Curated OER
Expressing Your Views to the Letter
Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Imagery (English III Reading)
Picture this! The first interactive in a set of 13 shows learners how writers use imagery and sensory details to create mental pictures in readers' minds.
Orange County Department of Education
Poppa's New Pants
Angela Shelf Medearis' Poppa's New Pants provides third graders with an opportunity to stitch together their own narrative filled with sensory details. After reading the story and noting the sensory and concrete details in the tale that...
Nebraska Department of Education
Where I'm From
We are a tapestry woven of the threads of our family and its history, our environment, our ethnicity, and our culture. High school freshmen reflect on how these threads influence their goals for the future. After reading George Ella...
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Where I'm From: Symbolism in Paint and Poetry
After a review of symbolism, class members use the provided worksheet to first list the objects they observe in Arnold Mesches' painting "Coney Island" and then suggest possible symbolic meanings for each of the objects. A second...
National Endowment for the Humanities
García Márquez’s Nobel Prize Speech: “The Solitude of Latin America”
To conclude a study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, class members analyze Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech. After a whole-class discussion of the main ideas in the speech, individuals draft a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Realism in Magical Realism
A lesson on magical realism has young historians research how Garcia Marquez weaves historical events and his own experiences into One Hundred Years of Solitude. Using historical records and information found in a biography of Garcia...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“Every Day We Get More Illegal” by Juan Felipe Herrera
A study of Jan Felipe Herrera's poem "Every Day We Get More Illegal" opens the door for a discussion on immigration. To begin, class members examine the photograph "Desert Survival," record their observations of the image, and then...
Deer Valley Unified School District
Close Reading: Analyzing Mood and Tone
The AP Literature and Composition exam is all about close reading. Test takers are presented with a passage and asked to analyze how an author uses literary devices to create a desired effect. Prepare your students for the exam with a...
Curated OER
Developing a Topic for Writing Using an Idea Web
Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...
Curated OER
Concrete Detail and Commentary
In this writing skills worksheet, students practice writing with facts or quotes from a text by following the graphic organizer format. Students write the concrete detail and then list two commentaries for their facts or quotes.