EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 26
How do directors' choices emphasize different elements of a drama? Scholars participate in a discussion about the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth and Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood. Finally, they write an analysis of...
Curated OER
Journeying to Create
Show a video clip that descripes how taking a journey can change a person's outlook on life. Learners write a paragraph about a place that uses imagery and tone to create a specfic effect. They evaluate their journal entries as well.
Curated OER
Email Writing
Students review rules of writing emails for letters, informal to a friend and formal. In this writing lesson, students sort email strips into these categories and then review examples of good and bad semi-formal emails. Students work in...
University of North Carolina
Should I Use “I”?
Despite the formal nature of academic writing, personal pronouns frequently appear in high school and college papers. While your first instinct may be to cross them out, sometimes it's okay to use them, an idea covered in a handout that...
University of North Carolina
Letters of Recommendation
Letters of recommendation play a key role in the college admissions process. A handout on the topic, part of a series on specific writing assignments, helps applicants through the process of choosing recommenders and requesting a letter....
Curated OER
Breaking News English: Apple Suing Samsung
Why is Apple suing Samsung? Give your English language learners a bit of reading comprehension practice. First, they read the short passage provided, and then they complete 10 activities. There are true or false questions, matching...
Curated OER
Weighing the War
Study opposing viewpoints with this lesson, which examines President Bush's September 2004 address at the United Nations. Middle schoolers study the text of the address, and then stage formal debates arguing for or against the reasons to...
Curated OER
Identifying Personification in Poetry
Improve your young poets' descriptive writing with this lesson on personification. A SMART board and PowerPoint presentation guide your class through the process of identifying human qualities attributed to various non-human objects. A...
Curated OER
Lesson Ideas for Comparing and Contrasting Content
Here are three lesson ideas to help students learn how to compare and contrast information in any content area
Curated OER
Shortened Words
Shorten names and words with different activities. Nicknames, acronyms, and shortened words (fridge instead of refrigerator, for example) are ways for third graders to build their vocabulary and differentiate between formal and informal...
Curated OER
Creatively Creating Expository Essays
Students, after reading Fahrenheit 451, brainstorm inventions that could have been in the novel. They present their invention to the class and writing an expository essay about their creation.
Curated OER
Study Guide for Where the Red Fern Grows
One of the best fourth grade books of all time is Where the Red Fern Grows. Provide your class with interesting background on the book and the author as well as worksheets for every five chapters of the novel. The first part of the guide...
Curated OER
Oh, I Believe in Yesterday
Who is Aimee Mann? Read the New York Times article "P.S. I Loved You," included here, and have your readers answer a series of reading comprehension questions. Afterward, encourage your class to brainstorm ways in which they were...
American Chemical Society
Finding Volume: The Water Displacement Method
We have formulas for finding the volume of geometric shapes, but what if the shape is irregular? Lesson describes how to find volume through water displacement. After a demonstration, scholars practice in small groups. Then analysis...
Curated OER
Writing a Formal Thank You Letter
Students research various formats for writing thank you letters in resource books and through a provided Internet site. They use these resources to write a thank you letter to a recent outside speaker who visited their class.
Nazareth College
Creative Writing
Students discuss creative writing—what makes something creative writing? Each learner starts writing a story and after 15 minutes, they pass their story to another who adds to it. After another 15 minutes of writing, the story is passed...
Curated OER
Transcendentalism and Epiphany in Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine
Twelfth graders examine the characteristics of transcendentalism. In this transcendentalism lesson, 12th graders determine what this type of writing entails before reading a passage from, Ray Bradbury's, Dandelion Wine. They cite three...
Curated OER
Pen Pals
Students write to a pen pal and learn about their lives. In this pen pal lesson, students learn about a person from another country. Students develop an understanding that they have many things in common with people from other parts of...
British Council
Unit 4: Starting and Finishing Emails
Time to get started, and finish up! Budding business scholars get wise to the ways of beginning and ending e-mails. The fourth lesson in a series of nine career education and skills activities examines formal versus informal ways of...
California Education Partners
My Five Senses by Aliki
An assessment designed to examine scholars' reading comprehension skills takes place over three days. Starting with a read-aloud of My Five Senses by Aliki, learners then take notes and discuss their most memorable moments with a peer....
Curated OER
The Trial of the Bloody Sucker
A blood sucking what? Grade schoolers identify the characteristics of blood sucking parasites. They organize their information, identify their arguments, and present them to the class in persuasive arguments. They participate in a debate...
EngageNY
Summarizing Complex Ideas: Comparing the Original UDHR and the "Plain Language" Version
The eighth lesson plan in this series continues the focus on vocabulary and increasing young readers' awareness of academic language. Pairs of learners participate in a short vocabulary review activity called Interactive Words in which...
ReadWriteThink
Who’s Got Mail?
Today's kids are probably not familiar with the conventions of letter writing, due to the boom of technology. Here is a instructional activity that will provide opportunities for formal and informal letter writing.
Curated OER
Do Presidential Candidates Need to Be Good Debaters?
Blogs can be a good way for learners to engage in writing, critical thinking, and social media in a formal way. The New York Times has provided learners age 13-18 with an article, background information, and several prompts to get them...