Students read about local accident sites and conduct research of areas of high incidence. They interview police and insurance agents and explore what can be done if a site has multiple accidents. They write a news feature about the...

Students research the new Foreign Language Academy and other free summer programs at colleges for teens. They write features stories about the opportunities and interview deans and university officials. Students also interview school...

Do you speak to your parents the same way you speak to your friends? The differences between formal and informal language are highlighted in this exercise. Groups are asked to select a scenario and script different dialogues that might...

Students use the internet to research a recent Blue Angels plane crash. As a class, they list the various ways journalists list the facts of an incident and which one is most effective given different scenerios. They write a story on...

Students read about Sidwell Friends School and the Green School concept and develop coverage for their student media. They employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to...

Young scholars explore current interpretation of the First Amendment, including that of commercial speech. Next read background about Don Imus and his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Students use the internet to research pet food safety laws. In groups, they examine what happened during the pet food recall earlier this year and what is being done to improve the situation. They write a news feature story including...

Sixth graders send a picture as an attachment in an email and define email vocabulary. In this email lesson plan, 6th graders learn how to properly send an email and the etiquette that goes along with it.

Students use an object to tell an interesting story from their lives. They write and present a short story about an interesting episode from their life and gather objects in a story bag, which illustrates their story to the class.

Students collect financial statements from the district and find out what, if anything,is cut from athletics. Students investigate how many hope to use athletic scholarships next fall. Students interview students, their parents and...

Pupils research ribbon campaigns in the community. They interview students and community members who wear ribbons representing various campaigns. Pupils write a feature about these people and the campaigns.

Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems and gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their...

Students discuss the issue of having cars towed in a small community when they should not be. After watching a local news story on the issue, they work together to conduct three full days of research. They write an article to be...

Pupils spend time researching online education facilities. After interviewing teachers, they develop a survey on how productive online education sites are to its students. They write a story for the school newspaper about this issue to...

Students debate the pros and cons of paddling in schools. Students investigate the policy in their corporation. If students disagree with the policy, students write an editorial that helps your readers find ways to make the necessary...

Examine with your class the practical uses of journals and discover how journal writing can help academically and personally. Pupils discover the different types of journal writing and decide which style works best for them.

Create to learn! Your class can create posters of transitional words and phrases to help them compose an explanatory text. They work in groups and focus on one type of transition (time, place, importance, etc.). They also create a poster...

Fifth graders will enhance their typing skills and practice using Pages, a software for Mac computers, by writing their own children's book. Note: This lesson plan refers to a template that is not included, however, you can adapt this...

Students engage in a lesson which facilitates their use of web sites to find data, graph it, and interpret it, thus scaffolding graphing skills to prepare students for their 8th grade I-search exit project.

What is a sentence? Second graders will explore the components of a sentence in the ten lessons of this unit. The subject, predicate, the process of proofreading, punctuation, and sentence sequence are analyzed in this unit. Handouts and...

High schoolers use songs to analyze their sense of identity and self-worth. In groups, they discuss and explore their own character development and discover how far they have come in recent years. They also identify the positive and...

What would you do if you had to go to school all day every day? Tillie tackles this problem in Sharon Creech’s A Fine, Fine School. After a discussion of how Tillie got the principal to change his ways, brainstorm with your class...

Take a break from literature study to address some grammatical concerns. Using a text you've already read in your class, show how to analyze pronoun use. After watching the master, pairs analyze a short excerpt on their own, identifying...

A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...