored nudging question to help them describe their...

Although this lesson is based on “Final Word,” Craig Wilson’s USA Today column, the strategies could be adapted to any local columnist. After reading three articles independently, groups share observations about content and style used by...

As they read and discuss Chapter 7 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, class members continue to use the Tracking Tool worksheet to record evidence on how the central ideas are being developed.

Using questions they developed, class groups discuss Chapter 2 of Malcolm X's autobiography, focusing on the individuals and events Malcolm X feels contributed to his character development.

After discussing Haley's techniques in his conclusion of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, class time is devoted to drafting, sharing, and getting feedback on writers' college essays.

Readers of The Autobiography of Malcolm X examine how Haley's word choice and point of view in chapter 5 reveal Malcolm X's attitude toward his behavior as he travels from Lansing to Harlem.

Class members discuss Chapter 13 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and use evidence from their character development worksheet to support an analysis of how Malcolm X and attitudes toward him and his teachings are changing.

Class members return to the discussion of The Autobiography of Malcolm X using the questions they developed and their annotated notes of the events in chapter 17.

Readers use their annotations and questions about chapter 19 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X to guide their discussion of the final chapter of the text.

Here’s a must-have resource for anyone using The Grapes of Wrath. Everything from guiding questions to background information, from photographs to documentary films, from activities to assessments is included in a richly detailed packet...

Supporting characters need detail and characteristics just like a main character. Keep your budding authors entrenched in detail as they write their novels. This lesson focuses on developing supporting characters using personal...

Middle schoolers gather information on their classmates birthdays and create a spreadsheet with the dates. Using the internet, they find a famous person who shares their own birthday. They research the life of the famous person and...

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...

Students examine different perspectives of slavery. They write a personal account of slavery as a slave trader, a plantation owner, and fugitives and working slaves. They role-play these roles for the class.

Young scholars practice composing digital photographs by documenting activities in their lives.  For this photography lesson, students utilize digital cameras to create beautiful art from things they find around the campus or at...

Students examine the difference between a narrator and author. They read Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, 'The Scarlet Letter,' write a description of the narrator, and research how Hawthorne was impacted by the politics of the time.

Learners read and compare excerpts from The Odyssey and The Adventures of Telemachus. They create an original story based on a secondary character from The Odyssey as well as a sketch of one of the pivotal scenes from the story.

Students complete activities to analyze points of view in different texts. In this point of view lesson, students read Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Circle and discuss the points of view. Students choose a character from the story and...

In this writing worksheet, students make a list of all the things that make them sad, happy, lonely, angry, afraid and silly. Students then write 6 short poems and put them together to make their own personal book of poems.

Allowing students to choose the point of view of a bee or of a baby, this assignment prompts students to respond to a picture of a bee in a jar by writing a short story about it. This assignment could be used for multiple grade levels...

Students create advertisements for a weather instrument. They conduct Internet research, write a descriptive and persuasive advertisement for the instrument using the flyer template of desktop publishing software, and print a copy that...

In this literacy learning exercise, students use a word bank to create a story about planting seeds.

Transform your class into young geologists as they learn about six different branches of geology. Using the included geology career descriptions and picture cards, learners work in small groups deciding which tools and locations fit...