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Interactive
Curated OER

Student Opinion: Who Inspires You?

For Students 7th - 12th
Inspire your class to write about role models and personal heroes with this resource from The Learning Network. Class members read a New York Times article excerpt about basketball star Jeremy Lin and how he inspired the author. After...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Do You Prefer Your Children's Book Characters Obedient or Contrary? Opinion Writing

For Students 9th - 12th
With this New York Times "Learning Network" exercise, high schoolers read an article about the death of Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are and then respond to several prompts that require them to shape their own opinions...
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Writing
Curated OER

What Is Your Favorite Place?

For Students 7th - 12th
Good writing can come from personal places. Budding online authors read an excerpt from a narrative-style newspaper article and then respond to several related writing prompts. They compose blog responses that use vivid imagery to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analyzing Atmosphere: Macbeth Murder Scene and Dagger Speech

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act II, Scenes I and II) lacks explicit details of the murder of King Duncan, yet the author creates an atmosphere that allows us to visualize the event. Readers interpret the "Dagger Speech" by writing stage...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Plot Rollercoaster

For Students 5th - 9th Standards
Visualize a plot rollercoaster using this graphic organizer for budding authors. Don't think you're getting the typical five-part plot structure here, though; there are nine spaces for writers to fill in plot elements, assuring they have...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan 6: Introducing the Elements of Plot-Part Two

For Teachers 5th - 9th Standards
November is National Novel Writing Month, so if your young authors are embarking on this journey, be sure they understand plot elements. This collaborative lesson fits into the context of the larger NaNoWriMo project; however, the ideas...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Poems

For Students 1st - 2nd Standards
Thud! Squiff! Create sound effects with words. Introduce your youngsters to onomatopoeia with these fun, rainy-day poems. They write down sound words, discussing rhythm and rhyme. You can also incorporate the author's use of capital...
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Writing
Curated OER

Writing About Talking

For Students 2nd - 4th Standards
The story of King Arthur is a fascinating one, and this retold excerpt offers an excellent example of narrative word choice in a dialogue. Learners read the text and examine the way the author uses synonyms for said. They write down all...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Editing

For Students 1st - 3rd Standards
Take young authors through the writing process with a instructional activity on editing. Given three sentences with unnecessary words, pupils cross out the extra words and write the rest of the sentence in the space provided. An...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduce Vocabulary: Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story (Peters)

For Teachers K - 3rd
Lisa Peters presents macroevolution as a large-scale family tree in her book Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story. She suggests the process from single-celled organisms to modern-day humans, and learners explore new vocabulary through the...
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Organizer
Curated OER

Direct and Indirect Characterization

For Students 9th - 10th
How does an author develop his or her characters? Using the short story "On the Bridge" by Todd Strasser, readers study character development by looking for examples of both direct and indirect characterization. They plot these points on...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Third-Person Limited, Omniscient or Objective Point of View?

For Students 8th - 9th
Help your readers identify different points of view by studying key words the author uses to mold the story. There are four story excerpts provided here, and readers must identify the point of view, record the words that led them to that...
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PPT
Curated OER

Revising Your Draft

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Revising, as opposed to editing, is the focus of a presentation that details this essential part of the writing process. The author of this PowerPoint suggests outlining the draft to determine if all the necessary elements are included...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Grapes of Wrath: KWHL Strategy

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Before beginning The Grapes of Wrath, readers create a KWHL chart recording what they already know about the Dust Bowl, the author, and the book, what they want to know, and where they might find answers to these questions. After reading...
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Activity
Curated OER

Things Fall Apart: Question Answer Response Theory

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Passages from Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart provide the text for a QAR: Question Answer Response comprehension activity. Readers respond to right there, think and search, on your own, and author and you questions.    
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PPT
Curated OER

Steinbeck and Ecology

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Does The Grapes of Wrath hold as much relevance today as it did in the 1930s? Use this presentation to introduce John Steinbeck and one of his greatest novels. The author of this presentation encourages a connection between the Dust Bowl...
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Lesson Plan
BW Walch

Unexpected Family History

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The history of the northern states' involvement in the slave trade is not widely known. This resource uses the PBS documentary, Traces of the Trade, and the nonfiction book, Children of the New England Slave Trade, to examine this aspect...
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PPT
Curated OER

The Harlem Renaissance

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Did you know that the Harlem Renaissance was also known as the New Negro Movement? This presentation is fully of interesting facts and pictures to help your class understand the literary movement and how these changes also affected music...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

"The Chase" Reading Questions

For Students 9th - 12th
"The Chase," a chapter from Annie Dillard's autobiography, details an iceball project the narrator and her friends used to play. After your class reads the chapter, give them this reading assessment. Provided here are five short-answer...
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PPT
Curated OER

Conducting a Rhetorical Analysis

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed
What is the author trying to achieve? What strategies does he/she use to meet this goal? How affective are these strategies? These three questions, the heart of rhetorical analysis, are examined in a presentation that also details the...
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PPT
Curated OER

Effective Persuasion: Developing Persuasive Arguments

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Use research to strengthen a persuasive argument. Examples of ethos, logs, and pathos are presented, and learners discuss how using research can improve one's argument. Pair this presentation with an example persuasive piece to point out...
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PPT
Curated OER

George Orwell: A Brief Biography

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Studying an author can help learners better understand literature. George Orwell's biography is the focus of this presentation, which leads into an activity and discussion about concepts connected to Animal Farm. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Interaction as Analysis: Emily Dickinson

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is a thing with feathers” is the focus of a series of activities that model for learners how close reading can lead to understanding. The whole class plays with the metaphor, groups talk about the author’s...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Media Literacy Analyzed

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...

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