After reading Nothing But the Truth, students explore a current event topic and write their own short work of fiction in a similar multigenre format.
Avi was born in 1937.
Celebrate National Family Literacy Day!
Parents, grandparents, and other family members are invited to the classroom for a family-school reading day.
Faith Ringgold was born on October 8, 1930.
Students use Ringgold's books as a springboard for a discussion of race, gender, and civil rights, and then write and illustrate original picture books on these topics.
Randolph Caldecott was born on March 22, 1846.
Students explore the history of the Caldecott Medal and create a classroom literary award modeled after the Caldecott.
Author Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944.
After students read the novel The Color Purple, dialect is discussed and students write a short piece of fiction or poetry using the dialect of their peer group.
Get ready to go back to school!
Students share details about their lives with one another using the interactive Graphic Map and share their memories in small groups or with the whole class.
Karen Hesse, author of the Newbery-winning verse novel Out of the Dust, was born in 1952.
Students write original short works of historical fiction in verse format, modeling the style Hesse used to write Out of the Dust.
Alex Haley, author of Roots, was born in 1921.
Students explore their own roots by interviewing family members and use their family history to write a fictional account of their roots.
Paperback books were first introduced in 1935.
Independent reading is promoted among students by organizing a paperback book swap in the classroom or with other classes at the same grade level.
Author of Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt, was born in 1932.
Students research the concept of immortality from beliefs around the world and compose a short story, myth, or poem that addresses immortality.
Novelist Ernest Hemingway was born on this day in 1899.
Students examine the ways different authors treat the subject of war in their writing and compare and contrast using the Venn Diagram interactive.
African American journalist Ida B. Wells was born in 1862.
Students brainstorm a list of human rights issues, research their group's issue in depth, examine the way journalists cover a story, and create articles for a classroom newspaper.
Celebrate the first day of summer with summer reading.
Families are invited to a June literacy fair to end the school year and get students on the right track for the summer.
CNN debuted as the first television news network in 1980.
Students brainstorm a list of modern news sources and from previous centuries. Groups then research one of these sources and create a timeline showing the evolution of news.
May is Get Caught Reading Month!
Students celebrate Get Caught Reading Month by doing a reading-related service project such as planning an intergenerational reading day or organizing a book drive.
Write letters that make things happen!
In a small group or as individuals, students write letters related to a unit of study or particular topic they have studied.
The Pied Piper led the children out of Hamelin in 1376.
After listening to The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, students compare Pratchett's version with Browning's version and discuss how perspective changes the story.
In 1969, the first human walked on the moon.
As a class, students discuss Neil Armstrong's famous quote when he landed on the moon and explore the difference that one word can make, as well as the gendered language that Armstrong uses.
Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817.
Students make mental "snapshots" of a natural setting, then capture the details of their setting by writing and then creating a class booklet of the nature walk.
The Scopes Trial began today in 1925.
Students brainstorm a list of objects and processes that have changed over time and use the Timeline tool to sketch out the evolution of the item they have chosen. A giant class timeline can be created to show the evolution of the items students have investigated.