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Sorting Characters in More Than One Way
Introduce your class to characterization. Familiar story characters are sorted into "good" and "bad" categories based on the characters' personalites and actions in the story. The class discusses and describes characters they have read...
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Prefixes
Learners explore prefixes, and how they help us decipher unknown words. Decode and define the meaning of boldface words with prefixes used in context on a classroom chart. Writers complete a worksheet practicing the same skill.
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Dictionary
Discovering different ways to use a dictionary to find the meaning of unknown words is the focus of this language arts lesson plan. Everyone reads a story and practices finding unknown words in the dictionary.
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Lesson 3: Proving Facts and Forming Opinions
Time for Kids: Butterflies is used to model the process of determining if a text is based on fact or opinion. Children are taught how to skim for key words, and use headings or chapter names to locate proof of whether or not what they...
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Analyzing Sequence with Exception Questions
Can you build comprehension by reading about sports? Third graders read and analyze the story, Game Day. They work through the book to better understand the sequence of events, they practice eliminating incorrect answers to questions...
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Lesson 5: Theme Matters
Young scholars explore themes in fiction with this literacy comprehension lesson. They generate ideas for possible themes developed in the fairy tale of The Ant and the Cricket. Next, they examine the plot of The Great Gilly Hopkins and...
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Events and Effects
Explore the plot structure in biographies. First, read the biography The Story of Jackie Robinson, Bravest Man in Baseball and identify specific events that possibly changed the life of Jackie Robinson. As you guide your listeners, they...
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A Poem's Theme
Show young poets how to use the main idea and voice to determine the theme of a poem. Model the steps using Listen Children. Lucille Clifton’s This Morning provides guided practice. Finally, class members use Nikki Giovanni’s Legacies...
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Figurative Language
Fifth graders identify and categorize figurative language in poetry.They read a poem and find an example of figurative language, then read the included hand-out on figurative language, and describe each type of figurative language. They...
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Thinking about Theme
Sixth graders explore theme in science fiction texts by examining how plot conflicts are resolved. This resource focuses on Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, but the approach and guiding questions could apply to a variety of texts.
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Multiple Perspectives
Analyze multiple perspectives in short stories. Sixth graders examine the point of view of each major character in three different short stories. After reading the stories, they role-play characters and hypothesize about the character's...
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Using Plot Elements to Retell a Story
The stories in Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street form the basis for a lesson on plot elements. The class examines introduction, sequence, problem, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution and identifies these...
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Marking Sentences
Test the identification skills of your class! Learners are required to mark 18 sentences for the prepositional phrases, infinitives, subjects, and verbs used in each. Some of the sentences are a little confusing with all of these parts...
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Genre Lesson: Historical Fiction
Take a trip through history with a lesson on historical fiction. With instructions for games, reading activities, and literary analysis assignments, this resource would be a great addition to any reading unit with a historical fiction...
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Makes Cents to Me: Penny Drive
St that people have wants and must find ways to get them. In this philanthropy lesson, young scholars understand the ways people get things and arrange a penny drive to help others. Students arrange an artistic project to reflect on...
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Echo, Echo, Echo, Each can help others
Students discuss and research arguments about philanthropy. In this persuasive speech writing lesson, students choose a needed project for the community and present the reasons for the project through an original persuasive speech....
Common Sense Media
Cyberbullying: Be Upstanding
Peers discuss cyberbullying and how they can defend their friends that may be bullied online and offline. They discover the value in showing empathy for those who have been cyberbullied. Class members then generate multiple solutions for...
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Government by the People
Students explore the concept of philanthropy. In this service learning lesson, students examine primary documents regarding the founding of the United States. Students analyze section of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of...
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Food for Thought: Hunger???Around the Block, Around the World LESSON 2: Local Hunger and Malnutrition
Learners examine the difference between hunger and malnutrition. They study the idea of hunger as a theme in literature while discovering how communities can solve hunger problems.
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Philanthropy, Volunteering And Service: the Historical Connections Lesson 2: Hunger Hurts
Students investigate the effects of hunger on a personal and community level. They examine how philanthropy can help alleviate hunger issues in the world and in their own community. They look at the available services using Internet...
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Ben Franklin the Good Citizen
Students investigate Benjamin Franklin's contributions to society. In this history instructional activity, students read about Franklin's philanthropic behavior and play a bucket brigade game to re-enact how fires were put out during...
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Project Helping Hands
Students work as a team to help improve the quality of life in rural Africa and develop a plan how to spend grant money the United Nations has provided them with.
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Redefining an Earthquake
Ninth graders build an "Earthquake Machine" (a manipulative model of a fault line) and use it to explore stick-slip behavior of some faults and to develop a more accurate definition of an earthquake and its causes.
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Exploring Building Resonance Phenomenon through a Discrepant Event Demonstration
Ninth graders create a model of a city street with various sizes of buildings on it. They use the model to demonstrate the effect of building oscillation during varying degrees of seismic activity.