It is important for students to know how to evaluate messages conveyed by the news media. Exploration of the artistic techniques used in political cartoons leads to critical questioning.
Analyzing the Purpose and Meaning of Political Cartoons
Grades
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What Did They Say? Dialect in The Color Purple
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
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
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Teaching Point of View With Two Bad Ants
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students will be crawling all over this assignment when they use illustrations and text to learn about life from a bug's point of view.
Grades
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Peer Edit With Perfection: Effective Strategies
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students take a fresh look at the revision process and help one another polish their written work through a peer-editing strategy that is simple, systematic, and constructive.
Grades
|
Identifying and Understanding the Fallacies Used in Advertising
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students examine the fallacies that surround them every day, deconstruct fallacious images and messages in advertisements, and demonstrate their understanding of the fallacies through multimedia presentations.
Grades
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Diagram It! Identifying, Comparing, and Writing About Nonfiction Texts
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students compare the traits fact and fiction by using a Venn diagram to compare fiction and nonfiction books about Native Americans.
Grades
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Word Maps: Developing Critical and Analytical Thinking About Literary Characters
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students read "After Twenty Years" by O. Henry, use a word map to identify characters' qualities or traits, discuss the characters' feelings and actions, and reflect upon these in journals.
Grades
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Telling a Story About Me: Young Children Write Autobiographies
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students tell their life stories in this lesson about autobiographies based on family photographs.
Grades
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Astronomy Poetry: Combining Poetry With the Content Areas
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students' responses to this lesson will be out of this world after they've researched astronomy to write poetry and compile a poetry book.
Grades
|
Vote for Me! Developing, Writing, and Evaluating Persuasive Speeches
4 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
This lesson encourages students in grades 4 and 5 to think critically and write persuasively by focusing on preparing, presenting, and evaluating mock campaign speeches.
Grades
|
Questioning: A Comprehension Strategy for Small-Group Guided Reading
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students learn about the process of questioning and using webs to organize information during reading and then practice writing factual and inferential questions.
Grades
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Thrills! Chills! Using Scary Stories to Motivate Students to Read
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students examine story elements through teacher read-alouds and independent reading and then use reader-response journals and graphic organizers to prepare for the creation of their own scary stories.
Grades
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Reciprocal Revision: Making Peer Feedback Meaningful
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Interpreting art is a subjective process. In this lesson, students write written responses analyzing a work of art and use feedback from their peers to revise or confirm their initial responses.
Grades
|
Junie B. Jones Introduces Literacy Mystery Boxes
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Like Junie B. Jones, students will be saying "Wait till you hear this" after listening to a Junie B. story and creating mystery boxes to help retell the story.
Grades
|
A Biography Study: Using Role-Play to Explore Authors' Lives
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students read biographies and explore websites of selected American authors and then role-play as the authors.
Grades
|
A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students read a work of realistic fiction about bullying and gain understanding through writing, Readers Theatre, and discussion.
Grades
|
A Bad Case of Bullying: Using Literature Response Groups
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students learn how to effectively deal with bullying by participating in literature response groups and writing about when they experienced a similar situation or emotion as a fictional character.
Grades
|
Applying Question-Answer Relationships to Pictures
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
A picture is worth a thousand words as students are guided in viewing wordless picture books and responding to four different types of questions about the images they see.
Grades
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Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Imagination and application are key to this tall tale lesson in which students take what they know about tall tales to spin a yarn of their own.
Grades
|
Developing Students' Critical Thinking Skills Through Whole-Class Dialogue
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
"That's my position and I'm sticking to it!" After reading about the Korean War, students will take a position in response to an open-ended question, support their position, and evaluate that support.