It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text...

Sixth graders interview Veterans or role play to answer who, what, where, when questions. In this Veteran's Day questioning activity, 6th graders learn about the events in the military service of veterans. Students may simulate...

Explore the elements needed to make up a sentence (the sentence itself, the period, the comma, the question mark, and the exclamation point), with this language arts lesson. A loco-motor activity is embedded in the teaching of the...

Discover the rules of fishing. Pupils read chapter five of World without Fish to discover ideas about the rules and laws of fishing. They use sticky notes to annotate text as they read about fishing in other countries. They focus on...

Students receive instruction to punctuation marks in the appropriate places using provided examples. They then place the correct punctuation in the sentences on the worksheet noting that there are some punctuation marks in the...

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. For this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...

An informative list compiled with quotes, authors, and discussion questions, along with 20 out-of-the-box application ideas, make up the collection of lessons geared to spark dialogue and creative thinking about quotations. 

Students explore the use of quotation marks. In this grammar lesson, students read dialogue and explore the rules of quotation mark use as they practice using the marks on a worksheet assignment.

Students practice the correct use of quotation marks. In this grammar lesson, students watch and then discuss a video on the use of quotation marks. Students find examples of quotation marks in books and periodicals and then convert...

Fifth graders determine the difference between indirect and direct quotations. In this grammar lesson, 5th graders recognize that direct quotations have quotation marks and understand what the rules are for using quotation marks.

The proper use of the question mark, and how to correctly construct a sentence that is a question, are the two focuses in a wonderful language arts lesson. There is a terrific interactive online game that your kids can utilize to help...

Learners complete activities with the book Sarah Plain and Tall. In this literature lesson, students read, discuss, and review vocabulary from Chapter 6. They make a list of quotations and review how to use quotation marks. 

Using Mark Twain's The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, invite your learners to consider the concept of virtue in a democratic society devoted to gain and self-interest. This stellar resource guides your class members through a close...

Why do writers choose the language they do? Here's a resource that has the poet himself answer that very question. Joseph Coelho explains why he chose the words and images he used in his poem, "If All the World Were Paper."

How can congruent triangles help mark a soccer field? This is just one question your classes can answer after solving the real-world problems in the lesson plan. Each example posed through a word problem elicits higher-order thinking and...

“What is the role or function of controversial art? And, should children, our children, be required—forced—to study certain works they may find painful or humiliating or offensive?” Robert Zalisk’s question, found in his article, “Uproar...

Use the 20 Questions game to practice math vocabulary and number properties! Project a hundreds chart and hand one out to learners. Ideally, give them counters (beans would work well) to mark off the chart so you can play multiple times....

Does Mark Twain’s satire become sarcasm and does he cross the line of propriety in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? As an introduction of satire, class members view an excerpt from The Daily Show and discuss Stewart's use of this...

Hold a silent discussion about concepts related to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. After reading chapter seven, learners participate in a whole-class written discussion based on guiding questions written on the board by the teacher. 

How do you find the lengths of items that cannot be directly measured? The 13th installment in a series of 16 has pupils use the similarity content learned in an earlier resource to solve real-world problems. Class members determine...

Fifth graders practice using quotation marks and capitalization in writing. In this multiple viewpoints lesson, 5th graders read Sequoyah and write ten sentences stating what they believe the character was thinking. Students write...

The toss of a die determines what questions your pupils will answer in this lesson. Learners respond to questions based on Bloom's taxonomy, discussing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with classmates along the way. They finish by writing up...

Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. In this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...

Students practice using periods, question marks, and exclamation points correctly. In this punctuation lesson, students review punctuation rules and practice. Students practice together then work independently.