Duke Ellington, jazz, and jive kick-off a fun and creative lesson on responding emotionally to music. The class will learn about jive talk used in the 1920s and the life and music of Duke Ellington. They'll listen to a selection of his...

Draw back the curtain, add a spot of joy to your class, and let learners be lessoned by a close reading exercise that models how to develop an interpretation based on evidence drawn from a text. Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “My...

Second graders explore the purpose of a dictionary. In this library media lesson, 2nd graders explore My First Dictionary and identify guidewords, entry words, and captions. Students list ways they can use the dictionary.

Three annotated passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on "Nature" provide young philosophers a chance to improve their reading comprehension skills as they gain insight into Emerson's ideas.

Young learners develop a deeper understanding of target vocabulary. In pairs, pupils independently complete a series of word clue cards, asking them to find information about key terms, including their definitions, synonyms, antonyms,...

Walt Whitman's "Captain, My Captain" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" provide seventh graders with examples of odes. After reading and discussing these and other examples, young poets craft an ode and respond to the ode of a...

Here is lesson 5 from a 7 lesson unit on using blogging to create a community of writers. The aim of this lesson is to get students writing about what Archaeologists do and how they use material data to study the past. They compose a...

Looking for materials to accompany your study of Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes? Look no further! Included here is everything you need to go alongside your unit: worksheets, graphic organizers, writing assignments, an assessment,...

How do you spell great? G-R-E-A-T! Ensure that your pupils can spell great and so much more with this effective app.

Middle schoolers answer seven analogy questions using their problem solving and vocabulary skills to discover how various words are related. Pupils are encouraged to use a dictionary as needed.

Students understand the way the dictionary is laid out as well as the purpose for why people use dictionaries. In this language arts lesson, students recognize the need for alphabetical order and are able to find words using a...

In this synonyms and antonyms worksheet, students explore three synonyms and one antonym for thirty two words using the dictionary. Students answer seventeen short answer questions about the words they found.

For this online interactive reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 12 short answer and essay questions based on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Students may also access an online quiz on the selection using...

Clarify key math vocabulary terms with this series of printable cards. Three different versions of each term are provided; one with only the word, one with the word and a picture, and one with the word, a picture, and a definition. Note...

Oh, what fun! Young logophiles and neologists create a dictionary-sounding definition for imaginary words and try to fool their classmates.

Famous quotations by American Presidents are the focus of this Six Trait writing activity, which could be used in a U.S. History class or in language arts. After reading the picture book Theodore by Frank Keating, have your 7th graders...

Students use a dictionary to review their spelling words. They discover how to use guide words in the dicotionary to find the words. They must write their spelling word and the page and guide words found on the page where the word is found.

What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...

A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...

Besides the dictionary definition, words also carry the added weight of meanings that are inferred or implied, meanings conferred on words, or connotations. To gain an understanding the importance of connotation, class members...

Review myths and the characters therein, connecting them to vocabulary words in the English language today. Begin by searching online for myths and character names. With at least ten names that are familiar English words, students use...

How well do you know your affixes? Find out how proficient your learners are with a game that requires them to define various affixes and use them to create words that will go into sentences.

Help young mathematicians acquire key vocabulary with this printable resource. Three different cards are provided for each word; one with only the word, one with the word and a picture, and one with the word, a picture, and a definition....

Understanding a text can be a very interesting task. Fourth graders read a passage describing the origin of an Aboriginal myth. They answer 11 comprehension questions that require them to pull key details, use context, and think...