Don't let your pupils bite off more than they can chew! Comprehending idiomatic speech can be very perplexing to language learners. Readers must use context clues, common sense, and knowledge of the connotative and denotative meanings to...

Kids paraphrase an entry from The Elements of Style, and then revise a sentence. They use the Visual Thesaurus and find synonyms for the phrase very pretty, brainstorm a list of intensifiers (as alternatives to really and very),...

Nine lessons in a grammar and usage unit provide endless opportunities for drill and practice. Topics include the four types of sentences, subject and predicates, nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs and prepositions, conjunctions...

Introduce your class to the MLA style of formatting. In addition to studying the formatting, learners improve language skills and review word processor features. They use the Interwrite SchoolPad for the first time to assist in proofing...

Art is a thoughtful and beautiful to motivate students in so many subjects. This lesson has students practice basic computer skills while examining a famous piece of art. They consider the color, style, and feeling of the piece. A...

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...

These questions are designed to accompany Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," and could be used to guide and focus readers or as an assessment of reading skill and knowledge of the elements of a story. Page one focuses on questions of...

A standard peer editing activity, young writers get into groups and pass their papers to each of their peers in turn; each person checking their peer's paper for spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes. In a fun twist, your class...

Take a look at the final chapters of Wilson Rawls' much-loved novel. Class members respond to several plot-based questions and then consider the red fern as a symbol. The activity is part of a series that includes every chapter except...

Help your class master proper nouns with a themed worksheet. As they read Frances Hodgson Burnett's well-known novel The Secret Garden, have pupils practice identifying proper nouns with plot points from the story. They underline...

Help your class develop the ability to determine a main idea with a packet of materials that you can introduce and use over a period of time. The packet includes some information for the teacher and rationale for the exercises. There are...

Use O. Henry's ubiquitous tale of love and poverty to explore irony. After reading the story, middle schoolers identify examples of all three kinds of irony in the story. With partners, they brainstorm original examples of irony. Then...

How are films made? As part of their study of film, middle schoolers investigate the pre-production, production, and post-production process and consider the role of the director, the screenwriter, production designer, cinematographer,...

Talk about a menu! Who would have thought SAT prep could be so delicious? Treat your class to a full course of SAT words with a timed activity that asks groups to create clues for dishes on their bill of fare. Distained veggies anyone?...

¡Celebramos Kwanzaa! Celebrate Kwanzaa through the fictional story Celebra Kwanzaa con Botitas y sus gatitos to delightfully explain the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Dual language learners participate in reading and vocabulary...

Scholars use technology to explore poetry and its related elements, such as theme, figures of speech, and other literary devices. They complete four poetry projects including a poem analysis with a concept web, an interactive poem...

Colorful contemporary images contained in a PowerPoint presentation will capture the attention of class members and model for them the how to distinguish between the subject and the theme of a work. A great want to introduce this...

Close reading is key to the analysis and interpretation of literature. A close reading of the title and the epigraph of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” offers readers an opportunity to examine how even single words or names can...

The ancient Greeks used performance enhancing drugs, such as opium juice, when they participated in the original Olympic Games. Pupils research a website with debate topics to decide if athletes' use of such drugs in modern sports is...

Get your pupils' attention with this lesson on similes and metaphors, which features two poems by Tupac Shakur. A SMART board presentation guides them through the lesson, which includes a BrainPop activity (linked). After they have...

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,...

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...

By collaborating on producing a product ad and slogan, learning partners demonstrate their understanding of the difference between connotative and denotative language. This week-long activity is designed to be used as an introduction to...

Identifying specific writing strategies while reading fiction helps to increase understanding of character development. This handout provides a template on which readers can record examples of figurative language and explain how it...