Virginia Department of Education
Determining Purpose and Audience
Build the writing skills of your junior high wordsmiths with activities that introduce many essential skills of writing. As a class, they develop working definitions of formal vs. informal writing, explore different categories of...
Prestwick House
Introducing Symbols–The Beach
Looking for a way to introduce class members to the concept of symbolism and multiple levels of meaning? Readers examine two different passages about the beach and consider how the writers use concrete objects, and places to represent...
Curated OER
Creating Personalized Stationery
Students write, format, enter, save, revise, edit a full block style letter with open punctuation for printing. They produce a personalized letterhead using a computer and access information from the Internet using a variety of search...
Curated OER
Critical Literacy in the 21st Century
Listen to Sitti's Secrets and have your class discuss their opinions about Arab families. They will become familiar with the Palestinian /Arabic Culture through a critical literacy focus. Young scholars will write a persuasive letter...
Curated OER
Arthur Young and the President
High schoolers work with NASS data by converting it into prose. For this historical agriculture information lesson, students read about how George Washington communicated information about crop yields, livestock, and land values. They...
Curated OER
The Elf Project
Sixth graders create elves in order to respond to Santa letters from first graders.
Curated OER
Digging for Treasure: Note-Taking Skills for Primary Children
Second graders study the criteria for biographies and the vocabulary that is specific person and time. They take notes, write e-mail and gather information on a famous person.
Curated OER
Tall Tale Rollers
Students explore American tall tales. In this tall tale lesson, students discover the six characteristics that are included in tall tales. Students survey their class to find each student's favorite tall tale character and organize the...
Curated OER
Pizza for Everyone
Pizza is the inspiration for the cross-curricular instructional activity detailed here. Start out with a poem about pizza and move into a discussion about balanced eating. To close the language arts portion of the instructional activity,...
Curated OER
1-800-MATHFUN
Pupils complete a number and letter recognition activity by creating phone numbers for businesses. For this telephone number lesson, students brainstorm telephone numbers that include words. Pupils translate numbers to their numeric...
Curated OER
Studying Checks
While on-line banking and electronic payments seem to be the way of the future, next-generation wage earners still need to understand the details of check writing. Here the focus is on the details of the check including what the...
Curated OER
Writing for Fun
Students receive instruction in a variety of dance skills. Upon completion of the dance unit, they write a Pen Pal letter to describe their personal experience during the dance unit. They do their own research to explore 2 dances of...
Curated OER
Writing Letters Using Appleworks
Young scholars discover how to write letters using Appleworks. Following a demonstration by the teacher, they compose rough drafts of their letters. Working independently, students correct their drafts and type the final versions.
Curated OER
Hoaxes, Scams, Chain Letters and Urban Legends
Learners explore the evacuation of New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. Using the internet, they research stories they may have heard and verify a story's authenticity. Students discuss rumors and urban legends. Given a worksheet,...
Curated OER
Specializing in Space
In this literature book review activity, young scholars read a nonfiction book about space or space exploration before choosing a topic to explore further. They choose from 7 activities such as designing a model, writing a letter, write...
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
Dragonwings: Evaluate Chapters 10-12
As your class finishes the novel Dragonwings, use these culminating projects. A vocabulary list is given for chapters eleven and twelve and either an epitaph or letter activity concludes the book. The final project consists of creating a...
Curated OER
Take this Job and Love It!
High schoolers need to be prepared to enter the job market during or after high school. Here are six preparational activities geared at getting those kids ready to enter the job market. They conduct research on various jobs, learn about...
Curated OER
Excel, Word, and Basketball
Wow, this lesson plan packs a punch. Pupils interview basketball players, write about a game, and use Excel to organize statistics related to the players and the points scored. Afterward, they create posters, presentations, and much more.
Curated OER
Pen Pals
Fifth graders become pen pals from other countries and research their countries for information that help with their writing. This information is then sent to another student who is also portraying someone from another country.
Curated OER
Dr. Fix-It Subjects: Health, Government
Help your students undertand the critical problems around healthcare. By focusing on the political and private process of healthcare, students will watch a video, analyze issues, and write an essay on their findings. Additionally, they...
Curated OER
Identifying and Using Parallelism and Balance in Literature
Analyze the use of balanced sentences and parallelism in a narrative. Included in this resource is a narrative about serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan titled, "The Train Ride Home". Middle and high schoolers review...
Curated OER
Letters from the Heart: Designing for the Other 90% of the World's Population
Students explore varied aspects of the design process and learn that most products are designed to reach the worlds wealthiest 10%. In this lesson, students work in groups to learn ways in which designers are attempting to rectify this...
Curated OER
Thank You Notes
Students investigate the history of presidential proclamations and develop their own Thanksgiving Proclamations, highlighting current issues and sentiments.