What kind of shoe is this person? What time of day is this person? Aspiring poets’ responses to a list of questions provide descriptive words and phrases that can be crafted into a blank verse poem. A link to sample poems is provided.

Contemplate what music learners listen to and why they listen. Can they find poetry within music lyrics? Specifically hone in on blues lyrics and ruminate upon the social issues prevalent in the themes. Particular song lyrics coincide...

How many oceans can you name? First, have learners try to name as many oceans as they can, and then have them locate and identify the oceans on a world map. They create a recognizable ocean animal using poster board and tissue paper....

Students create poetry and verse, using all 5 senses to paint a visual image of life in a Japanese-American internment camp.

Mount a variety of pictures (fantasy, rustic, portraits, action) on large sheets of paper and post them around the classroom. Groups rotate from poster to poster, adding adjectives to describe each of the pictures. Writers use these word...

Students create a definition for the term resistance. Once a definition has been created, they create a visual image to correlate with their definition. Working in groups, students read several different resistance poems and classify...

First graders work on patterns in nature and to recognize how different living things adapt to different environments such as the rain forest.

Students read and analyze stanzas of Civil War poem, The Flags of Michigan, to get perspective on what life was like and how Americans viewed Civil War, rewrite stanzas in modern language, and share new versions of poem with classmates.

Third graders incorporate a subject and its synonym, and the parts of speech to create a Sneaky Poem. After a lecture/demo, 3rd graders begin writing their poems, and have their classmates act as peer reviewers before final submission.

Students watch a video, view websites, and discuss the Chinese Exclusion Act that took place on Angel Island. For this Chinese exclusion act lesson plan, students discuss the interrogations that went on and fill out worksheets bout the...

While reading A River Runs Through It, have your high schoolers work on their final project, a multi-genre research paper. There are 10 clear steps for completion but not much additional help. For early high schoolers (or...

Eighth graders review sound and rhythm devices and apply them to their own writing exercises. Next, they interpret the poem, "Where I'm From," as an example of a personal narrative. Using their understanding of poetic devices, they...

Second graders discover that oral and written communication can be improved, and made to sound more eloquent, when the following questions are addressed; Who? What? Where? When? Why? students use word processing to copy a poem using clip...

A reading of What's The Big Idea, Ben Franklin? provides an opportunity for class members to practice paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources. An exercise on how to avoid plagiarizing is also included. 

Students write poems based on words and phrases found in an obituatuary. They write autobiographical obituaries that imagine their own lives and future accomplishments.

Students use the books of Eric Carle to change the first letter in a word to see a new word. In this phonics lesson plan, students change the beginning letters in poems and books.

Learners read the poem The Worker by Richard W. Thomas as an example of the effective use of imagery. Then they complete a 5-senses chart describing some part of nature, e.g. sea, clouds, etc. Then they write their own poem using the...

Second graders brainstorm what they already know about George Washington and complete a KWL chart as a class. They create a list of words that describe him and write a poem with other classmates. To end the lesson, they make a Washington...

Seventh graders produce stories, poems, and drawings about Weisenborn's 1936 mural and make a comparable collage about Chicago in 2000.

Young scholars compare the social, cltural and politicalp roblems of the 1920s with the 1960s.

Students identify the social, culturaland political problems of the 1920s and compare them to the problems of the 1960s. They research both eras and then make a presentation to the rest of the class.

Learners develop a comparison worksheet using one non fiction book and one fiction book they have read to be put into a class scrapbook. In their comparison students must have title, author, point of view, setting, characters, and other...

Children bring in a toy, favorite or otherwise, and describe it using adjectives and adverbs. They fold a piece of paper into two columns, and list the adjectives on one side, and the adverbs on the other.

Learners complete pre reading, writing, during reading, and interdisciplinary activities for the book Bein' With You This Way. In this reading lesson plan, students complete journal entries, answer short answer questions, have...