Dialect Detectives: Exploring Dialect in Great Expectations

Lesson Plans

Student Interactives

Printouts

Strategy Guides

Professional Library

 

LESSON PLANS

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan

What Did They Say? Dialect in The Color Purple

Y’all set down a spell and learn ‘bout dialects!” In other words, your students will use The Color Purple to explore dialect and how it reveals information about the characters.

 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Exploring Language and Identity: Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Beyond

Students explore the idea of "different Englishes" by reading Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" and writing literacy narratives about their own use of different language for different audiences and purposes.

 

Grades   6 – 8  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party

Students attend a 19th Century Victorian party to celebrate Scrooge's new outlook on life. They research characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and assume those personas for the party.

 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

A Tale of a Few Text Messages: A Character Study of A Tale of Two Cities

Students use A Tale of Two Cities to explore relationships, plot points, character traits, and background by writing text messages between characters within the novel.

 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

There Are No Small Parts: Minor Characters in David Copperfield

This lesson capitalizes on students’ interest in social networking by asking students to build an online profile for a minor character in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.

 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Behind the Masks: Exploring Culture Through Art and Poetry

Students research mask-making from various cultures, highlight the masks’ connections to cultural practices, compose poetry to reveal their understanding, analyze their own culture, and create personal masks and poetry.

 

Grades   6 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Vote for Me! Making Presidential Commercials Using Avatars

After researching political platforms of past presidents through primary sources and other resources, students create commercials for these presidents using Voki, an online web tool that produces speaking avatars.

 

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

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

Comic Creator

The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on).

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Organizing & Summarizing

Venn Diagram

This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

 

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PRINTOUTS

Grades   K – 12  |  Printout  |  Graphic Organizer

Venn Diagram, 2 Circles

Students use this graphic organizer to describe similarities and differences between two objects.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Printout  |  Assessment Tool

Exit Slips

This printout provides prompts that help students reflect on and process new information and think critically, and offers teachers the opportunity to differentiate upcoming instruction based on these reflections.

 

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STRATEGY GUIDES

Grades   6 – 12  |  Strategy Guide

Speak to Me: Teaching with Voki

Through Voki, a Web 2.0 tool, students create customizable avatars for class presentations for various purposes, such as presenting biographical information, expressing an opinion, or reading a poem.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Strategy Guide

Exit Slips

This strategy guide introduces the concept of using Exit Slips in the classroom to help students reflect on what they have learned and express what or how they are thinking about the new information. Exit Slips easily incorporate writing into the content area classroom and require students to think critically.

 

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PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY

Grades   K – 8  |  Professional Library  |  Journal

Codeswitching: Tools of Language and Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom

This article shows how to affirm and draw on the dialect diversity of students to foster the learning of Standard English.

 

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