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Pirate Treasure Hunt
First graders name the directions North, South, East, and West on a map. They work collaboratively in small groups and create a treasure map using directions as clues.
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Guest Speaker Preparation: A Cooperative Lesson
Are you planning to have a guest speaker talk to your class? Prepare in advance and help your class transform into an engaged and thoughtful audience. Before the visit, young writers work cooperatively to brainstorm what they want to...
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Trivia Pursuit" To Review Material
Learners play "Trivia Pursuit" in order to review material in any subject area. Groups are chosen to answer a given question, they discuss the answer and orally give it together.
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Shirin Neshat
Learners research the life of an artist to make a comprehensive analysis of works and how they were formed through personal beliefs of the artist. The influence upon culture is the focus of the investigation to be conducted.
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Special Interests: How Would A Legislator Vote?
Students act as elected officials who must make decisions that will make someone unhappy. They consider five bills that are up for vote in light of the contributions that many special-interest groups made to their campaigns. Students...
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Calling All Directors
Interpret Shakespearian scenes with your middle and high school classes. Groups select scenes from plays that they are familiar with to perform for their classmates. They should attempt to recreate the emotions they think the characters...
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Take a Stand!
Here is a four-corner debate-style activity specifically geared to election year issues. Learners group themselves according to whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with statements that relate to elections...
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Conversation Lesson: The Necessity of Grammar
Start a conversation to convey proper English grammar. In groups pupils voice their opinion, have well supported disagreements, and explain why they feel as they do. This lesson builds academic discussion skills and fosters a command of...
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The Game of Persuasion
Why is it so important to learn the art of persuasion? Being persuasive helps you acquire the things you want or the things you feel are necessary. Print out these scenarios and assign one to each group of high schoolers. As a team, they...
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Poetry Cubes
Reading aloud can be scary, but it's an important way to build oral fluency. Break the class into groups of four or five learners. Each learner will roll a cube to determine which poem they read aloud to their small group. Feel free to...
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Author's Purpose: Research Process/Narrative Writing Techniques
Determine the author's purpose in writing a memoir. Eighth graders work in groups to elicit author's purpose in memoirs, taking care to note how subtle the message can be hidden throughout the work. This lesson is a good way to...
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Effective Writing is More Than a Five Paragraph Essay
Groups become experts in one aspect of the six traits of writing, prepare a PowerPoint presentation, jigsaw, and teach others about their trait. Writers then focus on these traits as they compose a persuasive essay about a person they...
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Literary Response and Analysis
Students analyze the archetype of 'the fall' in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In this literary analysis lesson, students work in tiered learning groups to analyze the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Students use the book of Genesis as...
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My Mind is Blank
Investigate prewriting activities in this brainstorming lesson. Middle schoolers are divided into groups and are assigned a topic. They decide which prewriting technique to choose from, including free write, looping, brainstorming,...
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Vocabulary Strategy: Call of the Wild
Here is a strategy for groups to contribute to whole class vocabulary development. Teams (based on seating rows) work together to look up dictionary definitions of words from upcoming sections of the book (though previous sections seem...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5: Structure of an Argument
Imagine a cross-curricular project that not only rewards learners for examining the textbooks used in their other classes but builds literacy skills as well! Groups compare the formats and writing style in their various textbooks. Teams...
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Male Image Building Utilizing the Writing Process
Introduce your class to the techniques of proper writing. In groups, they brainstorm their ideas on family structures and discuss the importance of having a male figure in their lives. After listening to an African-American poem, they...
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Taxi: A Book Of City Words
First graders engage in a literature study that helps them to focus on the concepts of goods and services. They describe the various skills people may need at home, school, and work. Students create a map of businesses found in the city.
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The Great Debate
Groups of learners investigate the persuasive genre of writing as they research and present on an issue. They research the Internet (possible websites are included) for a topic and locate information to present to the opposing team. In...
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Putting It All Together: The Personal Plan of Study
Eighth graders discuss their plans for after high school and complete a portfolio. Individually, they use the information from their portfolio to create puzzle pieces of their past to help them plan their future. In groups, they put...
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Storytime
By reading two books aloud, Ben and Becky in the Haunted House and The Ghost in the Classroom, youngsters learn new words and understand story events. They workin small groups to review the vocabulary in a game-like setting.
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Build Fluency /m/
Once kindergartners have learned the letter m they are ready for this sound correspondence activity. Start with a stack of letter cards including mostly m and a few other letters they haven't learned yet. Find these letter cards here for...
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Long Vowel Phoneme - i_e
The vowel/consonant/vowel combination of /i_e/ is one of the most common in our language. In this lesson, kindergarterners share the book, The Doctor's Line to gain practice in reading these kind of words. A brainstorm session ensues,...
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Poetry in Motion
Sixth graders answer questions about "From a Railway Carriage." They discuss different poetical forms. They work together to write a poem about travel.