Students use the internet to examine how other countries celebrate Christmas. They practice saying "Merry Christmas" in different languages and create a flyer about the benefits of having a tree for the holidays. They also write a...

Students analyze "To Build a Fire" by Jack London and "The Open boat" by Stephen Crane. They write an essay in which they compare and contrast the narrators and plots in each story.

Tenth graders analyze the use of literary elements in W.W. Jacob's "The Monkey's Paw." Literary analysis is accomplished by a review of the plot and order of events in the story. Learners work in pairs to match the events from the story...

Your learners already know when they like a story and when they don't, but they may not know that the plots of these stories are shaping that opinion. Like all resources in this series, the two activities and quizzes provided here deal...

Young historians study civilian Arkansas during the Civil War. They look at the many challenges they faced to keep their homes in order while the men were at war. Learners hear stories of bands of outlaws who ravaged the state during...

Learners read Spelldown, by Becky Mushko and consider how it portrays the Appalachian community. They define and discuss vocabulary presented in the story and write a comparison/contrast paper analyzing two of the story's characters. The...

Students study the topic of peace and use brainstorming techniques to create a clustering diagram. In this peace brainstorming activity, students organize brainstorming material to complete a writing assignment. Students create...

There are not many more apt examples of ethics gone awry than William Golding's Lord of the Flies.. Ninth graders focus the ethics of decision making with the examples provided in the plot. They focus on the...

Immaculate, accumulation, dissipation. Vocabulary drawn from chapter 16 of James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, can prove to be challenge for readers. To help kids understand the meaning of these words and what they add to the...

Teach your class the rules of capitalization with this fun, engaging lesson. Children participate in a learning activity, collaborate with peers, and practice their writing as they learn three specific rules: to always capitalize the...

Using the book Bandits, Bears, and Backaches, learners develop an understanding of the pre-history of Arkansas. They follow the trail ofthe giants mastodons and paleo Indians who lived there long ago. The emphasis on this lesson is on...

Begin your discussion about Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility before you even open the book. Kids fill in a worksheet that lists five statements about the literary themes of the novel, and then discuss their opinions as a...

Identify and analyze the use of figurative language used in select pieces of writing. These pieces of literature will represent at least two pieces by one writer and at least two pieces by different writers. This lesson would be a great...

Look deeper into the text with a reading strategy based on asking critical thinking questions. While reading Reading the Fountain by Kate Klise, learners think of questions that help them describe, compare, associate, analyze,...

Discussion doesn't always need to be spoken. Before you begin The Tempest by William Shakespeare, have kids connect their ideas and experiences to central questions of the play with a silent discussion activity. Once they have...

Fourth graders create their own stories with a life lesson and illustrate them.

Personal narrative writing is usually a favorite form of writing for youngsters because they get to write about a personal experience. The lesson here asks pupils to take a piece of narrative writing and improve it by following...

Students compose songs about recycling. In this ecology lesson, students use vocabulary and concepts related to recycling to generate lyrics for an original song. Students construct musical instruments out of discarded materials.

Through an informative WebQuest and group work, learners explore the human body and cell structure. They create a cell diagram, research a disease, write a letter explaining the causes of human disease, and work in small groups to create...

Students use perspective observation sketches to understand verbal description. In this subjective writing lesson, students practice writing subjective conversations using the cartoon worksheets.

Young scholars read a variety of short stories that focus on teenage protagonists. In groups, they answer comprehension questions and discuss the characters and setting for each story. Individually, they choose one writing assignment to...

Students create a poem on the subject of war. In this All Quiet on the Western Front lesson, students create poetry using phrases or lines that they brainstorm during a pre-writing session. Students enhance their poetry with sensory...

Eighth graders use creatures created from their imaginations to practice hyperbole, simile, metaphor, and alliteration in association with creative writing. They utilize a worksheet imbedded in this plan to guide their writing.

Sixth graders write a short story about being stranded on a deserted island. After a brief geography review of locations at various latitudes and longitudes, 6th graders draft their story about being stranded. They use sensory and...