This lesson gives teachers resources and guidance to create reading, listening, computer, and poetry Literacy Centers in their own classrooms.
Literacy Centers: Getting Started
An Exploration of Romanticism Through Art and Poetry
Students use art and poetry to explore and understand major characteristics of the Romantic period.
Moving Toward Acceptance Through Picture Books and Two-Voice Texts
Students read and discuss literature about intolerance and diversity. They work with a partner to write two-voice poems that illustrate situations of intolerance at their school and suggest a step toward acceptance.
Modeling Academic Writing Through Scholarly Article Presentations
Students prepare an already published scholarly article for presentation, with an emphasis on identification of the author's thesis and argument structure.
Family Memoir: Getting Acquainted With Generations Before Us
Creating a memoir of an older family member allows students both to learn more about their own backgrounds and to learn the power of storytellers.
Exploring Irony in the Conclusion of All Quiet on the Western Front
After reading All Quiet on the Western Front, students discuss the novel's ironic ending, then compose alternate titles and endings for the book, and design new book covers.
Enchanting Readers with Revisionist Fairy Tales
Students examine three examples of revisionist fairy tales in which female characters act in empowered roles rather than behaving helpless and submissive.
Walt Whitman as a Model Poet: "I Hear My School Singing"
Students first analyze Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," then use Whitman's poem as a model as they create their own list poems.
Letters and Learning Genre
Using their prior knowledge of books containing letters, students show their understanding of genre by rewriting a story and reflecting on how traditional stories differs from stories told in letters.
Book Report Alternative: Hooking a Reader with a Book Cover
Students select a book to read based only on its cover art. After reading the book, they use an interactive tool to create a new cover for it.
Stairway to Heaven: Examining Metaphor in Popular Music
Students explore figurative language by examining the lyrics of popular songs.
Comparing and Contrasting: Picturing an Organizational Pattern
Using picture books as mentor texts, students learn effective strategies for organizing information that compares and contrasts. Students can then apply appropriate organizational strategies to their own papers.
Book Report Alternative: Creating a New Book Cover
Students explore book covers of a variety of books then create a new cover for a book they have read.
Once Upon a Fairy Tale: Teaching Revision as a Concept
Students use fractured fairy tales to practice revision and editing as separate activities when they write their own versions of fairy tales.
Judging a Book by its Cover: The Art and Imagery of The Great Gatsby
Students explore The Great Gatsby's allusion to art and its use of visual imagery and conclude their study by designing their own cover for the novel.
Entering History: Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nikki Giovanni's poem "The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr." is paired with Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, taking students on a quest through time to the Civil Rights movement.
Preparing a Character for a New Job: Character Analysis through Job Placement
Working as career counselors for a literary character, students find a job for the character, prepare a resume, and design questions and answers to prepare them for a job interview.
Travel Brochures: Highlighting the Setting of a Story
Readers are often transported to the places mentioned in texts through words and descriptions. This lesson invites students to create travel brochures about the setting of texts they have read.
Book Report Alternative: Creating a Childhood for a Character
Students explore familiar literary characters, usually first encountered as adults, but whose childhood stories are only told later. Students then create childhoods for adult characters from books of their choice.
Analyzing Character in Hamlet through Epitaphs
Students create epitaphs for characters from a tragedy, such as Hamlet.