Eliminate the hard work of creating an entire literature unit with this reading guide for the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. From background information about the author and her motivation for writing the story to...

Accompany a reading of Madeleine L'Engle's classic tale, A Wrinkle in Time, with a detailed guide equipped with 15 informative and useful chapters. Scholars discover who the author is, why she wrote the book, and crucial story elements...

When faced with a challenge, how do your pupils respond? Starting with character analyses, learners participate in a lesson about appearances and perseverance. They watch a short film, talk about common English expressions, and write a...

Seventh graders explore nutrition and the effect it has by participating in class discussions.  In this diet and exercise lesson, 7th graders analyze print advertisements and discuss how unrealistic their expectations are and how...

As the saying goes, art often imitates life ... and literature! A series of activities designed to accompany a visit to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art encourage writers to find inspiration in various landscapes. The instructional...

Learners explore and react to the painting The Road to Santa Fe. In this interacting with art lesson, students locate various objects in the painting.  Learners copy the angle of objects by using their bodies.  Students discuss...

Students recognize that eggs have nutritional value. In this eggs lesson, students create poetry for a shape book on eggs. Students participate in additional games and activities about the egg.

Students explore reasons for varied salinity in bodies of water. In this geographical inquiry lesson, students use a variety of visual and written information including maps, data tables, and graphs, to form a hypothesis as to why the...

Young chefs follow the set-by-step instructions of a recipe and use their prior knowledge of the body parts of a spider to make edible spider cookies.  After completing a pre-writing graphic organizer they then write a "how to"...

In this creative music activity from Scientific American, students learn about musical notation and then design their own notations. Great web resource links are alsp provided

The art of writing a letter has not been lost to email and texting! Teach kids how to format a friendly letter with a presentation about the parts of a letter, as well as prompting them to write a letter about their favorite holiday.

Though beautiful, William Shakespeare's prose can be inhibiting for learners who are new to his works. A lesson based on The Tempest guides high schoolers through the paraphrasing process, including noting the subjects and verbs to...

First graders practice their letter writing skills by writing to a fictional character.  In this formal writing activity, 1st graders read the books The Jolly Postman and Frog and Toad are Friends to examine the different parts of a...

Students brainstorm and outline ideas for their autobiography. They begin composition of it as well. Students create a timeline of important events to help them get started and discuss the elements of a what makes a good story.

Students are able to revise their own essays for greater clarity and fluency, adding explanation where needed and cutting extraneous information where appropriate. They are able to compose an academic essay with a complete introduction,...

Relate the structure of the essay to the structure of a building. The class compares an essay to a building, with the writer being the architect, the introduction being the foundation, and so on. They use the visual representation of a...

A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few...

Students define and discuss personal pastimes, listen to the story Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, discuss owling as rural pastime, demonstrate comprehension by writing responses to story, and discuss how climate and geography often determine...

After reading on the topic of their paper, high schoolers work in pairs to assess how to write powerful, precise thesis statements. The introduction contains three statements: a universal statement, a bridge statement, and a thesis...

Students write a description of a person in their community. They brainstorm a list of role models and what qualities make a role model. They interview a panel of role models.

Third graders examine various exercises in order to distinguish between exercises designed to increase muscular strength and those designed to improve muscular endurance. Groups create a presentation for their "clients" to explain the...

Young scholars write Sun and Moon poetry. In this poetry lesson, students research the sun and the moon.  They write poetry and create two class baskets for descriptive words about each.

Introducing your class to essay writing? The gentle tone, concise explanations, and clear examples provided by a 17-slide presentation introduces young writers to the expository essay format. All that's missing is a complete essay with...

Introduce primary graders to the writing process. After reviewing the steps, they practice using the process by writing a book report. Before writing the draft, they complete a graphic organizer. The completed draft is reviewed by peers....