This recurring lesson encourages students to comprehend their reading through inquiry and collaboration. They choose important quotations from the text and work in groups to formulate "quiz" questions that their peers will answer.
Active Reading through Self-Assessment: The Student-Made Quiz
Exploring the Power of Language with Six-Word Memoirs
What do the words we write really have to say about us? In this lesson, students examine the power of word choice as they write six-word memoirs of their lives.
Writing for Audience: The Revision Process in The Diary of Anne Frank
After reading or viewing The Diary of Anne Frank, students will make connections between audience and purpose and revise a journal entry with an outside audience in mind.
Analyzing the Rhetoric of Corporate Logos across Time
Students think critically about how design elements in logos work together to tell a changing story about a company or product in this visual rhetoric lesson.
Developing Citizenship Through Rhetorical Analysis
Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.
Vocabulary Solutions: A Mixture of Science, Conversation, and Writing
In this lesson, students conduct a science experiment and later discuss the events of the lab during shared writing. Students explain the procedure in their own words and then revise to include content specific vocabulary. Finally, students reflect on new words added to their writing using the Trading Card Creator interactive.
And in Conclusion: Inquiring into Strategies for Writing Effective Conclusions
While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.
Writing Acrostic Poems with Thematically Related Texts in the Content Areas
Students read thematically related texts, scaffolded from simple to complex, to help them gather necessary concept vocabulary and background knowledge in a content area. They then write acrostic poems to organize and present their learning in a creative way.
Book Report Alternative: Creating Postcards for Fictional Settings
In this alternative to the traditional book report, students report on their novel choices that feature journeys by creating postcards one of the settings featured in their books.
Understanding Irony
This lesson enables students to define the three types of irony, identify and differentiate among examples of the types of irony, and demonstrate their understanding of each type.
A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words: Using Infographics to Illustrate How-to Writing
Students write step-by-step instructions on topics of their own choosing. Then using Piktochart, students create their own infographics to illustrate their instructions.
Picture This: Combining Infographics and Argumentative Writing
After researching topics that the students have chosen, students write argumentative essays. Then, using Piktochart, students create their own infographics to illustrate their research.
Examining History with Maya Angelou's Poetry
To understand the historical background that influenced Maya Angelou's poems, students research events to produce trading cards using the ReadWriteThink Trading Card Student Interactive. Through the sharing of these trading cards, students understand the historical background as they analyze Angelou's poetry.
"Blind Date with a Book": Creating Lifelong Readers
This multi-lesson learning project encourages students to read engaging texts at their grade level and also works to promote habitual, independent reading in all students.
Picture This: Using Instagram to Report
After taking a field trip that students document using mobile app Instagram, students become new reporters as they use the interactive Printing Press to tell about their experiences.
Aim for the Heart: Using Haiku to Identify Theme
Using haiku, students focus on themes in literature and demonstrate their understanding of an author's message. Writing haiku to accompany an analytical paper hones analytical skills and fosters creative expression.
For Argument's Sake: Playing "Devil's Advocate" with Nonfiction Texts
Students learn how to play "devil's advocate" by evaluating sports reforms, reading an engaging non-fiction article, and participating in a town hall meeting in which they represent the interests of various stakeholders to generate debate and develop critical thinking skills.
Summarizing with Haikus
Using the Haiku Poem App or the Haiku Poem Interactive, students summarize papers they have written using the traditional format of a haiku.
Learning about Clouds with Haikus
Using a mobile app or Interactive activity, students write haikus describing various types of clouds that they have studied.
From Quantitative to Qualitative: Writing Descriptions of Data From Tables
Students develop quantitative reasoning and critical thinking by analyzing descriptions tables for content, language, and organization with a particular focus on verb tense selection, and then writing descriptions of tables themselves.