Doodle Splash: Using Graphics to Discuss Literature

Students keep a doodle journal while reading short stories by a common author.

Creative Communication Frames: Discovering Similarities between Writing and Art

Students explore the creative processes of writing and art as communication

Biography Project: Research and Class Presentation

Students research a famous person, make a graphic organizer (a web), present main aspects of the person's life to the class.

Exploring Free Speech and Persuasion with Nothing But The Truth

Students compose and present position statement and supporting evidence to the class.

Battling for Liberty: Tecumseh's and Patrick Henry's Language of Resistance

Reading and hearing the speeches of Tecumseh, students develop a new respect for the Native Americans' politically effective and poetic use of language.

Child Labor: Giving Voice to the Industrial Revolution Through Monologues

Students explore child labor conditions during the Industrial Revolution in England and the United States

Critical Literacy: Point of View

By the sixth grade, most students are able to identify point of view in texts by recognizing writing in the first person, second person, and third person. In this lesson, students learn to look at texts from different viewpoints. Was the "big bad wolf" really bad? Throughout the lesson, students are encouraged to view texts from different angles.

Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising

Students investigate the influence of advertising on their daily lives. Choices of clothing, music, and other products can be attributed to what adolescents see and hear on television, radio, and other media. In this lesson, students develop a critical eye toward advertising and investigate the hidden messages that are presented.

She Did What? Revising for Connotation

Students act out ways that the student in the sentence might enter the room, revising the sample sentence to increase the specificity of the word and explore connotation.

Reciprocal Revision: Making Peer Feedback Meaningful

Students use specific strategies (i.e., predicting, summarizing, clarifying, and questioning) to more constructively offer peer feedback during the writing process.

Peer Review: Narrative

Student writers to find and correct their own errors, using self-editing knowledge to empower them as writers, rather than asking them to make others' corrections.

Leading to Great Places in the Middle School Classroom

This lesson examines leads in prominent young adult literature and asks students to try their own hand at writing leads.

Composing Cinquain Poems with Basic Parts of Speech

Students learn about chinquapin and write simple chinquapin of their own

Found Poems/Parallel Poems

Students will write their own parallel poems from a descriptive passage from a piece of literature.

Astronomy Poetry: Combining Poetry With the Content Areas

Students combine science and poetry in this innovative lesson.

Alliteration in Headline Poems

Students create a headline poem consisting of 25 words that contain at least three examples of alliteration

In the Poet's Shoes: Performing Poetry and Building Meaning

Students write content-rich poems that honor our veterans.

Honoring Our Veterans Through Poetry Prewriting

Students gather information about the history and celebration practices associated with Veterans Day.

Weaving the Threads: Integrating Poetry Annotation and Web Technology

This project engages students in meaningful research using poetry as a focal point. Students identify words and phrases in a poem by a Native American and in the process, learn about Native American culture and history. Students create a Web site using the poem as a "launching" space that takes readers into various explanations of words and phrases.

What Am I? Teaching Poetry through Riddles

Riddles have a long history dating to antiquity. Riddle poems, which rely upon creative use of metaphor, simile, and metonymy; concrete imagery; and imaginative presentation and description of an object or concept, are an excellent vehicle for introducing students to poetry and poetry writing.

Using the Four-Square Strategy to Define and Identify Poetic Terms

Through online research and follow-up discussion, students define four poetic terms using a four-square graphic organizer. They then locate and record examples of each term and apply their knowledge as they explore the poem "The Eskimos Have No Word for 'War'" by Mary Oliver.