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Hatchet: Before Strategy- Problematic Situation
If you were stranded on a desert island, what items would be the most important to have with you? Decide whether you'd want a five gallon can of water, a radio, shark repellent, or any other item with an activity designed to prepare kids...
Reading Through History
The Leadership of George Washington
Why did Americans choose George Washington as their first president? After reading the resource, pupils discover why citizens trusted him to lead the country. They learn about his time as a military leader, as well as his actions after...
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Euro English
Eighth graders read a short essay and cull out the directions. Then students rewrite the essay using standard English spellings. They create a paragraph of their own using Euro English and ask fellow students to translate to standard...
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Land Use and Lawmaking in California
Students read writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson to analyze transcendentalism and analyze photographic essays depicting environmental issues. In this art and history lesson, students read excerpts of Nature by Emerson to identify...
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Language Arts: Laws of Life
Students participate in the iEARN Project by completing a questionnaire about values and lessons they have learned. They read sample essays by other students in the project about their views on the laws of life. They then write and post...
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Developing Student Web Pages for Showcasing Research
Students employ information literacy skills to research topics. They develop topics using a graphic organizer. They draft, revise and edit research projects. They write an expository essay. They create a web page in Microsoft Publisher.
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Writing - Combining Ideas to Write Descriptive Paragraphs
Pupils develop a strategy for combining various ideas into well formed sentences which then combine to produce effective descriptive paragraphs.
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All About Me - A Poem
Second graders brainstorm unique qualities they possess in a All About Me worksheet. They write free verse poems about things that most people don't know about them. They brainstorm descriptive words to enhance their poems and rewrite them.
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Dr. Seuss Author Study
Students listen to a story, then use the same format to write a class book.
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Me: A Visual Essay
Students familiarize themselves with photo editing and montage techniques. They create a montage that tells the viewer about themselves.
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Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
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Journey Into Self
Eleventh graders examine the concept of the journey into self through a variety of literary genres. They express the personal notion of self by creating a picture poem and writing a personal reflection esssay.
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Separate is Not Equal: Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown vs. Board of Education was a landmark case, but what other cases were influenced by its decision? By researching 1 of 14 civil rights legislative events, scholars follow this court case through recent events. Keeping in mind 6...
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The Class Garden Essay
Fifth graders use a class garden as inspiration for a specific writing assignment. They conduct research into different types of flowers in photo images taken with a digital camera. Students write a creative essay and draw a picture to...
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Hyper for Expository Writing!
Fifth graders use the internet to research a plant or animal they read about in "The Talking Earth". Using notes, they develop a graphic organizer and use the main topics to create a HyperStudio stack. Using all of this information,...
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Creative Autobiography
Learners brainstorm and outline ideas for their autobiography. They begin composition of it as well. Students create a timeline of important events to help them get started and discuss the elements of a what makes a good story.
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Change Over Time
Learners write a personal narrative that is designed to help them reflect on the nature and meaning of change in their lives.
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The Cause & Effect Model
Students analyze the plot of the story, "The Little Engine That Could" to provide a model for writing creatively, developing critical essays, producing themes, and making predictions.
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Short Story Framework
The class gets creative after listening to a short story containing a definitive structure. They are required to think about character, relationship, and setting, while attempting to show rather than tell, in their writing. Dialogue,...
App State
Brainstorming
Get your young writers outside of the traditional essay writing mode with Free Write Friday. Free Write Friday encourages your class to use personal experiences or knowledge to write more creative pieces. Young writers could experiment...
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Testing... Testing...
Students demonstrate critical- and creative-thinking skills to develop test questions. They write clear test questions or statements using correct grammar, spelling, and sentence structure.
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Free Enterprise System
What are the benefits of a having a free enterprise system. In groups, your young entrepreneurs create a new business concept and brochure, then work independently to write a brief essay on business freedoms. This a fun and motivating...
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Finding the dress code balance
Students write a persuasive essay, expressing their opinions of how the school dress code should be changed. Students investigate their own school's dress code, developing their own opinions of whether the dress code should be more or...
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Creating a Science Fiction Story
As the culminating activity in a unit study of science fiction, young writers demonstrate their understanding of the genre by producing their own graphic novel. After deciding on the main elements of their story, individuals use a comic...