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Cooperative Group Lesson Plan
Students work together to develop a city landscape using various symbols. Using the various elements, they justify the placement of each symbol and discover the importance of location and accessibility. They present their landscape to...
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Celebrating Thanksgiving
First graders identify symbols associated with special days and give reasons for observing holidays. They compare families of long ago with todya and talk about the first Thanksgiving and how it is celebrated in modern times. For...
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A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By
Students create a water transportation device powered by wind. In this wind power instructional activity, students research transportation concepts after reading the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield. Students design the fastest...
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Death in Poetry: A.E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young" and Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Young scholars analyze poems about death. In this poetry analysis lesson, students read poems from both Dylan Thomas and A.E. Housman and analyze them in groups for common poetic devices. Young scholars present their analysis and...
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Color Coding Richard III
Tenth graders use color-coded annotation or text-marking to analyze a passage from Richard III. In this text analysis instructional activity, 10th graders read a passage from Richard III and use colored pens to analyze the text. Students...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Students use Maya Angelou's novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to identify themes about adversity in the text. For this adversity, students read chapter 36 of the novel and discuss the examples of adversity in the book. Students...
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Author Study
Students focus their attention on the study of one author's works - not just one book, but a variety of works written by the same author - to discover what themes and/or other commonalities might run throughout the body of one person's...
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Peer Editing
Sudents read and critique three of their fellow classmates' science fiction short stories on three consecutive days for mechanics, short story elements, style, and informational elements.
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Stain My Days Blue
Students read several poems related to the life and culture of the Appalachia region. They are introduced to the poetic forms of simile, alliteration and onomatopoeia and respond to the poems through journal entries and poetry of their own.
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Anglo-Saxon Period: An Introduction
Pupils read information about Anglo-Saxon rulers and literary techniques, then complete a worksheet to help them review. Students take notes about the oral tradition, Anglo-Saxon literary terms, and Anglo-Saxon poetry. Pupils create a...
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Fusion: Calligraphy of Thought
Learners read about Calligraphy of Thought, a collection of poetry linking Islam to the West. In this art and poetry activity, students read about the poetry collection and complete a culture flower.
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Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own - Shakespeare's Sister
Pupils, after reading and analyzing, "A Room of One's Own," by Virginia Woolf, analyze how creating and defending one's position as well as how narrative functions as a rhetorical device. They evaluate and focus in on Shakespeare's Sister.
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The Concept of the Hero
Students explore the symbolic implications for the concept of the hero with a focus on the Beowulf theme. In this hero concept lesson, students find specific examples of monsters from Beowulf to complete the chart. Students list the...
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Ode to a Nightingale
Students read poems about Tuberculosis by John Keats. Using the poems, they identify similies, metaphors, personification and imagery. In groups, they make connections about the author's outlook on life and how his disease impacted his...
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The Odyssey Lesson 2
Ninth graders read and discuss part 1 of The Odyssey and create a mind map and visual images to represent vocabulary. In this reading lesson plan, 9th graders are introduced to poetry, and the Hero Cycle.
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Thornton Wilder's Our Town: The Reader as Writer
Young scholars read a play and create their own play using Thornton Wilder's Our Townas a resource. In this play lesson, students analyze how theatrical elements contribute to a play's meanings and effects. Young scholars recognize...
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Short Stories Through Multimedia Presentations
Ninth graders summarize and paraphrase a short story read in class. They identify the six story elements of character, setting, plot, conflict, solution, and tone/mood. Students create a PowePoint presentation that illustrates the...
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"i Have a Dream" As a Work of Literature
Pupils read and analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. They answer discussion questions, and write and compose a speech that addresses an injustice in society.
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Step-by-Step to the Final Destination
Students write their own radio plays. In this writing process lesson, students script their own scary radio plays based on the radio plays they read in class in previous lessons. Students also perform the plays for their classmates.
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Sula/Song of Solomon/Tar Baby
Students answer assigned questions as a group, write individual essays, complete a research project, and complete a writing project.
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Eighth graders read and discuss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Then they invent a candy bar, name it and draw a picture of it. Finally, they write a short descriptive paragraph about it.
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African American Voices
Students investigate the many forms of Haitian art. They compare the art of some different cultures, religions, countries, and philosophies. Students also read the biography of an artist to build context for a particular piece of...
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Safe from the Storm
Fourth graders read the poem "Snowbound" after brainstorming what a place of refuge is and why it's needed. They, in pairs, meet and write a list of ten attributes that describe a refuge. They write a paragraph describing the look, feel,...
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Social Studies: What Is Folklife?
Students read an essay about folklife and record their thoughts in journals. After discussing the terms associated with the topic, they complete worksheets on types of folklife, pop, elite, and folk cultures. Depending on the age group,...