Curated OER
From Light to Dark and Back
Experiment with light and dark in a series of interactive activities that lead up to reading and writing poetry. Class members have the opportunity to observe their feelings while sitting in the light and dark and to play with shadow...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 1: Close Reading/Socratic Seminar
John Knowles' A Separate Peace provides readers with an opportunity to develop their close reading and analytical skills as they look for what Knowles feels are the factors that shape our identity.
Amazon Web Services
Idiom Dictionary
Examining idioms is a peace of cake when using this graphic organizer! Here, grammarians identify an idiom and use it in a sentence. Then they investigate its literal meaning versus its figurative meaning, and accompany each one with a...
Curated OER
Personification Poem
Students write a personification poem and identify its use. They make a pattern worksheet and then use Photoshop Elements skills to illustrate their poem. Students use layer styles with the text to highlight the poetry.
Curated OER
The Function of Music
Explore concepts of audience, purpose and symbols in this lesson from Media Smarts that asks young scholars to consider all the functions of music. Through a series of discussions and activities, your class will brainstorm possible...
Orlando Shakes
Julius Caesar: Study Guide
What makes a good leader? Use the curriculum guide for William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to help scholars answer that question. Pupils research the play's historical context and other background information before engaging in...
Curated OER
"Leap, Plashless": Emily Dickinson & Poetic Imagination
Students read and explore one of Emily Dickinson's nature poems, "A Bird Came Down the Walk-" through interaction with a variety of art forms. Clips of a hymn to hear meter and the viewing of bird images exposes them to the language and...
School District No. 71
Adding Written Detail: Using Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon as a Mentor Text
Access your senses with a worksheet on sensory language. Based on Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, the worksheet prompts kids to find examples of each of the five senses, as well as phrases for inner emotion.
Curated OER
Mondrian - Primary/Secondary Color Study
Utilizing computer software, learners demonstrate the color spectrum. They investigate the life of the artist Piet Mondrian and define his style of artwork. Then they use Photoshop to recreate some of his designs while discovering the...
EBSCO Industries
Music and Poetry
Song lyrics, like poems, are meant to be heard. After examining the literary devices in several poems, scholars examine the lyrics of popular songs and identify the sound devices and the figurative language writers use to create the...
Curated OER
Onomatopoeia
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...
Curated OER
Animal Farm Chapter 3 Discussion Notes and Mini-Project
Created for a 10th grade English classroom studying George Orwell's Animal Farm, this mini-project promotes exploration of character and plot. In the first section, young readers are required to characterize one character from the story,...
Curated OER
Animal Farm, Chapter 1 Discussion Notes
If you are just starting out with Animal Farm by George Orwell, consider this resource. Titled as discussion notes, you might use these questions in a variety of different ways. The questions and prompts start out simple and gradually...
Curated OER
Metaphors, Similes and Expressions
“Her cutting words were weapons that inflicted wounds upon my soul.” Figurative language is the focus of a worksheet that asks learners to underline the figurative language used in each example, and then to label each phrase as a...
Curated OER
It's Raining Cats and Dog: Studying Idioms
Seventh graders determine the literal and figurative meanings of idioms and research the history of idioms. In this idioms lesson, 7th graders read two books by Fred Gwynne and select two idioms from the texts to research. Students...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.6
It ‘s assessment check list time, and you have nothing to prove that your learners mastered the skill RL.11-12.6. Rest assured, here is a plan that is sure to appease your administrator. It offers solid examples on the difference between...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.6
Here's an exercise designed for the Common Core Literacy Standard L.11-12.6 that asks learners to demonstrate their ability to put together all they have learned about language. The first activity is based on a passage from Rosencrantz...
Curated OER
English Skills Worksheet 6.201
Review compound words, onomatopoeia, prefixes, and suffixes with your fifth and sixth graders. Each of the six exercises is short and simple, and the final exercise gives learners three options too choose from. They can use their weekly...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Sensory Exploration
Using their keen eyes and ears, learners build story observation skills which they will use to create sensory detail in their art. They note all of the things they observed on a walk, categorize them by sense, and then use the same skill...
Curated OER
Interactive Student Notebook for Middle School ELA
Encourage creative, independent, and reflective thinking and writing throughout the school year by having your class members keep Interactive Student Notebooks (ISN). Here you'll find a presentation designed to introduce students to the...
McGraw Hill
Vocabulary Power
Augment your language arts units with a set of vocabulary worksheets. The packet is an excellent support to your vocabulary instruction that covers a variety of skills, including context clues, Greek and Latin roots, reference materials,...
Reed Novel Studies
James and the Giant Peach: Novel Study
Everyone wants to feel like they belong. James, in James and the Giant Peach, finds a feeling of belonging in a very odd place—inside a peach! Scholars read the story of James and the Peach and work through vocabulary, language, and...
Film English
Father and Son
Explore word relationships and the relationships between people with an interesting lesson plan. Learners practice pairing words that typically go together and write brief narratives using these words. They then go through a similar...
Curated OER
The Pillsbury Doughboy
Mourning the death of the Pillsbury Doughboy (from a yeast infection and pokes in the belly), this presentation discusses the use of puns, metaphors, and polysemes. The slide show continues by discussing other popular metaphors and...