Bring the vocabulary of film to life through the processes of filmmaking. Students learn terminology and techniques simultaneously as they plan, film, and edit a short video.
Students form literature circles, read "Esperanza Rising" or "Becoming Naomi Leon" by Pam MuĐoz Ryan, use a Critical Thinking Map to discuss social issues, and use a class wiki.
Many Kindergarten students come up with "action words" or verbs easily after demonstrating actions. Many of these emergent readers know more words thatn they use in daily writing/reading/sharing.
This lesson is easy to use in small groups and encourages them to broaden their vocabulary in a fun format, a personal Action ABC book. They can access and practice these new (and old) verbs easily and have unique collections they have designed!
This three-session lesson focuses on characterization. Students determine how a character's traits reveal particular character traits, using a list of adjectives as a guide. Then, they write descriptions of those characters. Characters from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are used for modeling.
Through a close reading of "Amelia Bedelia", students reread the material to discuss text-dependent questions, promoting deep thinking about the text and its characters.
Students write an analysis essay to identify and explain the rhetorical strategies utilized in a famous speech that make it an effective argument.
Sharon Draper's book, Out of My Mind, addresses the difficulties of cerebral palsy through the eyes of a young girl. This lesson develops a first-person perspective of the novel, including handouts, group discussion tasks, guided questions, and graphic organizers. The lessons divide the book into eight sections, with suggested key concepts. The plans are well-organized with all materials available for download.
By analyzing Dear AbbyŐs ŇrantÓ about bad grammar usage, students become aware that attitudes about race, social class, moral and ethical character, and ŇproperÓ language use are intertwined.
Students apply the analytical skills that they use when reading literature to an exploration of the underlying meaning and symbolism in Hieronymous BoschŐs early Renaissance painting "Death and the Miser".
Students explore and analyze the techniques that political (or editorial) cartoonists use and draw conclusions about why the cartoonists choose those techniques to communicate their messages.
This lesson describes how to use selected fiction and nonfiction literature and careful questioning techniques to help students identify factual information about animals. Children first identify possible factual information from works of fiction which are read aloud, then they listen to read-alouds of nonfiction texts to identify and confirm factual information. This information is then recorded on charts and graphic organizers. Finally, students use the Internet to gather additional information about the animal and then share their findings with the class. The lesson can be used as presented to find information about ants or can be easily adapted to focus on any animal of interest to students. Resources are included for ants, black bears, fish, frogs and toads, penguins, and polar bears.
What drives changes to classic myths and fables? In this lesson students evaluate the changes Disney made to the myth of "Hercules" in order to achieve their audience and purpose.
What drives changes to classic myths and fables? In this lesson students evaluate the changes Disney made to the myth of "Hercules" in order to achieve their audience and purpose.
Students use their emerging writing skills to write shopping lists. They work within a budget, use problem-solving skills to create lists, and buy their favorite treats at the class store.
Is the case closed on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays? Student history detectives explore the evidence for and against one of the possible alternatives, Edward deVere, using the novel Shakespeare's Secret plus a variety of online sources.
This lesson uses familiar words from The Gingerbread Man to help early readers learn letter–sound correspondence. Students begin with a teacher-conducted shared reading of the story. As students listen, they read the words in the refrain along with the teacher. After the third hearing of the story, students choose their favorite words from the story and identify the sounds that the letters make in the words. Students conclude the lesson by using the newly learned words in an online story of their own creation. To further reinforce letter-sound correspondence, students play an online interactive Picture Match game.
This sorting activity addresses critical-thinking skills, observation and categorization processes, and reading comprehension and writing skills, while at the same time providing teachers with a vast array of diagnostics through observation of student interaction and conversation. Students work as a class to sort books, first according to their covers and then according to their topics. They explore whether books could be included in multiple categories and whether some groups could be broken down further. Next, students work with a partner to sort twelve books. They orally explain their sorting criteria, and then record in writing what categories they used and why. Students may also compare and contrast two books using an online Venn diagram.
As a culminating activity for "Slaughterhouse-Five", students make a compilation album (a CD with 6-8 tracks) that reflects their analysis, understanding, and reaction to the ideas in the novel "Slaughterhouse-Five".
The lesson and activities teach students to recognize and explore bias and media stereotyping and be able to identify and analyze propaganda techniques in magazine and//or TV advertising.
Students investigate the effects of word choice in Robert Frost's "Choose Something Like a Star" to construct a more sophisticated understanding of speaker, subject, and tone.