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An Anecdote is Worth a Thousand Pictures
Pupils identify anecdotes in speeches and the purposes that politicians use the anecdotes for. They create personal anecdotes for the class to hear, and students decide if the anecdote is real or fabricated.
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Teaching The Personality Profile
Young scholars write a comprehensive personality profile feature that demonstrates knowledge of the Wall Street Journal formula of feature writing and the concept of show, don't tell. They experience a press conference interview situation.
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Elaborate It
Learners read writing samples and discuss the differences between the writing with and without anecdotal examples. They write expository essays that include personal anecdotes.
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Creepy Read Week
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
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Point of View to Ponder
Students view (or read) The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty. They
discuss other literary pieces that include the misleading first person narrator. They
role play fictional characters from literature and present a short anecdote in a...
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Arkansas Photographs as Research Tools
Middle and high schoolers look at historical photos and written materials, and they develop questions which they use to interview an elder in their community. Learners are divided into groups and given sets of historical family photos...
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Teaching Others About Being Deaf
Students read two articles about how college students taught others about being blind or deaf. In their school, they interview students with a physical challenge and use the internet to research how to write about those with...
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Brainstorming Time
Students brainstorm a list of possible topics for their essay. As a class, they review the characteristics of anecdotal writing and the form they take in newspapers or autobiographies. To end the instructional activity, they decide on...
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Health Wheel Self-Care Plan for Diabetics
Students help create a Health Wheel: a personal, inspirationally based, self-care plan for preventing or managing diabetes in daily life. They (student or client) researches the causes of diabetes, and creates a "health wheel" that...
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Bullying and its Effects
Eighth graders discuss bullying in an interpersonal skill building lesson. After researching the effects of bullying and discussing ways to handle bullies, they create a skit showing situations related to bullying, the...
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From America, With Love
Students research the experiences of specific immigrant groups in the United States. Letters are written from imaginary immigrants to relatives in their countries of origin, including historically accurate details.
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Can You Make a Difference?
Students write and present a speech. In this service instructional activity, students read an anecdote adapted from The Star Thrower and discuss their feelings about their ability to make a difference in the world. Students make a...
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The Road to Success
Students chronicle the main events in their lives so far. They draft, revise, and publish an anecdote. Students get to know their fellow classmates and they build a nurturing learning community. Students take an interest inventory and...
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The Makings of a Great Leader: The Childhood of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Students examine why Martin Luther King, Jr. is considered to be such a great man, by listening to the many anecdotes about his experiences. In this Martin Luther King, Jr. lesson plan, students read the story about Ruby...
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Newton's Laws and Seat Belts
Students study Newton's Laws of Motion. They review an assessment task and rubric and discuss Newton's Laws of Motion. They discuss how to test the relationships of mass and acceleration in personal situations. They write a one-page...
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Interview With A Legend
Eighth graders investigate how Language Arts and Social Studies can be integrated in the curriculum. They conduct research about a famous person in history. Then students use the information to write a report for the class. Then students...
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Pair-Share: Constructing Paragraph Order
Students write with controlled and/or subtle organization. They identify the main idea and explicit details. Students analyze paragraph and essay structure. They utilize context clues to identify organization.
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Voices of Our People: A Patchwork of Cultures
Students view a gallery of photographs online and list objective and subject observations of the photos. They develop questions about the photos and write first person narratives about them.
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I Knew Him When
Young scholars research the life of Abraham Lincoln and write a first-person account from the viewpoint of someone who knew him. They develop a timeline of Lincoln's life, research a particular period of his life, and write a...
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Houses or Walaloos
Investigate the legal history and application of the Fifth Amendment. Write an essay in favor of a person keeping land that has been in his/her family for decades.
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For the Fun of It
Middle schoolers investigate author's purpose in autobiography by reading Amelia Earhart's autobiography entitled The Fun of It. Learners examine character traits needed to fulfill personal goals.
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Folktales Reflect Daoist and Buddhist Traditions
Tenth graders compare three Chinese folktales for their "messages" and literary techniques to see how they reflect Chinese Confucian and Taoist values. They discuss how folktales share certain subjects, characters, plots and themes.
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The Final Word
Although this lesson is based on “Final Word,” Craig Wilson’s USA Today column, the strategies could be adapted to any local columnist. After reading three articles independently, groups share observations about content and style used by...
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Lesson: Double Album: The Collection and the Archive
An open discussion starts this lesson plan off. The class takes a critical look at five works of art that demonstrate the impact and purpose of identity through collections or archives. They then write a list or draw 10-15 items found in...