What makes a poem difficult? Explore that topic and more with your class as you work through the instructional activity detailed here. Using materials from Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest, individuals or small groups...

Focus on writing with this presentation. It includes a list of the ingredients of a great story. It is an interesting and thorough exploration of this topic. This is a great presentation to show to your class before a creative writing...

Fire safety is a hot topic for kids! With this resource, little ones will read, color, draw, and play as they are learning about prevention and, as an added bonus, practice naming shapes, counting, and adding numbers! Reading, math, and...

Eighth graders practice passive and active listening skills. They discover listening skills help them communicate more effectively. Students analyze the benefits of having someone to listen to them actively and the benefits of being an...

Fifth graders research and write a pen pal letter about the geography of a Canadian town. Students create a script for a phone call with their pen pal and perform it with a friend for the class.

Class members develop interview questions and then one volunteer interviews a new principal (the instructor) while the entire class watches and takes notes. Participants then individually consider an interesting angle from which the...

Young readers describe objects by using describing words. After reviewing the five senses, they use their senses to gain information about an object. Then as homework, they write three descriptive words about a mystery object and place...

What is the main idea? Previewing a text is a great way to identify the main idea without even reading, but what areas of a text do you preview? Teach your third, fourth, and fifth graders the most important areas to preview before...

Elementary schoolers read paragraphs one at a time in order to pick out the main ideas. They choose which sentences are most important in a paragraph. This type of exercise prepares learners to identify the main idea in longer narratives.

Find out how much your class understood of the listed chapters of Wilson Rawls' novel. Class members respond to eight plot and character questions before looking closely at an instance of personification from the text. The resource is...

What is blank verse? Iambic pentameter? Meter? Use the attached document to review these ideas with your middle schoolers. This plan has learners get up and stomp to iambic pentameter, which is a fun change from just clapping the...

Second graders read a book about carpets, a magic carpet ride, or some other type of story involving rugs/carpets. They examine discuss the classroom carpet, designate it the share carpet and develop rules for classroom carpet behavior.

Learners are provided with 12 vocabulary words, all of which contain the word roots SPECT, STA or VERT, and their corresponding definitions. They must then match the appropriate definition to each word. This is a beginner level...

Tenth graders explore the concept of censorship through a reading of Fahrenheit 451. They discuss the issue and its relation to contemporary society. Students work in groups to debate the pros and cons of censorship in our society.

Why are so many advertisements geared towards the teenage population? Watch a video with your class (link included), and have them fill out the attached listening guide. Then discuss persuasion, presenting biased information, and where...

Students research art and write about how a certain art piece relates to their own life. In this art lesson plan, students go to Brooks museum and discuss the art they find there.

If you are new to the technique of Socratic questioning, check out this resource that details the five steps in the Socratic method. The examples of each step are drawn from Brave New World.

Students explore the language of the Civil War time period. In this Civil War lesson, students work in groups to research the meanings of Civil War slang.

An interactive, online instructional activity, designed with drop down menus and blank fields, provides 24 pronoun-related exercises for pupils to complete. The resource could be adapted for a paper and pencil exercise. Appropriate for...

Students explore the characteristics of winter and use invented spelling processes to describe their observations. A word wall is utilized to assist the learner through the independent writing exercises.

This resource contains a vague plan for a poetry unit conducted at an elementary school during the month of February. Although this plan does not included detailed instructional strategies, this does outline a basic unit, some creative...

Before beginning The Winter's Tale groups read and discuss a scenario that parallels the plot of Shakespeare's play. They then brainstorm possible solutions to the problem.

Vocabulary instruction works best when taught within a larger context. A vocabulary activity builds connections by using synonyms to help learn the meaning of new words. This helps connect the words to prior knowledge and give them context.

Primary learners will listen to a story about leprechauns and discuss what they look like and how they act. Then they will construct leprechaun traps to try and catch one. They must explain how their trap works using complete sentences....