Students explore book covers of a variety of books then create a new cover for a book they have read.
Comic frames are traditionally used to illustrate a story in a short, concise format. In this lesson, students use a six-paneled comic strip frame to create a story map, summarizing a book or story that they've read. Each panel retells a particular detail or explains a literary element (such as setting or character) from the story.
In this alternative to the traditional book report, students report on their novel choices using Facebook-like pages.
In this alternative book report, students identify the elements of fiction in books they have read by creating glogs, interactive multimedia posters, and then share their glogs.
Students select a book to read based only on its cover art. After reading the book, they use an interactive tool to create a new cover for it.
Students make bookmarks on computers and share their ideas with other readers at their school, while practicing summarizing, recognizing symbols, and writing reviews-all for an authentic audience.
Students identify the elements of fiction in a book they have read and share summaries of them by writing and illustrating their own mini-book.
Students write resumes for historical fiction characters. They first explore help wanted ads to see what employers want, and then draft resumes for the characters they've chosen.
Students work in groups to create annotated book reviews with links to topics of interest related to their book.
Students utilize their reading and writing skills as they think critically in order to sort books in multiple ways.
Using scrap metal and spare parts, William Kamkwamba created a windmill to harness the wind and bring electricity and running water to his Malawian village. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Develop a way to harness the wind by designing with Strawbees.
A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.
Ralph Baer’s family fled Nazi Germany for the US when he was a child. Using wartime technology, Baer thought outside the box and transformed the television into a vehicle for gaming. His invention was the birth of the first home console, the Odyssey, a precursor to the Atari gaming system. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenges: (1) Think outside the box. What’s something you use everyday, but not for its “intended” purpose? Examples: A broom to clean the snow off your car windshield, a trash bag as a sled. Now, think of a problem you might have at school, home, et al. Invent an item that would solve this problem. (2) Let’s think outside the box! Design the latest and greatest technology for kids to hit the market! Make it the *most* fun anyone has ever had. You may NOT use anything on the market - any technology currently on the market is off limits. Use your imagination, do not put limitations on it, and be as creative as you can. (3) Use household items to create a prototype of your new invention.
A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.
Students become novice lexicographers as they explore recent new entries to the dictionary, learn the process of writing entries for the Oxford English Dictionary, and write a new entry themselves.
Through a series of picture book read-alouds, students engage in critical discussion of complex issues of race, class, and gender.
Though teachers usually caution students against using sentence fragments, Edgar Schuster's work demonstrates that professional writers often use fragments effectively. This lesson helps students understand that there are reasons that they can and should use sentence fragments to become effective writers.
As a culminating activity for "Slaughterhouse-Five", students make a compilation album (a CD with 6-8 tracks) that reflects their analysis, understanding, and reaction to the ideas in the novel "Slaughterhouse-Five".
Long before calculators were invented, little Edith Clarke devoured numbers, conquered calculations, cracked puzzles, and breezed through brainteasers. Edith wanted to be an engineer—to use the numbers she saw all around her to help build America. When she grew up, no one would hire a woman engineer. But that didn’t stop Edith from following her passion and putting her lightning-quick mind to the problem of electricity. But the calculations took so long! Always curious, Edith couldn’t help thinking of better ways to do things. She constructed a “calculator” from paper that was ten times faster than doing all that math by hand! Her invention won her a job, making her the first woman electrical engineer in America. And because Edith shared her knowledge with others, her calculator helped electrify America, bringing telephones and light across the nation.
Students create brochures on the same topic as another piece of writing they have done, highlighting how shifting purposes and audiences creates changes in their strategies as writers.
What do your students think about each other? Find out as you teach them the concepts of acrostic poems and challenge them to write an uplifting acrostic about a classmate.
Students improve phonemic awareness through games and chants that help them isolate beginning and ending sounds and connect them with their written symbols (graphemes)