Children write and receive postcards from friends and family, and then chart where all those postcards come from on a classroom map.
Following the model of N. Scott MomadayŐs The Way To Rainy Mountain, students write three-voice narratives based on Kiowa folktales, an interview with an Elder, and personal connections to theme.
Students compare the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald with the song, ŇThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,Ó then create their own poetry about a historical event.
Spark the engagement of English-language learners or reluctant readers with the graphic novel "Maus". The visual information provided by the genre serves as a support for reading and critical engagement.
Students analyze the Gwendolyn BrooksŐ poem ŇWe Real CoolÓ and then write about how the characterŐs pool hall days might influence who the character becomes fifty years in the future.
Pop culture and the classroom collide in this lesson when students go behind the scenes to analyze a television series for characterization to use in an original television show proposal.
Using The Giver, students discuss the importance recorded history. This provides context for descriptive writing of studentsŐ own history in a lesson that integrates personal writing, research, and literary response.
Students prepare an already published scholarly article for presentation, with an emphasis on identification of the author's thesis and argument structure.
Explore reading strategies using Edgar Allan Poe's ĺĽThe Raven_ŕ and other works. Students read Poe's works in both large- and small-group readings then conclude with a variety of projects.
Students read and discuss literature about intolerance and diversity. They work with a partner to write two-voice poems that illustrate situations of intolerance at their school and suggest a step toward acceptance.
This interactive invites students to create original multigenre, multimodal works--one drawing and three written texts--making the tool flexible for multiple writing activities.
Students use critical literacy skills to understand the concept of perspective and to then create a diary for an animal they research with a partner.
Creepy crawlers, hoppers, and fliers are the focus of this lesson in which students chorally read poems about insects and use the Internet to locate facts about their assigned insects.
Students will whistle while they work on this lesson, creating a photomontage movie of their interpretation of a favorite song's lyrics that will end everyone's day on a high note.
After analyzing "Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia" by Carmen Lomas Garza, students create a class book with artwork and information about their ancestry, traditions, and recipes, followed by a potluck lunch.
This assignment will go viral with students as they think about the meanings of words and images in public service announcements from YouTube before creating a PSA of their own.
The Mystery Cube helps students identify and summarize story elements in this popular genre. It can be used as a postreading or prewriting activity.
By exploring myths and truths surrounding Independence Day, students think critically about commonly believed stories regarding the beginning of the Revolutionary War and the Independence Day holiday.
By exploring myths and truths surrounding Abraham LincolnŐs Gettysburg Address, students think critically about commonly believed stories regarding this famous speech from the Civil War era.
In this lesson, students practice a way to communicate without words by using a glyph. They create a name card using information about themselves. Students also interpret glyphs made by others.