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The Highwayman
Fifth graders re-read the story "The Highwayman" understanding the term "narrative verse". As a paired activity, they predict who or what might be the audience and provide feedback.
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Diamonte Writing
Students discover poetry while practicing their storytelling skills. In this language arts instructional activity, students read diamonte and acrostic poems written by other students on the Internet. Students create their own narrative...
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Lesson Plan for Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood by Cynthia Rylant
Sixth graders examine the elements of writing poetry. In this creative writing lesson, 6th graders discuss a book of poetry in the setting of Appalachia. Students incorporate childhood experiences into the development of visual and...
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Adventures in Alice
Students create a haiku and illustrate it on the computer. In this haiku lesson plan, students review the history of the haiku while they are outside and then write their own. Students then use a computer program to illustrate their poem.
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Out of the Dust
Students create a poem that expresses the physical and emotional turmoil of living through the Dust Bowl. In this Out of the Dust lesson, students research facts about the time period and discuss the cause-effect patterns associated...
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10 Fresh Ideas to Get Your Students Writing
Here are some enticing writing ideas that will motivate any student.
Santa Ana Unified School District
Getting to the Core: Early American Poets
How do poets convey emotion and represent their views of life? Pupils learn more about Whitman and Dickinson through the unit and analyze their bold reinvention of craft and style for poets to come. Looking at classic pieces such as...
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Humans and the Natural World Poetically
Students read poetry for gist and find images to create a visual narrative. In this poetry lesson, students read Green Lane and Flies and Nettles to examine the relationship between humanity and the nature. Students reflect on a place...
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Solar Power
Fifth graders create their own solar panel. They use this experiment to see how the sun can be used as a form of energy.
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Lesson Plan 3: Great Book, Gross Book
It's time for your scholars to become book reviewers! Start with a fun review of foods: are they good or gross? Learners apply these evaluation techniques to books, recording their thoughts on large pieces of butcher paper. Simply have...
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Jazz Talk
Students analyze the origins of jazz music by examining work songs, spirituals, blues, and gospel songs as well as works of poetry from African American artists. They create their own poems from either the narrative, dramatic, or lyric...
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Silent Stories
Students create a pictorial narrative based upon John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and the Japanese techniques of "lacquer jar" stories in this three-day Language Arts/Art lesson.
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CREATE A NEW RHYME
Third graders develop basic narratives. They retell a focused story and create a basic publication using available resources (e.g., pictures, colors, computer, copier). They experiment with different forms of creative writing (e.g.,...
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Poetic Analysis
Students write a poetic analysis on a poem by Carl Sandburg. They take their previous knowledge of poetic devices and apply them to a piece of writing that displays their knowledge on a specific poem. They explain what they know about a...
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Illuminating Our Human Experiences: Soliloquy from Hamlet
Students determine the meaning of a soliloquy and examine the themes in Shakespeare's, Hamlet. For this literature lesson, students read Hamlet's soliloquy and watch a Photo Story 3 text model of such. They write a personal soliloquy...
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An Ancient Revolution: The Written Word
Learners examine the Bible, one of the earliest written sources, as a compilation of narratives, and search the resources on the HERITAGE DVD-ROM for historical "proof" as well as create their own stories and scripts based on ancient...
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All About Me
Students practice biographical and autobiographical forms of writing: autobiography, biopoem, character traits, classmate biography.
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Nonfiction Genre Mini-Unit: Persuasive Writing
Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.
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The Metamorphosis: Herber Readiness Activity
Delve into Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis before opening the book with a lesson on literary themes. High schoolers engage in a word association activity before reading a list of statements based on the book's themes. Then, in groups,...
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The Old Man and the Sea: Guided Imagery
What do you imagine when you think of the sea? Put on some ocean sounds, close your eyes, and listen to a guided meditation based on the imagery from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. After class members listen to the...
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Boundaries That Inspire: The Sestina
Learners study the poetic term "enjambment". They use one word as more than one part of speech and let words (instead of ideas) inspire lines and non-sequential, dreamlike, compulsive narrative.
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Read "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez"Americo Paredes version
Middle schoolers see examples of other types of written stories. They are introduced to the ballad in literature. Students obtain ideas for their own family story. They discuss how ballads can relate true stories through music. Middle...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Students read and analyze the novel "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou. They discuss the poetry and prose of the book, the importance of role models, complete a worksheet, and write a narrative using figurative language.
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Reader's Theater
Students act out and interpret the story for their peers. They study the simplest form of an organized reading to a more elaborate activity involving props, costumes, or a reinterpretation of the narrative into another art form.