Dazai Osamu’s short story, “A Sound of Hammering” is the focus of a three-day investigation of modern Japanese literature and life in post-World War II Japan. The events in Osamu’s story mirror those in his own life, and give a...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how this...

Students, utilizing video clips and Web sites, compare specific passages from original texts to moments in Broadway musicals on which they were based, analyzing similarities and differences between them. They adapt literature into a...

In a single, soundly-designed class period, high schoolers define good character, think-pair-share about thought-provoking quotes on character (More options would enhance the discussion, worth searching online for other quotes to add.),...

In this editing activity, learners correct grammatical mistakes—including punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar—in a short paragraph about author Virginia Hamilton.

This set of worksheets constitutes enough work and materials to be considered a lesson. They guide readers through a process of exploring characters and their motivations, and writing a paragraph about them. Here are seven handouts that...

What do Jeep advertisements and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath have in common? They both employ the art of the extended metaphor! Using the Six-Trait Writing model, learners begin to work on their own extended metaphors. Development...

Use drawings as inspiration. Have learners doodle for 10 minutes before beginning the lesson. Then, have them use their doodles to inspire a story. Several writing activities are included here to play with writing. One of my favorites...

This presentation offers up some of the trickier rules of the English language when it comes to spelling. For example, one slide goes over the "i before e, except after c," rule. The rest of the slides present examples like this one and...

A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...

Although designed for career education classes by the Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan, the information contained in this 46-page booklet is appropriate for cooking classes and individual chicken consumers. Everything you wanted to...

Explore the characters in My Antonia by Willa Cather with a biopoem assignment. Pupils use the provided format to write their poems about any character from the book.

Analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous and powerful "I Have a Dream" speech as a primary source document. After reading up on rhetorical devices and working in small groups to define terms, class members identify and explain the use of...

Students compare and contrast African-American, Asian-American, Chicano and Native-American movements with the civil rights movement and are exposed to the sociopolitical and economic factors involved in the rise of social movements.

Students gain an understanding of some of the challenges the U.S. faced at its birth. They are asked to compose a report on the state of the nation in 1790 (addressed to President George Washington), which includes a narrative, maps and...

Was James Monroe the sole contributor of the Monroe Doctrine? Young scholars study the doctrine and cite evidence to show contributions of John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson in its formulation.

Students analyze how Emily Dickinson perceived herself as a poet. Students read correspondence between Dickinson and her preceptor, Mr. Higginson to determine the depths of their relationship. Students interpret several of her poems.

Become acquainted with Robert Frost's life in order to allow your class to fully appreciate how his background influenced his poetry. They analyze specified poems in relation to theme, setting and the use of imagery.

Students hone their skills at identifying the principle story in a work of art and text. Through discussion, students assess the central and supporting stories of a work of art that is characterized by multiple layers of action and meaning.

Tenth graders examine the artistic legacy of trains by comparing the representations of trains in the painting of Turner and the photographs of Terry Evans. They write an essay, story or poem using their own observations of trains,...

Students investigate the life of African Americans in the North during the American Revolution. They analyze how authors use various techniques to write biographies, read about Sojourner Truth, conduct research, and write an excerpt...

Third graders tally, sort, and organize pizza orders from monthly school sales. They create an advertising campaign to promote the School Pizza Sale, record the data in graph form, compare and contrast the tallies throughout the year,...

Students create different photographs using photographic techniques of camera angles, lighting, and composition. They write non-fiction stories about people they interview and create two school newsletters that portray a fictional...