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...

To gain insight into the many different types of habitats, individuals must first get to know their own. Here, scholars explore their school environment, draw a map, compare and contrast their surroundings to larger ones. They then...

Can beautiful words change the world? Literary scholars discover how to paint their visions of change using poetry in a series of three workshops. Each independent topic gives participants a chance to examine their feelings about...

Walking in nature is the theme of a unit designed to support English language development lessons. Scholars look, write, speak, and move to explore topics such as camping, woodland animals, instruments,...

Introduce your class to the delights of nonsense poetry and explore literary devices with the writing of Edward Lear. Learners identify rhyme and meter as well as figures of speech, alliteration, and onomatopoeia in "The Owl and the...

Celebrate April's National Poetry Month or enrich a poetry unit with a wealth of language arts material. Class members develop an oral interpretation of a poem and/or develop a podcast interview with a poet. 

Alice Walker's poem "Women" provides ninth graders the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify how a writer's choice of syntax and diction contribute to the development of the theme of the work.

Students find words that begin with the letters in their own names, using a variety of sources including word banks and online dictionaries. They create an acrostic poem. Pupils revise poems as needed, for meaning and conventions. ...

Many and many a year ago Edgar Allan Poe crafted the chilling tale of "Annabel Lee." The poem is the perfect vehicle to introduce Poe's concept of unity of effect, the idea that every element in a poem or story should help to develop a...

Where do directors and set designers get their ideas so that the set they build creates the mood and atmosphere the director wants for a production? From the script! Introduce theater high schoolers to the script analysis techniques used...

Sixth graders explore figurative and literal language. They study literary devices through short pieces of Shakespeare's work. Then investigate Shakespeare's works and life.

Here’s a catchy way to study characterization. Readers of The Catcher in the Rye select a character from Salinger’s classic tale to use as the subject of a biopoem. A teacher sample is provided.

Support science instruction with a combination of engaging activities and skills-based worksheets that focus on clouds. Learners take part in grand discussions, write an acrostic poem, complete graphic organizers, solve word...

As a class, scholars read the poems, Humpty Dumpty, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater, and Jack and Jill, in order to identify words with the same ending sound. Using their rhyming skills, learners brainstorm additional words...

Students complete a review of the parts of speech using a jabberwocky poem format. In this parts of speech and poetry lesson, students read a jabberwocky poem and identify parts of speech in the poem. Students list adjectives, verbs, and...

Learners read selected poems by Pablo Neruda. They also read short biographies of the author online to gain a better knowledge of the types of adversity Neruda faced throughout his lifetime. They begin to explore the concept of imagery...

Students explore ethical systems. Students read fairy tales and Bible stories to identify examples of ethical systems. Students brainstorm and discuss movies, songs and poems that exemplify ethical system.

Students use Shakespearean sonnets as part of a poetry analysis lesson. In this sonnet lesson, students perform a sonnet by Shakespeare but treat it as a script to be acted out. Students work in pairs to create motions for two lines from...

Students create presentations of digital sonnet illuminations along with sonnet research. In this Sonnet instructional activity, students view  images, colors, and listen to sounds of their own choice to...

Discover activities to help learners increase self-awareness, build peer and family relations, and develop positive self-esteem. Here you'll find six suggestions for instilling a sense of confidence and self awareness in youngsters. Each...

Learners read and analyze sonnets to discover their traditional forms. High schoolers chart the characteristics of the poems, then review the details to identify similarities and deduce the traditional sonnet forms they have in common....

Sixth graders examine and categorize a selection of title representing fiction genres. In this fiction genres instructional activity, 6th graders analyze and identify a variety of titles in the fiction genre. Students then find these...

First graders identify basic needs of plants. In this plant growth lesson, 1st graders observe types of plants and review the parts of a plant as well as the development of a seed. Students review related vocabulary and read The...

Fourth graders read Hesse's "Out of the Dust". They respond to questions about the novel and write a free-verse poem modeled after the author's.