Curated OER
Lesson Plan 18: Art Project! Design Your Own Book Cover
Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...
Harper Collins
The Giving Tree Anniversary Teaching Guide
Celebrate poetry month all of April with a guide that uses six of Shel Silverstein's most famous books as a basis for the lessons. Discussion questions and writing activities are provided for each of Silverstein's books.
Novelinks
The Hobbit: Directed Reading - Thinking Activity
An in-class reading of Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece Meets the Big O introduces class members to the journey motif that forms the basis of The Hobbit.
Curated OER
Movie Riddles: An ESL Activity to Get Student Talking About Movies
Enjoy the thrill of the movies with this ESL activity! Not only can learners talk about their favorite films, but in creating riddles about their chosen movies, they can practice the skills of context clues and deductive reasoning. This...
Scholastic
The -ad Family
You'll be so glad to have had this rad worksheet for your youngsters to practice identifying what words belong to the -ad family!
Planet e-Book
Treasure Island
Simple yet convenient: this resource is a real treasure! Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel, Treasure Island, engages readers of all ages with its tales of treasure maps, buried gold, and pirates. With a sleek eBook, learners can...
Software Smoothie
Imagination Box - Colors, Shapes, Numbers and Letters
This app provides young learners with opportunities to be creative while they work with different colors, letters, numbers, and shapes.
Curated OER
1984 by George Orwell
Readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four engage in a close reading exercise that directs their focus to the key details Orwell provides in the opening paragraphs to introduce his dystopian society. The included worksheeet is divided into three...
Vermilionville
Mardi Gras Elementary
You don't have to visit Vermilionville to experience the Cajun traditions of Mardi Gras. After examining pictures and hearing stories about these colorful traditions, learners create their own Courir de Mardi Gras masks.
Reed Novel Studies
The Janitor's Boy: Novel Study
The perfect plan can easily backfire. Jack, in The Janitor's Boy, thinks he has the perfect plan to get back at his father. Little did he know he would end up being sentenced to help his father. Scholars read about Jack and his...
Reed Novel Studies
The Slave Dancer: Novel Study
What are the effects of a good literary cliffhanger? Using the novel study for Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer, pupils consider why the author chose to end the first chapter with suspense. They also answer text-based questions, practice new...
Reed Novel Studies
Scat: Novel Study
If the most terrifying teacher in the school was lost, would you try to find her? Well, when the toughest teacher in the school is lost on a field trip, Nick and Marta, characters in Scat, decide to go looking for her. Readers discover...
Curated OER
ESL Network: Tezen, A Haitian Folktale
Sixth graders brainstorm various types of friendships prior to reading "Tezen," a tale about a young girl's friendship with a fish. After writing story reviews, they work in small groups to create dramatic skits based on the text and...
Curated OER
My Brother Sam is Dead: A study of the Revolutionary War
Fifth graders complete an analysis of the Revolutionary War through literature. After "My Brother Sam Is Dead," students create a time capsule containing items that would be relevant during the Revolutionary War. They identify key...
Curated OER
Big Dipper Story Wheel
Students research a Canadian Indian Tale. In this constellation lesson, students hear the story "Never-Ending Bear Hunt" which describes the constellations from the Native American perspective. They create their own constellation wheel...
Curated OER
Short Story Group PowerPoint Project
Students choose a short story from the class literature book. They find information about the author. They read the short story from the literature textbook. They create a PowerPoint to retell the short story.
Curated OER
The Story of Latino Civil Rights: Fighting for Justice
Students identify the civil rights abuses suffered by African Americans, Japanesse Americans during WWII, and Hispanic Americans. They explain what the common element is among the discrimination against these three groups. Students are...
Curated OER
Using an Author's Clever Strategies in One's Own Writing
Students examine specific clever strategies of the author and incorporate them in their own writings. They emulate Storti's strategies in writing an arresting lead and share their pieces in a class discussion, allowing them to critique...
Curated OER
John Brown's Passion to End Slavery Leading Up to and Including the Rain at Harpers Ferry
Sixth graders investigate John Brown's fight to end slavery. In this slavery instructional activity, 6th graders read Harpers Ferry, The Story of John Brown's Raid and then research his life as well as the life of slave Osbourne Perry...
Curated OER
Writing Up a Spanish Storm: Using Creative Thinking for Creative Writing
Learners in a Spanish class are introduced to the techniques of creative writing. In groups, they focus on the pre-writing section of creative writing and keep a folder of their works throughout the lesson plan. They end the lessons by...
Curated OER
Simile Stories
Fourth graders view song lyrics and identify similes in the song text. In this similes lesson, 4th graders define and identify similes on a worksheet. Students write their own similes using various adjectives.
Curated OER
Using Effective, Evocative Writing as a Model
Students analyze the author's style to learn techniques for strengthening their own writing. They re-read "Music in the Fields" and highlight images that create vivid pictures in their minds-places where Young "shows, not tells" and...
Curated OER
The Water Cycle Story
In this recognizing the vocabulary for the water cycle worksheet, students use the words in the word bank to fill in the blanks and complete the sentences. Students write 8 answers.
Curated OER
The Clock Tower on Grand Avenue: A Cultural Reading Adventure
Sixth graders read three novels to practice their reading and comprehension skills. Using each novel, they create a list of the characteristics of each culture represented. In groups, they also identify the setting, characters and plot...