High schoolers engage in a lesson that is concerned with the concept of using the silent "e" in certain words. They practice using the rules while reading them in a review. The application of the rule is given in the lesson and can be...

Analyze the central idea or literary theme found in a series of quotes from the Shakespearean play, Hamlet. For literary analysis, learners paraphrase excerpts from the play and then identify the characters' motivations for their speech.

The Cay has been criticized by groups such as the Council on Interracial Books for Children because of the way race is portrayed. Explore the argument against the book while taking the author's perspective into account. Class members...

Discuss and generate blogs in this technology lesson. Middle and high schoolers explore examples of blogs and create their own blogs. Use this lesson throughout the year to reinforce concepts from your language arts class (or any class)....

Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...

Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and...

Use the suggested question "What does it mean to be a citizen?" to prompt your writers. After they free-write for five minutes, have them trade papers with another classmate. For the next five minutes, class members respond to the new...

After viewing slides and reading about child labor, young authors compose an original narrative story. They practice note-taking skills and work to effectively engage a reader by incorporating plot, logical order, complex characters,...

What are the three types of irony? High schoolers engage in a lesson about the use of irony while reading O.Henry's short story "Gift of the Magi." They'll discuss rising action, climax, and resolution in the text before highlighting the...

Bring the Internet and the Renaissance together in this presentation assignment. Middle schoolers give a presentation on the Renaissance, using computers to both research and create the slides. The lesson includes a short assessment as...

Examine the text features of non-fiction. Start the lesson by reading editorial samples provided by their instructor and analyze the texts for word choice, details, and organization. An editorial example and graphic organizer are...

Researchers combine music, narration, photos, and text to form a presentation for their classmates about a time period in American History. Proper research and documentation techniques are emphasized. The lesson, created by Apple...

Learners create a word tree poster that illustrates the way a root word can serve as the basis for many related terms. Although designed for a Latin language class, the concepts here could be used with any class study of Latin or Greek...

Imagine a day in the life of a child who has to work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week. After viewing images and reading stories of child laborers, class members select an image and write a richly detailed narrative about a typical...

Practice your speaking skills! Using a chosen visual aid, pupils present a previously written essay to the class. During the oral presentation, the listeners identify and write down the author's purpose and a question for the author. At...

What is advertising? What role does it plan in an election? Middle and high schoolers discuss advertising and its purpose by sifting through different magazines and discussing the products they find. Then they relate advertisements to...

Use this roaring 1920s history lesson to have young writers research primary and secondary sources. They use their research to examine the events or famous public figures of the time period. Next, they imagine they're in the 1920s and...

Practice being concise. Exercise your vocabulary. Improve your editing skills. The contention in this activity is that by imposing a 140 character limit, the Twitter format actually helps improve writing skills. And of course class...

Middle and high schoolers examine the impact of irony in poetry and prose. In this figurative language activity, they read instructor-selected literature and identify uses of irony. Then they discuss how irony enhances literature.

Ask learners about their personal writing habits, such as whether they keep a journal or a blog, or if they'd ever want to. Though this is not a fully developed lesson, you can use this article and question to provoke discussion and...

A great source of high-interest reading for the language arts classroom! Meant to be used with an article also available on the New York Times website, this worksheet provides 10 comprehension questions about the reading as well as one...

This assessment pair goes way beyond simple graphing, factoring and solving polynomial equations, really forcing learners to investigate the math ideas behind the calculations. Short and to-the-point questions build on one another,...

Is a college education necessary for success in today's world? The class investigates the question, along with others at the end of the sixth workshop in a 15-part series. The lesson has four parts with multiple activities and...

How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...