Team up! Scholars begin working with their research teams to review the components of an effective poem. They then move on to independent work by beginning the end-of-unit assessment. Writers complete the draft of their "Back Again"...

It is not what you say but how you say it. Class members prepare for writing their A Long Walk to Water essays by analyzing row four in the writing rubric. Learners discuss the words used and talk about the importance of correct grammar...

Identify yourself! Learners listen to Nadia’s Hands read aloud before working in their identity journals to answer prompts relating to the story. They then look at identity using two recording forms Who Am I on the Outside? and...

Is it possible to judge a book by its cover? Scholars analyze and make predictions using various cover images of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. They then discuss the difference between autobiographies and biographies....

Class members continue analyzing text excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. They read and draw conclusions to determine Douglass's view on slavery. Learners finish by discussing with partners how the excerpts...

Fix your mistakes. Scholars look over their end-of-unit assessments while the teacher focuses on common mistakes made among the class. Learners then make predictions about their next text, Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery, by...

Organize your thoughts! Scholars work on the drafts of their position papers about sustainable water management. The draft serves as their mid-unit assessment. Before beginning, the class discusses the prompt and then learners work...

Scholars look at and describe a picture of Cronus and Rhea and discuss the process of making predictions. Learners then use the images to write a prediction about the myth of the gods on an index card before completing guided...

Learn to write right. Scholars analyze the model essay Adversity Faced by Townspeople in the Middle Ages. They discuss the essay and make annotations working with an elbow partner. Learners then take another look at the essay using a...

Put it all into words. Scholars work toward writing an argumentative essay. They begin by examining and marking strong words in Are We Medieval? A Literary Argument Essay Prompt. Learners then use Qualities of a Strong Literary Argument...

One fish, two fish, red fish, no fish. Scholars analyze World without Fish to determine the gist, identify vocabulary, and answer text-dependent questions. As learners read, they use sticky notes to annotate the text. They also work...

Scholars read chapter two of World without Fish to learn more about the fishing industry. Learners discuss in triads what it means for fishing to become an industry. They then write the gist of pages 28-33 on sticky notes and answer...

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...

Have you ever graded a stack of essays that felt like a series of bland simple sentences? A helpful grammar presentation will help learners spice up their writing by varying their sentence style, making them stronger and more...

Charles Dickens offers an excellent example of sensory writing in this reading comprehension worksheet. Learners read excerpts from the novel Hard Times in which he describes the New England industrial city of Coketown. They...

Some words actually sound like their meaning. When this happens, it's known as onomatopoeia. Learners look at a series of pictures, and match up a bunch of words with the pictures they sound like. For example, the word buzz would go with...

Did you know that there are 15.2 million refugees in the world? High schoolers will read "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and learn how they can get involved to lower this surprising number. To really encourage involvement,...

Prepare your learners to identify figurative language in poetry. Tips for reading poetry and what to look for are listed on these slides. Rhetorical devices are defined and plenty of examples are given. 

If anyone suffers from metrophobia—the fear of poetry—the PowerPoint on the elements of poetry may help alleviate their worries. The presentation introduces learners to poetic elements, including simile, metaphor, and personification....

A world without adjectives would be a sad place indeed! Make sure adjectives stay around by teaching your class about what they are and how using them can make a boring story truly interesting. Learners put this idea into practice by...

Perspective is everything. Using a graphic organizer, pupils determine Laurence Yep's perspective of the police in his novel Dragonwings. Additionally, scholars complete anchor charts to identify connotative language in the text.

Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...

What do Jeep advertisements and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath have in common? They both employ the art of the extended metaphor! Using the Six-Trait Writing model, learners begin to work on their own extended metaphors. Development...

What makes you want to buy that new car? Or vote for that popular politician? Study the persuasive techniques commonly found in advertisements or argumentative writing, including repetition, exaggeration, and fact vs. opinion.