“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...

In this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about Donald Duck. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

Students read several fairy tales of Russian origin. They brainstorm common elements of a fairy tale and identify those elements in several examples. They retell a favorite fairy tale through a skit, oral storytelling, a sketch, or a...

Students examine political cartoons from 1774 through today, determine their meanings through analysis and discussion, and create their own political cartoons focusing on historical issues studied in class.

As a review of persuasive techniques, groups develop a one-sentence slogan designed to entice others to purchase a produce or adopt a point of view. The group then craft a storyboard for a commercial for their product.

An informative learning exercise invites learners to compose essays about animals. Some excellent writing prompts are included in this innovative learning exercise. Use these ideas with a variety of grade levels.

What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...

Young writers determine whether the 19 nouns in the box are accountable or uncountable. They place each noun in the Venn Diagram and then fill in each blank in 9 sentences with the words a, an, any and/or some. A good activity!

Mary Anne Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, wrote Silas Marner in 1861. While you're compiling materials for your Victorian unit, consider printing off these essay questions to help readers really explore the text. Some...

John Q. Public was a notable cartoon representation of the average American; but how accurate was this portrayal? Emergent analysts consider several topical points as they take a critical look into a cartoon portrayal of the American...

Here's a spelling program that includes 36 lists of 21 words and 20 suggestions for weekly activities. Each list includes common and proper nouns, sight words, academic vocabulary, and words built on a specific Greek roots.

Explore text structure with a focus on the glossary feature in informational texts. Learners read a brief introduction before examining a glossary from a text about plants. They reference it while completing four comprehension questions....

Students become aware of the ways in which packaging is designed to attract kids. In a series of activites, students compare similar food products, assess nutritional value, and participate in field trip to see how packaging affects...

Students investigate the lure of snack-food advertisements to explain how snacks can fit into a healthy diet.

Students investigate our society's pressures to conform to standards of beauty - particularly to be thin - and the related prejudice against being "overweight."

Understanding how visual codes such as long-shots, close-ups, and camera angles affect meaning helps prepare young filmmakers to plan their own productions. The concepts embedded could also be used to analyze photographs and paintings.

This lesson will help students practice conducting an oral history interview, increase knowledge about what it is like to be a soldier, gain knowledge about the Vietnam War and gain knowledge about the Chicano experience in the U.S.

Students read and discuss a story featuring aboriginal characters in the past and compare/contrast it to how aboriginals live today. They read and discuss information on the Rabbit and Bear Paws website, develop a list of the aboriginal...

This is a great resource for finding websites on ancient Greece. Explore various websites to investigate life in ancient Greece. Young historians will view images of Greek ruins, take a virtual tour of the Parthenon, view an online...

Young scholars examine Nathaniel Hawthorne's style of humor and compare it to other humorists. They discuss the purpose of literary humor and determine how it develops characters and plots in stories. They analyze the use of different...

Students examine how music and sound affect their creation of artwork. They view art images online, create three hybrid collage creatures, develop a list of hero characteristics, and write an adventure story for a character they have...

Students view a film that chronicles the experiences of Juan Carlos Zaldivar, a Cuban American immigrant. They discuss and analyze this autobiographical film and conduct further research on historical relations between the United States...

Students view (or read) The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty. They discuss other literary pieces that include the misleading first person narrator. They role play fictional characters from literature and present a short anecdote in a...

Third graders develop a presentation based on Aesop's Fables. In this Aesop Fables and presentation lesson, 3rd graders examine the characteristics of fables and how to interpret them. They choose one of Aesop's Fables to research. They...