Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Seuss and Silverstein: Posing Questions, Presenting Points
Students will enjoy this blast from the past as they read the works of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein to analyze the way social issues are addressed in selected works.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Minilesson
To, Too, or Two: Developing an Understanding of Homophones
The classroom becomes a stage in this interactive lesson in which students sing, act, and design comic strips to learn the meanings and spellings of common homophones.
Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Unit
Examining Transcendentalism through Popular Culture
Using excerpts from the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, comics, and songs from different musical genres, students examine the characteristics of transcendentalism.
Grades
2 - 4
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Lesson Plan
Engaging With Cause-and-Effect Relationships Through Creating Comic Strips
Students demonstrate their knowledge of cause-and-effect relationships by creating original comic strips and sharing their completed work in an oral presentation format.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Weather Detectives: Questioning the Fact and Folklore of Weather Sayings
Students adopt a skeptical stance and become weather detectives who ask "Why?" and "Why not?" as they investigate the history and validity of some common weather sayings.
Grades
6 - 8
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares
Students must think critically to create comic strips highlighting six important scenes from a book they have read.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Genre Study
Multidimensional, challenging, and popular with students, comics provide an excellent way to introduce the concept of genres.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Recurring Lesson
Using Word Storms to Explore Vocabulary and Encourage Critical Thinking
Students learn that dogs are more than just pets in this lesson, which teaches them to use research and vocabulary-acquisition strategies to learn and write about working dogs.
Grades
7 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Getting Graphic with Alternative Energy Sources
After researching alternative sources of energy, students create online comic books to present their information.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Blending Fiction and Nonfiction to Improve Comprehension and Writing Skills
Students use a text set to increase understanding of content area material and demonstrate what they have learned by writing an original piece that blends together narrative and expository elements.
Grades
K - 3
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Word Study with Henry and Mudge
Henry and Mudge is used in this lesson to build students' word recognition through rereading, high-frequency word banks, word studies, and writing.
Grades
6 - 8
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
A Directed Listening-Thinking Activity for "The Tell-Tale Heart"
What's that sound? Students participate in a Directed ListeningThinking Activity (DLTA) using "The Tell-Tale Heart," make predictions, and respond in the form of an acrostic poem or comic strip.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Buzz! Whiz! Bang! Using Comic Books to Teach Onomatopoeia
This lesson is sure to sizzle, not fizzle, as students use comic strips to find onomatopoetic words, develop a vocabulary list from the words, and discuss why writers use onomatopoeia.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Unit
Zines for Kids: Multigenre Texts About Media Icons
Special edition! Students use ReadWriteThink tools to create magazines about prominent figures using a variety of writing genres and styles.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Reading Idol! Bringing Readers Theatre Center Stage in Your Classroom
Students produce a Readers Theatre performance to compete to be named the Reading Idol. Students vote on the final performances and record them as podcasts.
Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Comic Makeovers: Examining Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Media
Students explore stereotypes in the media and representations of race, class, ethnicity, and gender by analyzing comics over a two-week period and then re-envisioning them with a "comic character makeover."
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure
This lesson uses comic strip frames to define plot and reinforce the structure that underlies a narrative. Students finish by writing their own original narratives.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Book Report Alternative: Examining Story Elements Using Story Map Comic Strips
Comic frames are traditionally used to illustrate a story in a short, concise format. In this lesson, students use a six-paneled comic strip frame to create a story map, summarizing a book or story that they've read. Each panel retells a particular detail or explains a literary element (such as setting or character) from the story.
Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Happily Ever After? Exploring Character, Conflict, and Plot in Dramatic Tragedy
By exploring the decisions points in a tragedy, students consider how the plot of the story can change if the key characters make a different choice at the turning point.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
What If We Changed the Book? Problem-Posing with Sixteen Cows
After reading a piece of math-related children's literature aloud, students pose and solve new problems by asking what-if questions about the events in the story.
Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Analyzing Symbolism, Plot, and Theme in Death and the Miser
Students apply the analytical skills that they use when reading literature to an exploration of the underlying meaning and symbolism in Hieronymous Bosch's early Renaissance painting Death and the Miser.
Grades
3 - 6
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Opening the Door for Reading: Sharing Favorite Texts to Build Community
In this lesson, students build classroom community by exploring environmental print and a teacher-created display that focuses on a favorite book. They then create and share their own presentations.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Once Upon a Time Rethought: Writing Fractured Fairy Tales
Students read and analyze fairy tales, identifying their common elements. They then write their own "fractured" fairy tales by changing one of the literary elements found in the original.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Our Classroom: Writing an Owner's Manual
Students write an owner's manual that helps them get to know their classroom, provides them with a sense of ownership, and lets others know about their classroom.
Grades
3 - 5
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Lesson Plan
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Unit
Searching for Gold: A Collaborative Inquiry Project
Each small group of students researches one aspect of the same big topic, such as the Gold Rush, and teaches what they have learned to the rest of the class.
Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Analyzing and Comparing Medieval and Modern Ballads
Students explore the ballads genre by reading medieval ballads to deduce their characteristics, acting out the ballads, comparing medieval and modern ballads using Venn diagrams, and composing their own ballads.
Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
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Standard Lesson
Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
Students will be introduced to persuasive techniques used in advertising, analyze advertising, and explore the concepts of demographics, marketing for a specific audience, and dynamic advertising.
Grades
9 - 12
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Lesson Plan
An Introduction to Julius Caesar Using Multiple-Perspective Universal Theme Analysis
This resource is an introduction to William Shakespeare's tragic play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, through the study of universal themes using multiple-perspective investigations of betrayal scenarios.