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Writing
Curated OER

Like Water for Chocolate: How-to Narrative Essay

For Students 10th
Connect Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate to student experience with this how-to narrative essay. Writers weave the instructions from their own family recipe into a narrative using sensory details. This assignment sheet includes...
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Organizer
Curated OER

"The Charge of the Light Brigade": Writing Prompt and Pre-writing

For Students 6th - 9th
Inspire your learners to experience poetry in an entirely different way with this resource. A writing prompt that goes along with "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, learners craft a reflective piece in the voice...
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Writing
Curated OER

Like Water for Chocolate: Family Tradition

For Students 9th - 12th
Engage young writers in family tradition with this writing assignment for Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel. Using sensory details, learners write a narrative about a family tradition involving food. Scholars also talk with...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reliving History through Slave Narratives

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
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Performance
Curated OER

The Odyssey: Narrative Writing

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Help readers make a personal connection to Homer's The Odyssey with a narrative writing assignment. Scholars select one of three prompts and craft a first-person narrative rich in sensory details that describes an experience they had...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Brushstrokes: Communication/Using Descriptive Language

For Teachers 7th - 11th Standards
Sometimes a picture reflects a thousand descriptive words. To illustrate the importance of sensory words in descriptive writing, scholars listen to a song and craft a painting in response. After sharing their work with the class,...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Standards Focus: Recognizing Vivid Details, Of Mice and Men

For Students 8th - 12th
In this recognizing details worksheet, students read 3 excerpts from chapter 3 of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, underlining each word that evokes some sensory stimulation (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste). Students also respond to...
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Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

The Realism in Magical Realism

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Incredible Bridges: “Translation for Mamá” by Richard Blanco

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Who or what do you miss? That's the question that launches an activity that asks writers to craft a paragraph filled with sensory details that shows how they feel. Next, they listen to Richard Blanco reading his poem, "Translation for...
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Activity
Curated OER

The Old Man and the Sea: Narrative Essay

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Finish a unit on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea with a narrative essay. Based on Santiago's harrowing adventures, the essay prompts readers to think about a time when they were faced with a challenge, overcame a disability,...
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Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Sonic Patterns: Exploring Poetic Techniques Through Close Reading

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" serves as the anchor text in a five-part lesson plan that takes the mystery out of poetry analysis by modeling explicit strategies for pupils to employ to conduct a close reading of a poem....
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Unit Plan
Academy of American Poets

Noticing Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Introduce scholars to the "I Notice" method, a different approach to studying poetry. Instructors first model the noticing method by identifying words and images that appeal on the sonic level, the ideational level, the sensory level,...
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Organizer
Curated OER

Writing Organizers

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Eight graphic organizers to choose from? That's right! Each of these organizers relates to writing or reading. From narrowing a writing topic, to responding to literature, to planning a writing project, you'll find many purposes for...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

From Light to Dark and Back

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Experiment with light and dark in a series of interactive activities that lead up to reading and writing poetry. Class members have the opportunity to observe their feelings while sitting in the light and dark and to play with shadow...
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Unit Plan
Trinity University

Framing Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The big idea in this poetry unit plan is that structure and content work together to create meaning. Class members learn how to identify and mark the metrical patterns and line lengths used in poems. They study the structure of various...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Crafting Poetry: A Sensory Journey

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders experiment with poetry devices to write poems. In this poetry lesson, 10th graders participate in learning stations. Students create a word pool and select a word from the list to create a line of poetry. Students complete...
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Interactive
Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Imagery, Metaphor, and Simile (English II Reading)

For Students 10th Standards
The sixth interactive in this series introduces learners to the power of figurative language. After studying examples of similes and metaphors, readers examine how such comparisons help them see through a writer's eyes. Interactive...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

My Antonia: During Reading Strategy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Home in on the quote on this page to explore setting, the author's and character's voices, and plot in Willa Cather's My Antonia. Pupils draw a picture of what is described in the quote, discuss the content, and make connections to their...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Speak Your Truth: Techniques in Spoken Word Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
As part of a study of Spoken Word Poetry, class members watch a series of performance videos and note where poets get their ideas and the performance techniques used by the poets. Pupils then draft and share their poems.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry: What's on Your Plate?

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students create original poetry on the subject of food.  For this poetry writing lesson, students use sensory details about a food item to create a class poem.  Students then write short poems with one sensory detail and add another...
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Handout
Deer Valley Unified School District

Close Reading: Analyzing Mood and Tone

For Students 9th - 12th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Common Sense Media

The Masque of the Red Death

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Poe goes high tech with a lesson that asks high schoolers to use the internet and various apps as they read and analyze "The Masque of the Red Death." In addition to responding to comprehension questions in Quizlet, they use Minecraft to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing to describe

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Learners examine descriptive writing. In this writing lesson, students listen to an audio version of the diary of Lt. Polly Hatchard and her expedition to the South Pole. Learners explore the components of descriptive writing and...
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Organizer
Monarch High School

TP-CASTT Practice

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Acronyms can help learners remember facts and analyze poetry. This resource includes graphic organizers for TP-CASTT, SOAPS, SOAPSTone, and DIDLS. Class members can try out one or all of these strategies to assist with that difficult job...

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