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Using Color as a Pre-Writing Tool
To better understand how to compose a clear and well-organized paper, learners read short passages, write summaries, and make colored graphic organizers. This is a fully developed three-day lesson plan with suggested assessments.
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Biography Newsletters
Have your pupils just finished reading biographies? Extend their study by having them craft a biography newsletter about the subject of their biography. Using a word processor, they create, revise and edit their report, and add...
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Persuasive Writing
Eighth graders study persuasive writing. They analzye an editorial for introductory,body, and concluding sentences. They develop arguments for and against various topics in small groups.
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Exposure: A Poem by Wilfred Owen
Here’s a great way to engage your pupils in poetry analysis. Show your class this student-produced, PowerPoint analysis of Wilfred Owen’s “Exposure.” Have your class critique the strengths and weakness of the presentation. (They are sure...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Common Core Reading Standards: Understanding Argument
What does your class know about logical fallacies? They can find out quite a bit and practice identifying logical fallacies if you follow the steps and use the resources provided here! After reviewing ethos, pathos, and logos, ask small...
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From A Different Perspective
Emerging writers create a response to their reading. They read Notes from the Trail and discuss whose perspective the journal entry is written from. Then, they write a response to the journal entry in first person perspective as if...
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Change of Perspective
After reading an example of a Cultural Connection about a particular person, class members are asked to think about what this person might experience on a daily basis. They then craft a narrative from the subject’s point of view.
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Be a Good Sport!
Young scholars explore the sport of lacrosse to improve their reading and grammar skills. In this reading and grammar lesson, students read and discuss the sport of Lacrosse. Young scholars complete a Cloze activity, a grammar activity,...
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Pumpkin Carving Sequencer
Students arrange illustrations in sequential order. In this text organization instructional activity, students access a webpage where they must follow the instructions to learn about the steps of pumpkin carving. Students then click and...
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When A Story Met A Sandwich
How is a story like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Use making a sandwich as a metaphor to remind your writers that a good, solid beginning, a rich and rewarding middle, and an ending that brings everything together spices up a...
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Applying SQ3R to Texts
After a review of the SQ3R strategy, readers use the provided prompts to respond to a text. The value of this worksheet is in the additional questions that move the learner into higher levels of reasoning.
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Using the Public Library for Career Search
Students make informed decisions when selecting a career.
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The Surreal Deal
Students examine the art-historical contexts used by Salvador Dali and identify examples of them. They explore surrealism by playing the game Exquisite Corpse, automatic writing or drawing, and dream illustration. They tour the Dali Museum.
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An Out-of-This-World Crossword Puzzle
An interactive web site allows students to create crossword puzzles online after researching planets and Sun in the Earth's solar system facts. They complete crossword puzzles created by classmates.
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Using Aphorisms to Help Dealing with People
Here's a formal plan for what many effective teachers already do: Provide a week's worth of aphorisms and have learners choose one to write about in their journals each day. They reflect on the meaning of each aphorism and project how it...
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Photojournalism: A Record of War
Learners explore who has photographed war and why. They examine Mathew Brady's process for photgraphing the Civil War. Students investigate how photographic equipment has changed and improved through time. They analyze primary source war...
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Exploring the Controversial Plan to Drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
High schoolers examine the Bush Administration's plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from varying points of view. They work in small groups in order to perform their research, but they compose individual journal...
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Creepy Read Week
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
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PALM TREES Technology :Literacy Challenge Project
Do you have a class set PDAs? Seventh graders use the Note Pad function on their PDAs to brainstorm writing prompts. After three minutes of listing their favorite foods, class members use the Note Pad Eraser to reduce their list to the...
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Fame, Fortune, and Philanthropy
With your middle schoolers, develop concepts such as philanthropy, civic responsibility, community service, and common good. Discuss famous philanthropists and what we can each give of our time, talent and treasure to better our...
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Soneka's Village
Students explore the Maasai culture. In this cultural traditions lesson, students read primary documents and story books about the Maasai in order to compare their culture to the culture of those living in a Maasai village.
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Stop Sign Punctuation
Students use punctuation and capitalization. In this grammar lesson students use stop signs in the place of periods. Students cut out sentences and put stop signs in appropriate places. Students indicate capitalization where needed.
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Three-Meal Weather: Food inspired adjectives from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"
Students complete a list of food adjectives based on the book Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. In this adjectives lesson plan, students also compose a 3 part piece of writing based on an entire day of raining food.
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Comparison and Contrast: Neat People vs. Sloppy People and Batting Clean-up and Striking Out
After your class reads Neat People vs. Sloppy People and Batting Clean-up and Striking Out, provide them with this resource. Use it as a quiz or a homework assignment to assess your class's understanding of the author's...