Search a variety of sources to create a multimedia or book project about Japan. Learners use the independent investigation method to plan and conduct research about Japan. They use the information they discover to create a computer book...

Writer's workshop is an idea that's been around for years. Students write, read, and comment on each others writing in an authentic and thoughtful way. Here is a 21st century twist, 6th graders will use the class blog to create a...

Stuck for a journal topic? Download CAHSEE’s 21 “Expository Journal Prompts” as a pdf handout for yourself or class. A great resource for your writing program, print it up and add it your curriculum library.

A video featuring members of Oregon’s Astoria Native American fishing community launches a study of the oral tradition of poetry, and how traditions are passed down within different cultures. Activities, assessments, extensions and...

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass provides the text for a study of how writers bring characters to life. Using the provided character mapping worksheets, readers respond to questions and then write a short character sketch.

For a comprehensive overview of debate styles and formats, look at this resource. It details the Lincoln-Douglas debate format (one-to-one debate with specific, timed rounds of points, cross-examination, and rebuttals). You can also find...

Suggested topics for a role play debate include school uniforms and culpability for drunk driving, but any issue of interest to your class will work. What are the hot issues in your community or on the news right now? Class members...

Students imagine they are president of the United States for one day! students study general information about the duties of the president of the United States. They create a schedule for one day as president.

Explore the current television rating system, its content descriptors, and the new V-chip technology that more readily allow parents to control their child's television viewing. Help learners develop a survey that will determine the pros...

Learn about mysteries with your readers. They will investigate plot, basic elements of mystery, famous characters, and become familiar with genre vocabulary. Bring in props and mystery books to begin and then have learners create story...

How many different types of poetry are there? Let me count them; list poems, haiku, and makes-me-think poems are only a few. Learners create their own poems accompanied by artistic projects such as haiku poems written on kites.

Students profile a mock television talk-show format to conduct mock interviews with famous people in history. Students read biographies of famous people in history. Students assemble questions for interviews.

¿Quíen tiene la camiseta? Here's a fun, interactive activity using real pieces of clothing to teach and review new vocabulary. Get all of your young learners participating with this one!

Explore appositives, phrases that immediately follow the noun they modify, using sentence strips, examples, and collaborative learning. The class works together to identify appositives and use commas to properly punctuate them. Partners...

Students create trading cards based on historical individuals that helped people with disabilities. In this disabilities lesson plan, students put the name, picture, description, and graphic on the card.

Young scholars develop a timeline of events associated with Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus River, and the Huang He. They prepare a clay, wood, or paper model of a representative artifact from one civilization. They write a description of...

As a way to combine language arts and science, try this lesson on writing cloud poetry. Begin by showing a PowerPoint presentation and images of cloud types. Take meteorology masters outdoors to explore the sky using the provided "Cloud...

"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...

Did you know that some languages have no word for art? The English language does and the narrator of this short video discusses the aesthetic dimension of religious art as it "visually communicates meaning beyond language." 

Apply the game of baseball to a fun review activity. Pupils earn a "base" for each subject question that they answer correctly. This activity can be modified and used for any subject area, including math, social studies, and language arts.

“What do you mean that my language is improper?” Prior to My Fair Lady was Pygmalion. Fair Eliza’s struggles with English, which according to George Bernard Shaw “is not accessible even to Englishmen,” come alive in the 1938 film version...

Translate, evaluate, educate. Discover how to translate and evaluate expressions. Young mathematicians first review words and phrases that indicate operations and learn to write algebraic expressions from verbal descriptions....

Students examine different flags from a variety of countries, describing what they see and writing about it.  In this descriptive writing lesson, students use detailed writing to show what the flag looks like using only words. ...

Learners examine an object in the classroom and write a description of it employing exciting language. They brainstorm and outline ideas for an original article about an event they participated in or attended.