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Shakespeare Shows
Students study, interpret, perform, and present various Shakespearean works adapted for middle school Students. They choose a scene from one of the plays covered in this teaching unit to reenact with a group.
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Themes in Literature - Langston Hughes "Thank You Ma'm"
Eighth graders study Langston Hughes, "Thank You Ma'am" to discover the elements of plot, character motives and reactions. They express the effects of trust and kindness by writing a reflective personal narrative. They illustrate the...
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Graphing on a Coordinate Plane
Eighth graders explore the coordinate system. They identify the x and y-axis, parts of the coordinate plane, and discuss the process of plotting points. To emphasize the process of plotting points, 8th graders play an ordered pair...
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Humorous Story Featuring Clowns
Middle schoolers write stories that feature funny clowns. In this creative writing lesson, students follow the outline for a story in order to write their own humorous story set at a circus.
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"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson
Middle schoolers who are about to read the chilling tale, The Lottery, do some writing beforehand. They are asked to write how their lives would change if they won a huge lottery jackpot. Then, they read the short story, and will be...
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Writing A Thanksgiving Day Story
Students write a Thanksgiving Day Story using some or all of the words included in the worksheet. These stories can be fiction or non-fiction (Personal Essays). They are graded on sentence structure, paragraph structure, grammar,...
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Short Story Writing
Students develop skills needed to write short stories. They pick out an object in the room and describe it without saying what it is. They describe their hand and the lines on their hand without using words "Line, finger,skin or vein"
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A Second Visit To Old Sturbridge Village-The Story Tour
Students conduct research on 1830s families and early New England culture. They conduct research on the Old Sturbridge Village website, participate in an online chat with a costumed interpreter, and continue to develop possible plots to...
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Shakespeare: Standing on the Bookshelves of Giant
A phenomenal lesson on Shakespeare! Middle and high school learners create WebQuests about the texts and authors that Shakespeare himself studied when he was in grammar school. They use a variety of media in order to create dramatic...
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Making a Magical Story
Fourth and fifth graders use their knowledge of developing character, dialogue, and setting to produce an original story. An excerpt from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is used as inspiration to get everyone's creative juices...
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Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Middle schoolers read a chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and define new words for their dictionaries. In this vocabulary lesson students choose two or three assignment from a list of projects and complete it using the...
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Conflict Resolution in the World Today: Introduction to Current World conflicts, their Antecendents, the Progression, and their Potential Conclusions
Young scholars write a paragraph describing a conflict they had with a friend or a family member and a paragraph explaining how it was resolved. In this social science instructional activity, students share their paragraphs with a...
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What a Character!
Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...
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Inquiry Unit: Modeling Maximums and Minimums
Young mathematicians explore the maximun area for patio with the added complexity of finding the mimimum cost for construction. First, they maximize the area of a yard given a limited amount of fence and plot width v. area on a scatter...
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Literature Through Silent Movies
Young scholars watch Charlie Chaplin films and discuss film elements. They select a story written by Edgar Allen Poe to write and produce a movie of. They film scenes, edit, and create a final iMovie project.
Shakespeare in American Life
Tom Hanks and Caliban: Survivor Superstars
Here’s a clever way to combine language arts and social studies. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is believed to have been inspired by the wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda in 1609. The class views a brief scene from Castaway in which Tom...
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Lesson Plan for Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood by Cynthia Rylant
Sixth graders examine the elements of writing poetry. In this creative writing activity, 6th graders discuss a book of poetry in the setting of Appalachia. Students incorporate childhood experiences into the development of visual and...
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Creating Interesting Characters
What makes a story interesting? Complex characters! As part of a series of worksheets that prepares middle schoolers to write their own novel, the exercises included explain the role of the protagonist, the antagonist, and the supporting...
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Storytelling and Drawing
Learners orally retell the Yosemite Miwok legends and design accompanying artistic depictions. They discover the various storytelling elements, such as plot and theme.
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Writing a Tall Tale
Students study the various aspects of tall tales. They read various tall tales and discuss the characteristics and literature aspects of tall tales. Students write their own unique tall tales.
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Writing a Short Story - Weather
Learners use the information they wrote about on the topic they chose in studying About Weather. They then write a short story using the information choosing a theme, setting, characters, and the plot.
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Creative Outline for Your Short Story or Book
Young scholars discuss the information listed about how to make an outline for a short story or book. They then begin writing their short story and edit it and revise before turning it in to be graded.
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How Do Respect and Humiliation Shape Conflict?
Young scholars explore the feelings surrounded by humiliation, resentment and retaliation in the context of school violence. In this character building lesson, students examine possible reasons for school violence and focus on possible...
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Breakfast Cereal - How Nutritious Is Yours?
Students analyze the nutritional value of breakfast cereal in order to make an informed choice. They create a stem and leaf plot which analyzes the nutritional value of the cereal they eat on a regular basis. Students write a letter to...