Using research notes on feudal roles in medieval Europe, learners work cooperatively to write a play about one day in the life of a boy or girl in the Middle Ages.

The beginning, a very good place to start, is also a very difficult thing to craft. Provide your writers with this handout that identifies, and provides examples of, six different types of narrative leads.

Is this any way to treat a Greek Myth? By all means, turn the tale of Orpheus into a reader's theatre exercise.

Wonderful worksheets and activities complementing six sequential lessons are what you'll find in this unit on folklore. Pupils create folktales using literary devices and included story starters, compare and contrast different...

Use folk tales as inspiration for learning about and using personification in creative writing. Learners brainstorm together in order to practice personification before writing their own poems or paragraphs about a household object.

Want to really tap into your pupils' persuasive instincts? Here is a writing prompt that is sure to get your youngsters' pens scribbling furiously. After all, who doesn't want more recess?

How do you determine what law enforcement agency has jurisdiction when a crime has been committed? That's the challenge facing class members in this role-play activity.

A four corners pre-reading activity introduces class members to the major themes in Victor Martinez's award winning novel, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida.

Reading about history is nothing like experiencing it firsthand. Encourage your eighth graders to do the next best thing with a historical narrative prompt, in which they describe the experience of a first-time traveler on the...

Whether you are teaching mainstream, advanced, or intervention language arts classes, you will find something helpful in a thorough writing packet. It includes prompts, rubrics, responses, helpful hints, graphic organizers, and many...

Are you enjoying the use of all five senses? Imagine that you have to lose one of them; you can choose which one, but it's gone forever. Work through a lesson based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis that asks class...

Create a picture dictionary for one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays. After readers finish The Tempest, they assign each letter of the alphabet to a concept or character, and add a description and evidence from...

Who were the candidates in the 2008 US Presidential election and where did they stand on important issues? Use a resource that offers an opportunity to go back in time and examine candidates and issues involved in that election year.

The fourth activity in a series of five has classes participate in a jigsaw to learn about global impacts of climate change and then share their new information with a home group. Groups then research impacts of climate change (droughts,...

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

Would you rather have a big shiny diamond ring or a diamond shiny big ring? Word choice and the order of adjectives can affect what a writer is trying to say. Teach young learners how to clarify their writing with a set of...

How do you describe a jellyfish? Individuals write adjectives for Nomura's jellyfish, take notes, and check understanding with a formative assessment. Notes include the definition for adjectives, guiding questions to help writers...

Explore ways to make research and writing more interesting. The first in a series of three challenge activities designed to accompany Theme 2: Give It All You've Got involve creating sports cards, designing cereal boxes, and using other...

Follow poetry instruction with a four-category rubric designed to guide budding poets' writing of free verse poetry. 

Lights, camera, action! Math educators consider how to improve their instruction by examining a model of the five-practice problem-solving model involving a movie theater. Participants examine cognitive demand in relation to problem...

It is about this big. An assessment provides three questions on the estimations of volume. Pupils determine the quantities needed and use dimensional analysis to arrive at estimations involving dollar bills, paint, and gasoline.

Young grammarians demonstrate their understanding of conjunctions by identifying sentences on a short instructional activity that use conjunctions correctly.

Radioactive isotopes have a wealth of uses, but their waste may cause some concern. One of four free-response questions challenges learners to devise a waste removal strategy for medical radioactive substances. Other questions address...

Practice makes perfect! A released AP® exam gives scholars practice with the high level of expectations of their exams. The exam consists of four questions from 2000. Questions ask about endangered species, recycling, alternative fuels,...