Beacon Learning Center
Challenging the Human Spirit
High schoolers select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern-day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric...
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Poetry Tea Party
Studetns make inferences based upone one-line poetry and group comparison. In this poetry lesson, 9th graders read strips from a poem and write prediction sentences for the poem. Students read each other's poetry lines and then read the...
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Survival Story
Students discuss the pros and cons of being deserted on an uninhabited island. Then they write their own survival stories and complete a story jacket.
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Feature Stories
Young scholars are taught the basics of writing a feature story. They choose a topic for research. Students use the library and internet research skills to investigate their topic. They proofread their own writing or the writing of...
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Guess the Author-Using Pseudonyms
Students study about descriptive writing. They write a descriptive paragraph about themselves without revealing their physical description and sign their writing with a pseudonym.
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A Courtin' We Will Go
Learners investigate dialect in poetry as an indication of a people's culture in literature. They write a poem about dating in this era.
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Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
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Peer Editing Worksheet
The strength of this peer editing worksheet is that it addresses all the elements that should appear in a well-written essay. In addition, editors are encouraged to avoid one-word responses and instead, to make specific suggestions for...
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Defending Great Literature
Students defend Mark Twain and the study of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn using persuasive techniques, appropriate word choice, and correct letter format, in response to a fictional letter by an upset parent.
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Pinckney Benedict's "The Sutton Pie Safe" from Town Smokes
Students read Pinckney Benedict's "The Sutton Pie Safe" to learn about family symbols and social commentary. In this close reading lesson, students read four journal prompts for the story and answer the listed questions for each section.
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Top Ten Facts
Students, in pairs, complete research about an assigned person. One student does research in the library and the other on the Internet. They come back together, compare their research, and compile a list of 10 main facts about their person.
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the Impact of the U.s. Supreme Court on High School Journalism.
Young scholars study of the First Amendment, Tinker, Hazelwood and the Colorado Student Free Expression Law. They discuss the ramifications on the student press and recite their memorized First Amendment rights. They discover what...