Students discover the 5 senses by analyzing poetry.  In this poetry lesson, students read a poem with their class and analyze how each sense plays into their understanding of the poem.  Students write a poem based on a specific...

Students write an acrostic poem and analyze a work of art. In this art lesson plan, students look at a picture and answer questions about it, write a poem, write about the setting in the painting they saw, and answer short questions...

Fourth graders research and write an author report on Roald Dahl, including books written by him, birthplace, family life, and other information on his writing. Students read aloud chapters in the book. Students create a newspaper...

Students visualize a character or event and personalize it through drawings.

The video "The Tales of Aesop" traces for viewers the history of fables and identifies their characteristics. The class then goes to the web site "The Fisherman and the Little Fish" where they examine the classic and a modern version of...

Students examine how Robert Hayden and Theodore Roethke incorporate poetic devices to convey meaning in the poems, 'Those Winter Sundays,' and 'My Papa's Waltz.' They listen to audio clips, explore websites, and write an analysis of the...

AP English Language and Composition requires that class members be able to formulate an argument and support it. Use this resource to focus on the life of Emily Dickinson. It requires individuals to research her life and make inferences...

Everyone can be a poet with this simple activity! After reading of Lucy Westerna's death, assign your class this bio poem on Professor Van Helsing. There's a specific format to follow, but it'll be interesting to see how your kids add...

Readers practice character analysis by reviewing Gary Soto's short story "La Bamba" with the whole class (anything you've read together will work). They design t-shirts that feature traits and story elements to reveal the nature of a...

Young poets focus on one character from a story they are reading, collect details, and use a biopoem template to analyze this character. The activity can be used with any text.

Learners read a sample found poem and create one together as a class. In this Great Depression lesson, students select a topic, such as miners, and read primary source documents related to the topic. Learners select one narrative as the...

Explore the story The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph using this resource. Learners answer comprehension questions, fill in graphic organizers, and write a poem.

Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...

A reading of Walter Dean Myers' "Harlem" sets the stage for studying the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The instructional activity begins with a review of the social, political, and economic conditions of the 1920s...

Eighth graders identify figurative language and poetry in this literary analysis lesson. Using Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and a YouTube video for "The Walrus and the Carpenter," young readers complete a literary device...

It is entirely fitting and proper that Wilfred Owen’s powerful “Dulce et Decorum Est” is the poem used for an exercise in close reading, discussion, analysis, and argumentative writing. Class members discuss focus questions in pairs,...

Here's an activity designed to encourage character analysis. Readers craft a biopoem for a character in Orson Scott Cards' popular science fiction novel Ender's Game.

Scholars read an excerpt from the short story "The Bonfire" by Kunikida Doppo as well as a nonfiction passage about handcycling. Next, they answer comprehension-based multiple-choice questions. Additionally, they respond to short-answer...

 "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" has even more meaning for some children. The resource explores the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Scholars analyze primary sources and participate in...

Take a closer look. Young academics become detectives in an engaging lesson on the American Revolution. Scholars work in groups to analyze documents to uncover whether the American colonists or British soldiers fired the first shot at...

Designed to help readers recognize the point of view of the author of a primary source documents and analyze how that point of view influences the reliability of a text, young historians examine two personal letters, one...

Here is a quick activity on King David, the second king of Israel. It discusses his famous contest with the Philistine warrior Goliath and is followed by a few reading comprehension questions.

Patriots or traitors? Class members analyze images that present widely differing views of the Boston Tea Party, identifying the point of view of the image, the propaganda devices used, and the intended audience.

Eighth graders search a website and locate a poem written by a specific poet whose work appears in the grade 8 anthology. After listening to poetry, 8th graders present oral or written examples of imagery and an analysis of the imagery.