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Mark Twain: Straddling the Civil War
Mark Twain's life, politics, writing, and role as a mirror of pre- and post-Civil War American culture are the focus 11th and 12th graders in this section from an expansive author study. A critical writing assignment comparing Twain...
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Lesson Plan: A Guided Tour
Albert Bierstadt's painting Wind River Country shows viewers how a reader progresses through a story. Your class studies the light and dark areas, how the eye moves across the painting, and what attracts the audience to the work, and...
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Persuasive Practice: A Mt. Rushmore Addition
Budding authors research a US President and persuade the National Park Service to add him to Mt. Rushmore. In addition to the persuasive essay, individuals are required to develop a visual presentation using a web-based software that...
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Painters as Authors
Second graders explore artists as authors. They discuss the stories that their pictures tell. Students describe what story they think the artist is trying to tell in their pictures. Students search the Internet and choose a piece of...
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Words to Warm the Winter: Keeping Things Organized
Fifth graders are in Literary Circles according to the book they've chosen and choose roles.
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Biographies in a Box Come to Life
Students use the Internet to research someone's biography.
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Japaneses Internment: Lesson 1 of 4: Chronological Events Leading to Internment
Students examine facts about history of the Asians experience in America and identify patterns of Asian immigration in the United States. Students develop reasons specific Asian ethnic groups migrated to the United States and predict...
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Speech: Skill, Process, Practice
Pupils examine the characteristics of an informative speech. In this informative speech lesson plan, students create a framework for their informative speech using the given website. Pupils also read and use the tips for preparing and...
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Reading and Responding
Eighth graders read and respond to a poem. In this reading and responding lesson plan, 8th graders read a poem as a class and respond to questions about it.
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Narrative Writing
Young scholars complete activities to learn narrative writing. For this narrative writing lesson students are given writing prompts in order to better understand how to write in a narrative format.
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Spud Stuff
Student culminate a unit on potatoes. In this potato instructional activity, students make a booklet using the information acquired throughout a unit. They draw a picture of their potato, name it, measure it in inches, count its eyes,...
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Off to Work We Go!
Students create a book about The Great Depression in West Virginia. In this West Virginia history lesson, students visit the West Virginia State Museum, answer questions about West Virginia history, and create a book entitled...
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The Writing Process
Show your young researchers how to find information, brainstorm a topic, map or outline their own stories, and create rough drafts. This lesson also shows learners how to peer edit, conference with the teacher, and write their final...
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Using Color as a Pre-Writing Tool
To better understand how to compose a clear and well-organized paper, learners read short passages, write summaries, and make colored graphic organizers. This is a fully developed three-day lesson with suggested assessments.
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Harmony and Expression in Writing Form
How do you write an interesting beginning, middle, and end of a story? With this activity, young writers look to other stories as examples. Then, they use some of the attached graphic organizers to help them create their own story. Note:...
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Biodiversity Debate - Stream Side Science
Role play community members who are both for and against the construction of a dam. Research the pros and cons and then hold a classroom debate. This activity ideally follows a series of stream studies, links to which are included. Use...
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Putting It All Together: Revision
Use the revision process to polish your writing. Writers prepare works for job portfolios that include cover letters, job applications, resumes, and letters of recommendation. Prepare them for the future!
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Chunking Huck Finn
Read a designated chapter of the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and discuss the chapter summary in small groups. Groups present their summaries and answer questions specific to their chapter.
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The Classroom Library
Youngsters visit the classroom library to complete various reading activities, pushing their motivation to read! They will discuss different library books and read two specific books that use "Building Block" reading skills. They also...
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Author Background/Investigation
Students research an Accelerated Reader author and write a two page report summarizing relevant information about the author. They include personal data, professional data, and at least one quote from someone who has read one of the...
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Latino-American Authors and Historical FIgures
Eighth graders examine various websites and gather information from them about influential Latino-Americans. They synthesize the information they gathered to create a poster about their chosen influential Latino-American. Students...
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Laura Ingalls Wilder Author Study
Fifth graders explore use of computers. They use technology tools to collect, analyze and display data. Students create and format a document using word processing. They participate in a curriculum-based telecommunications project.
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Here to Help!
The purpose of this activity is to help students become aware of the warning signs and signals of an abusive relationship. Additionally this will help the students to become advocates to help those seeking help.
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Researching Another country's Holiday: Organizing and Recording Information
Prior to this lesson, 5th graders will have collected notes from several sources. Students extend their note taking to include at least one example each of summarizing and paraphrasing. They record bibliographic information for each...