Curated OER
Writing a Halloween Poem
A delightful lesson on poetry is here for you and your middle schoolers. Learners are instructed to write a Halloween poem. They get to choose the age range for the audience of the poem. So, it may be scary (for older kids), or humorous...
Curated OER
Understanding and Using Root Words to Expand Vocabulary
Middle schoolers engage in a lesson plan which reminds them that root words indicate the base meaning of a word, and that those roots are found in many different words that have similar meanings. Pairs of pupils use construction paper...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Nasreen's Secret School: How Do People Access Books in Afghanistan?
Third graders continue to practice the close reading skills of capturing the gist and reading again for important details in the sixth instructional activity in a larger unit. This is a great beginning-of-the-year unit for establishing...
Virginia Department of Education
Brainstorming to Write a Persuasive Essay on Demand
Equip your high school writers for the rigors of timed persuasive writing by employing the preparatory ideas available in this exercise. Learners use persuasive essays, provided by the educator, to acquire how to identify persuasive...
EngageNY
Discovering the Topic: Inferring and Confirming Using Evidence
Allow your class to figure out what they will be studying through an inquiry-based anticipatory set that involves analysis of mystery documents and practice with making inferences. The lesson plan document includes a detailed description...
EngageNY
Paragraph Writing About Waiting for the Biblioburro
Ask your learners to synthesize what they know about Waiting for the Biblioburro by writing a well-organized paragraph. Young writers focus on using transition words and including specific details in their paragraphs. The plan allows for...
EngageNY
Expert Groups: Research 2
Continue on. Scholars continue the research they began in their expert groups in lesson six. They read text and task cards from their research folders and share what they have gathered in research thus far. Individuals then spend the...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Small Group Discussion: How Do Modern Poems Portray Modern Adversities?
How is a poem similar to and different from a news article? Pupils use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two genres. Also, as part of a mid-unit assessment, scholars participate in small-group discussions based on poetry...
EngageNY
Inferring About Characters Based on How They Respond to Challenges (Chapter 4: "Los Higos/Figs")
How do you know what a character's personality is like if an author doesn't tell you? With a focus on character development in Esperanza Rising, pupils complete a jigsaw activity to analyze the actions of Mama, Abuelita, and Miguel. Once...
Curated OER
Learning Inference
Making inferences can be a tricky proposition for middle schoolers. In the lesson presented here, pupils practice the skill of drawing a conclusion and making a judgment - which are what making an inference is all about! There are five...
Curated OER
Transition Words in Writing
Transition words in writing are the focus of the language arts lesson presented here. In it, learners cut out the word-sort cards (embedded in the plan), and put them into four categories: time, examples, space, and summary. They find a...
Curated OER
The Call of the Wild: 4 Corners Activity
Readers of The Call of the Wild engage in a four- corners activity that fosters discussion and encourages readers to make connections between their lives and the text. Individuals respond to a series of discussion prompts and justify...
EngageNY
Main Ideas in Informational Text: Analyzing a Firsthand Human Rights Account for Connections to Specific Articles of the UDHR
Lesson 10 in a series of human rights lessons focuses on the skills of finding evidence and summarizing. Your young readers work to compare the two texts they have read in this unit: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Why Do Workers Strike? (Chapter 11: "Los Aguacates/Avocados")
Make connections between Esperanza Rising and human rights with the activities outlined here. The instructional activity starts out with a brief quiz and review of the novel. After that, pupils circulate and share quote strips that you...
Curated OER
"The Midwife's Apprentice"
Here is an inventive, and educationally rich way to conduct a literature study of the book, The Midwife's Apprentice. After the book has been read, learners get into three groups. One group is assigned the task of being the writers....
Curated OER
Narrative Writing vs. Explanatory Writing
The class discusses the different purposes an author has for writing. The focus of the discussion is on writing to tell a true story and writing to give information about a specific topic. There are writing purpose sorting cards embedded...
Virginia Department of Education
Writing and Research Using Counterclaims
Introduce your high school scholars as to how to use counterclaims in argument writing. Learners explore this skill with collaborative efforts and technology. Together they explore the pros and cons of homework and develop a thesis for...
EngageNY
Group Discussion: Accessing Books Around the World
Continue work with an informational text by following the procedures detailed here. The plan, part of a series, focuses on My Librarian is a Camel. Class members complete text-dependent questions and then prepare for and participate in a...
Museum of Disability
A Picture Book of Helen Keller
Teach your class about Helen Keller and her accomplishments with a reading comprehension lesson based on A Picture Book of Helen Keller by David A. Adler. As individuals read, they answer discussion questions about Helen Keller and the...
Microsoft
Plagiarism Fair Use Copyright
Nothing makes junior high and high school teachers more frustrated than plagiarism. Instruct young writers about copyright laws and the correct ways to paragraph information without copying the exact words. A set of secondary-level...
Prestwick House
Discovering Genre: Poetry
Work on literal and figurative meanings with a instructional activity focused on Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking" and "The Road Not Taken." Readers identify the literary devices used by the poet to set the poems' themes, settings,...
Curated OER
Defining Love
After reading and discussing Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, pupils compare/contrast the concept/theme of love within several multiple pieces of literature. They must support their claims with textual evidence. In addition, they analyze...
Curated OER
Reference Materials
After a class discussion where kids share how they find answers to their questions, learners explore the world of reference materials such as, an atlas, an almanac, and an encyclopedia. The Internet is also discussed as a way to access...
Curated OER
Meter in Poetry
A good poem has form and structure built into it. Middle schoolers see that the structure of a poem consists of stanza, form, rhyme, and meter. The structure also contributes to a poem's meaning. After listening to, and discussing, a few...