Young thespians can try their hand at writing a script and acting out a scene, while gaining a deeper understanding of the universal topics presented in Shakespeare's wide array of plays. Begin the lesson by conducting a compare and...

How do you determine an author’s purpose? You ask the author, of course. Invite a local journalist into the class to respond to scripted student questions about his/her writing process. A review of basic classroom etiquette is also...

What does an ice cream sundae sound like? Challenge young writers to move beyond visual descriptions and craft details that appeal to all five senses. The examples provided by the script in this resource show pupils how to create rich...

Students examine the accomplishments of Alexander the Great. In this ancient civilizations lesson, students research the life and leadership of Alexander the Great. Students then script and perform modern news conferences, talk shows, or...

Students explore abbreviations and acronyms. Students examine the difference between the two types. Students complete a worksheet, sorting words. They write a creative script containing abbreviations and acronyms.

In this reading comprehension worksheet, students read a one paragraph text about screenwriters. Students answer one multiple choice question.

Students examine the Dust Bowl and the impact it made on farm families. For this U. S. history lesson, students role play a writer searching for a family that moved during the Great Depression. Students uncover what prompted families to...

Students participate in a simulation of being a speech writer for the President. They listen to and analyze speeches and present one of their own.

Students become immersed in a compelling anecdote of the civil rights movement through the experience of constructing dramatic scripts. An added goal is to equip students, through this "hands-on" experience, to critique dramatic...

Students share information about energy use and conservation. In this energy use lesson plan, students work as a production team to make an instructional video about basic energy information. They develop a short survey about energy use...

Learners work in a group to design a travel brochure and television commercial for an Italian resort. They role-play having inherited a large sum of money and buying an Italian villa to turn into a resort. Students research geography,...

Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...

Young scholars analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to determine the cause of the Jamestown starving time during the winter of 1609–1610.

Scholars analyze the environmental movement started in the 1960s. Through excerpts from Rachel Carson's books as well as diary entries, they take a look at the reason for the modern movement to save the planet and then create final...

Students discuss and research how a news program is produced. They watch a web based video before working in small groups to produce a news program. They role play different jobs as they produce the program to share with at least one...

Learners watch and analyze a film of an Appalachian folktale. They define trickster and anti-hero, view and discuss the film, complete a handout, compose an original film review, and debate each character's behavior.

Students practice refusal skills to cope with peer pressure. In this refusal skill lesson plan, students work in groups to create their own skit about pressure to use tobacco. They show how they can use the 7 refusal skills taught on the...

Young scholars discuss the life of Louisa May Alcott and create an outline of a biography of her life and times.  In this Louisa May Alcott instructional activity, students explore the Transcendentalist involvement in the...

Poems by O. Henry, Marion Dane Bauer, Monty Roberts, and Langston Hughes provide the text for a study of symbolism, hyperbole, and imagery. Employing the “think-pair-share” strategy learners generate definitions of these terms and locate...

Explore the sounds, importance, and effectiveness of dialect in literature.  Active participants read, listen to poetry, and explore dialect by developing a formal definition, discuss the benefits of its use, complete a Venn diagram...

Young scholars communicate more competently in the language they are studying during oral presentation. They translate movies from their language of study to English. They evaluate correct and incorrect pronunciations and conversations.

Students analyze text and utilize outside resources to determine Iago's fate, which is not addressed by Shakespeare in Othello; students present their findings in an organized trial scenario.

In this radon worksheet, students read about radon in the city of Clinton New Jersey. They compose a play about a family in Clinton New Jersey who is face with high concentrations of radon in their home and how they deal with it....

Students practice language. In this vocabulary expansion lesson, students match words on a sentence strip. They work independently to recognize and correlate words in a sentence to individual words out of sequence. This lesson includes...