Curated OER
Antonyms, synonyms and homophones
Shed light on what antonyms, synonyms, and homophones are. For this lesson, upper elementary schoolers create pairs using an antonym, a homophone, and/or a synonym. Then they play an antonym matching game.
Prestwick House
Rhyme and Repetition in Poe's "Annabel Lee"
Many and many a year ago Edgar Allan Poe crafted the chilling tale of "Annabel Lee." The poem is the perfect vehicle to introduce Poe's concept of unity of effect, the idea that every element in a poem or story should help to develop a...
Curated OER
Understanding Idioms Is a Piece of Cake
Interpreting idioms is a piece of cake! In groups, learners discuss the meaning of some common English idioms and choose 10 to use in sentences. Then, they illustrate the silly, literal meanings of those idioms and can engage in a fun...
Curated OER
Mystery Word Wall Game
Practice using words found on the classroom word wall, in vocabulary lists, or on spelling lists with your class. Young readers use clues to find the mystery word in the room. They can tally the points earned from identifying words...
Curated OER
The Science of Thinking
How is fixing a flat tire like reading and writing? By thinking about each activity properly - identifying the problem and purpose, gathering information, and making inferences - you can exercise your thinking skills equally. This...
Curated OER
Poetry Comprehension: Alfred Noyes' "The Highwayman"
Eight questions regarding Alfred Noyes' poem "The Highwayman" assess comprehension; readers infer, recall details, summarize, draw conclusions, compare and contrast, and respond to literature. A clean, useful resource if this poem is on...
Curated OER
Phoneme Blending Accuracy (Mico Version)
Which word is Mico trying to say? A puppet helps make phoneme blending fun as you challenge your scholars to blend segmented words. Mico (or a puppet of your choice) has trouble saying words without separating the phonemes. Using the...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 5
Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 2
Use Langston Hughes's poem, "Words Like Freedom," to explore the concepts of freedom and liberty. Learners read the poem, determine the theme, and use the provided graphic organizer to examine the connotative and denotative meanings of...
Teach It Primary
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Six tasks make up a lesson plan designed to reinforce comprehension and language skills using the poem "The Pied Piper" by Robert Browing. Scholars discuss and define unknown words, identify adjectives and onomatopoeia, review complex...
Curated OER
Are Your Favorite Rockstars Poets?
Tenth graders decide if the song lyrics that they listen to, could be considered a sonnet or a poem. They are invited to explore lyrics and their meaning. Students write a persuading argument on whatever they decide, but it must be...
Curated OER
Rooting One's Way to Meaning
Discover the Virtual Thesaurus with your class. They use the Virtual Thesaurus to assist them in an inquiry-based approach to discovering the meanings of some common Latin and Greek roots. Each child then teaches a particular root and...
Curated OER
Sentence Completion 15: Low-Advanced SAT Level
Do your pupils need extra practice with sentence completion? Learners will have to employ a variety of strategies to answer correctly the six multiple-choice prompts on the worksheet. A richly detailed answer/explanation key is included....
Curated OER
Scary Short Story Writing Lesson
There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the lesson presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion ensues...
EngageNY
Inferring: Who was John Allen?
Help your learners work with difficult or archaic words. A continuation of lesson two of this module, the plan here focuses on deciphering the Inventory of John Allen, in particular the unfamiliar words that make up much of the list. Add...
Curated OER
Irony
Using examples from Socrates to Johnny Carson, this slideshow presents your students with the history and definition of dramatic irony, satire, situational irony, and tragic irony. This presentation would be useful in a language arts...
Curated OER
Sentence Completion 9 Low-Advanced SAT Level
The explanations sheet is the key to a worksheet that asks learners to choose the best words to complete sentences. The answer and explanations pages not only identify the correct response but offer an extensive explanation for why one...
Curated OER
Romantic Period in Music, Art, and Literature
“Romanticism aims at enlarging experience by exploring the real.” This excerpt from Jacques Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence introduces a PowerPoint that examines the characteristics of and the major figures in music, art, and literature...
Curated OER
Introducing Synonyms to Early Writers
Upper elementary schoolers examine the concept of synonyms and how using a variety of vocabulary through synonyms can expand their writing skills. They revise a paragraph using synonyms located on the Visual Thesaurus and participate in...
Curated OER
Seeing Words in a New Way
What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...
Curated OER
Reciprocal Reading
The strategies associated with Reciprocal Reading are outlined in this language arts presentation. Pupils discover what it means to be the questioner, the summarizer, the predictor, and the clarifier. All four strategies lead to...
Curated OER
Build Masters: Identifying Details
Find key details in books using this note card strategy. Each reader gets six cards with the classic who, what, where, when, why, and how detail prompts. After they read the book, they choose a card and locate a key detail answering the...
Curated OER
Homer's The Odyssey
Whether or not you are new to using The Odyssey with your classes, this publisher-produced teaching guide deserves a place in your curriculum library. The packet includes background information, chapter by-chapter summaries, study...
Curated OER
Happy Birthday!: Internet Research and Historic Events
Talk about intrinsic motivation! Begin where your students' natural interests lie -- with themselves -- and launch a variety of projects with this activity. Class members research important events that took place on their birthdays....