A Musical Prompt: Postcards From the Concert
(View Complete Item Description)Students won't miss a beat in this musical lesson that combines listening with personal response on a postcard.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
All resources in English Language Arts
Creating a Classroom Newspaper
(View Complete Item Description)Students write authentic newspaper stories, including learning about various aspects of newspapers, such as writing an article, online articles, newspaper reading habits, and layout and design techniques.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
Cosmic Oranges: Observation and Inquiry Through Descriptive Writing and Art
(View Complete Item Description)Students will eat up this lesson about oranges as they practice the skills that help them investigate and make detailed observations for descriptive purposes.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
A Getting-Acquainted Activity Using My Teacher's Secret Life
(View Complete Item Description)Students build classroom community as they get to know each other and their teacher better by sharing what they like to do outside school.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Book Report Alternative: Character and Author Business Cards
(View Complete Item Description)Students respond to a book they have read by thinking symbolically to create a business card for one of the characters.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Analyzing the Purpose and Meaning of Political Cartoons
(View Complete Item Description)It is important for students to know how to evaluate messages conveyed by the news media. Exploration of the artistic techniques used in political cartoons leads to critical questioning.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
It's My Life: Multimodal Autobiography Project
(View Complete Item Description)Students express themselves verbally, visually, and musically by creating multimodal autobiographies, exchanging ideas with other students and sharing important events in their lives through PowerPoint presentations.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Unit of Study
Create a Great Future: STEM Career Research Using Close Reading
(View Complete Item Description)What if students could see the relevance of their school curriculum to real-world, interesting, STEM-related careers? Let's help them create a great future!
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Giving Voice to Students Through "This I Believe" Podcasts
(View Complete Item Description)Students write and record their own essays for a class blog by first completing a series of activities designed to get them thinking and writing about their experiences.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
Essay Map
(View Complete Item Description)The Essay Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for an informational, definitional, or descriptive essay.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive
Analyzing and Podcasting About Images of Oscar Wilde
(View Complete Item Description)Students analyze images of Oscar Wilde used to publicize his 1882 American lecture tour. They then compare a caricature to another researched image, sharing this analysis in a podcast.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Tracking the Ways Writers Develop Heroes and Villains
(View Complete Item Description)Everyone knows that "Star Wars" character Darth Vader is a villain. This lesson asks students to explore how they know such things about heroes and villains they encounter in texts. After examining how moviemakers communicate the villainy of Darth Vader, students examine a passage from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that describes the villain Voldemort, noting how Rowling communicates details about the character. Students then read novels in small groups, with each group member tracking a character in a reading log. When they finish their novels, students design posters and present details on their novels to the class. After the presentations, students make observations on how authors develop character and write journal entries reflecting on what they learned.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Unit of Study
Book Report Alternative: Writing Resumes for Characters in Historical Fiction
(View Complete Item Description)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.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Creating Question and Answer Books through Guided Research
(View Complete Item Description)This series of activities is designed to teach research strategies. Students use KWL charts to guide their inquiry and publish their results in a collaborative question and answer book.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Learning About Word Families with Click, Clack, Moo
(View Complete Item Description)Using text from Doreen Cronin's Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type as shared readings, first-grade students learn word families and how to decode new words in a word family.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Inferring How and Why Characters Change
(View Complete Item Description)Students will really get into character when they read short stories and analyze the hows and whys of character behaviors.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
The Ten-Minute Play: Encouraging Original Response to Challenging Texts
(View Complete Item Description)Students use both analytical and creative skills to adapt passages from a novel with significant internal dialogue and conflict, such as Toni Morrison's "Beloved", into a ten-minute play.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Unit of Study
Using Student-Centered Comprehension Strategies with Elie Wiesel's "Night"
(View Complete Item Description)Working in small groups, students read and discuss Elie Wiesel's memoir "Night" and then take turns assuming the teacher role, as the class works with four different comprehension strategies.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Unit of Study
Introducing Each Other: Interviews, Memoirs, Photos, and Internet Research
(View Complete Item Description)Students use their communication and writing skills as they interview a partner, write an article about them, and create a multimodal presentation to introduce their partner to the class.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
Writing Reports in Kindergarten? Yes!
(View Complete Item Description)This lesson encourages young students to see themselves as writers with a message to convey. Three types of reports are provided to show what kindergartners and emergent writers can do.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Unit of Study