Curated OER
Stating Your Case: Writing Thesis Statements Effectively
As a writer, if you have a weak introductory paragraph or thesis statement, you might lose your audience! Have your middle and high schoolers practice writing introductory paragraphs that include clear thesis statements in response to...
Virginia Department of Education
Maintaining Organization, Clarity, Central Idea, and Unity
Introduce and challenge the essay organization skills of your junior high writers with the paper reconstruction activity in this demonstration. Theydetermine what the word organization means, and discover the basic organizational...
Curated OER
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
Before your high schoolers read Julius Caesar, have them complete this thought-provoking activity! To familiarize them with some of the play's most important lines, break the class into pairs and have them create a skit around...
Curated OER
Relationship Role Plays from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Connect a scene from a class play to events in your middle and high schoolers' own lives. First, they act out a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream in pairs. They work to role play a scene as an extension of the one they have read,...
Curated OER
Lesson: Double Album: The Collection and the Archive
An open discussion starts this lesson off. The class takes a critical look at five works of art that demonstrate the impact and purpose of identity through collections or archives. They then write a list or draw 10-15 items found in...
Eye On Education
I Say Tomato, You Say To-Mah-To
Turn your junior high talkers into effective arguers. Introduce these budding lawyers to skills that show how to support a claim, decide what clear reason is, and how to use evidence to support an argument. Time is scheduled for class...
Virginia Department of Education
Identifying Audience and Purpose
Use a fun and creative activity to introduce junior high learners to how writing changes for different audiences and purposes. The activity begins with a reading by the instructor where teens visualize a food fight in the cafeteria. In...
Curated OER
Marketing to Teens: Parody Ads
High schoolers deconstruct advertising messages by analyzing parody ads and exploring the purpose of satire. Then they create their own parodies based on real ads discussed in class. A creative activity to extend any study of media,...
Curated OER
Arkansas Photographs as Research Tools
Middle and high schoolers look at historical photos and written materials, and they develop questions which they use to interview an elder in their community. Learners are divided into groups and given sets of historical family photos...
Scholastic
Frindle Lesson Plan
"Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle?" Inspired by this quote from the award-winning novel written by Andrew Celements, this lesson allows children to invent their own...
British Council
Smoking Stinks
There are lots of good reasons not to smoke. Make sure your middle and high schoolers understand each and every one with a lesson that prompts them to read anti-smoking posters, note the main points, and write a short response on the...
Curated OER
Hamlet's State of Mind
Analyze various excerpts from Hamlet and read articles to develop an argument about his sanity. Middle and high schoolers write an argument essay defending whether or not they believe Hamlet is insane. You could modify this assignment...
Curated OER
The Outsiders
Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...
Curated OER
A Year in Review: The Memoir
If you are planning a unit on memoir and autobiographical narrative, you should consider this resource. Using Internet research skills, pupils review works by James Frey and Henry David Thoreau. In response to these works, learners...
Curated OER
Homemade Holidays
Foster your high schoolers' creativity - and generosity - with this writing instructional activity. After reading the article "Homemade Holiday Gifts" by Frances Janisch (from the GALE Student Resource Center - Gold), pupils meet in...
Curated OER
Pinwheel Modern Art Styles
Students explore artistic design by creating pin wheel models in class. In this modern art activity, students examine historic art work of Van Gogh, O'Keeffe and Mondrian before emulating their work on construction paper. Students...
Curated OER
Foreshadowing and Situational Irony in Kate Chopin Short Stories
This resource contains summaries of the stories featured, but limited procedural detail. Readers compare Chopin's stories' use of situational irony and foreshadowing. High interest content (questionable paternity, missing persons) for...
Curated OER
Experiencing Nature
Students create their own landscapes based on the topography of their region after studying the artwork of Cincinnati-based artist William Sonntag and other "Hudson River School" artists.
Curated OER
I Am Special and You Are Special Too #6
We are All Alike…We Are All Different is the springboard for the creation of an illustrated book in which young writers record their impression of themselves, their families, and their interests. Sharing the completed books in circle...
Curated OER
Integrating Printmaking and Literature: A high school art curriculum
Students integrate techniques in printmaking with readings in poetry and literature. They read various pieces of student literature and poetry, and create prints using various printmaking techniques.
Curated OER
Gateway to the Arts
Students redesign a dead space in the school to create an interesting and stimulating visual environment. In this art design lesson, students look at how to redesign architectural space and research ways to enhance a space. Students then...
Curated OER
A Great Beginning
Students create tri-fold biographical brochures. Each of the sections of the brochure refers to either the past, present or future of the student. They use the back of the brochure to list ways to be successful in high school and reach...
PBS
Be the Press: Local Interviews, National News
High school learners research an issue that is important to them and apply the research to write a newspaper article. After thoroughly researching their topic, students strengthen research, analyzation, and writing skills, by...
Curated OER
Lesson Exchange: Introduction to Research Papers (Senior, Literature)
Although unlikely in today's English classroom, this lesson focuses on introducing research papers to seniors in high school. It briefly reviews the parts of an essay, and mentions showing learners example essays, but no examples are...