Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia

Lesson Plans

Student Interactives

Calendar Activities

Strategy Guides

Professional Library

Activities & Projects

 

LESSON PLANS

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Recurring Lesson

Weekly Writer’s Blogs: Building a Reflective Community of Support

Students explore the conventions of blog writing while using it to self-reflect on their writing and communicate with classmates about each other's reflections.

 

Grades   6 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Creating Character Blogs

Students view examples of blogs, learn the basic elements of blog creation, and then create a blog from the perspective of a fictional character.

 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Using Microblogging and Social Networking to Explore Characterization and Style

Students use social networking sites to trace the development of characters by assuming the persona of a character on the class Ning and sending a set number of tweets, or status updates.

 

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Letter Generator

The Letter Generator is a useful tool for students to learn the parts of a business or friendly letter and then compose and print letters for both styles of correspondence.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Organizing & Summarizing

Persuasion Map

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Organizing & Summarizing

ReadWriteThink Notetaker

Useful for a wide variety of reading and writing activities, this outlining tool allows students to organize up to five levels of information.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Flip Book

The Flip Book is designed to allow users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long. Students and teachers can use the flip book for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating question and answer booklets.

 

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CALENDAR ACTIVITIES

Grades   9 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  October 9

In 1940, Musician and peace activist John Lennon was born.

After listening to "Imagine," students reflect on the lyrics and answer questions. Then, they have a chance to write a stanza for their own song.

 

Grades   1 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  July 12

Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817.

Students make mental "snapshots" of a natural setting, then capture the details of their setting by writing and then creating a class booklet of the nature walk.

 

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STRATEGY GUIDES

Grades   6 – 12  |  Strategy Guide

Teaching With Blogs

This Strategy Guide describes the processes involved in composing blogs in the classroom, the process of writing regular posts, or entries, that are published online.

 

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PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY

Professional Library  |  Journal

Multigenre, Multiple Intelligences, and Transcendentalism

Colleen A. Ruggieri offers a multigenre, mulltiple intelligences unit on transcendentalism complete with suggested texts and an assessment plan.

 

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ACTIVITIES & PROJECTS

Grades   7 – 12  |  Activity & Project

Create a Career Blog

This activity invites children and teens to explore various careers and then write about what they might want to be when they grow up in a blog.

 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Activity & Project

Blog About Courage Using Photos

Engage teens in this activity in which they use photographs to examine and write about courage on a blog.

 

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