Students use illustrations from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick as a guide to write mysteries
and then present their stories to the class for students to discuss to which illustration each
story corresponds.
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick: Using Illustrations to Guide Writing
New Voices in Young Adult Literature
Tune in to this episode to hear about a range of titles by first-time YA authors, including mysteries, romances, humorous stories, and great contemporary realistic fiction.
Appreciating Audiobooks
In this episode, you'll hear about what goes on behind the scenes in audiobook production. You'll also hear samples from an array of distinguished audio titles including YA classics as well as newer works of contemporary realistic fiction, dystopian fiction, historical fiction, and novels written in verse.
Using the RAFT Writing Strategy
This strategy guide introduces the RAFT technique and offers practical ideas for using this technique to teach students to experiment with various perspectives in their writing.
Socratic Seminars
This strategy guide explains Socratic seminars and offers practical methods for applying the approach in your classroom to help students investigate multiple perspectives in a text.
Choosing, Chatting, and Collecting: Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy
Students identify interesting words from Shakespeare's plays and add them to a classroom vocabulary collection.
Playlist for Holden: Character Analysis With Music and Lyrics
Students compile a playlist of 10 songs representing a literary character and explain their choices based on the book's dialogue, plot, conflict, and resolution.
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.
Give Them a Hand: Promoting Positive Interaction in Literature Circles
Students circle their desks as they analyze their own participation within a small group discussion.
Developing Story Structure With Paper-Bag Skits
Lights, camera, action, and a bit of mystery! In this lesson, students use mystery props in a skit bag to create and perform in short, impromptu skits.
Lights, Camera, Action: Interviewing a Book Character
Students get the inside scoop on a story when they create interview questions and answers for characters in the books they read.
In the Poet's Shoes: Performing Poetry and Building Meaning
Students take poetic license when they interpret William Carlos William's poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" to help create a poem of their own.
Today is World Read Aloud Day.
Students celebrate the power of words by reading aloud to their classmates and spreading the word of global literacy to their friends and family.
In 1931, Toni Morrison was born.
After retelling a familiar fable, students discover the differences in one of Morrison's retellings of a fable.
Celebrate El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros (Children's Day/Book Day)!
Using the Book Cover Creator, students write and share their own multilingual stories.
Jacob Grimm, one of the Brothers Grimm, was born today.
Students compare different versions of the fairy tale Cinderella and then rewrite a lesser-known Grimm story and explain the changes they made.
Poe's "The Raven" was published in 1845.
As Poe's "The Raven" is read aloud, students note their reactions and discuss the changes or development of their first impressions as the poem continues.
Teacher Appreciation Week honors our teachers.
In celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week, students read a book about a teacher and follow up with an activity related to the book using the Venn Diagram, Letter Generator, Story Map, or Essay Map.
Author Lois Duncan was born on this date in 1934.
Mysteries are shared with students for them to solve and brainstorm the attributes of a good mystery. Small groups then compose short mysteries using the Mystery Cube.
Hans Christian Andersen was born on this date in 1805.
Students write a brief summary of one of Andersen's stories, and then read the original story and compare the two versions of the tale with the Venn Diagram tool.