In this lesson, students first review "to be" verbs and their different forms, then revise previously written work to convert "to be" verbs into stronger action verbs.

In this lesson, students review adverbs and their relationships to verbs, then practice eliminating weak combinations of the two in favor of more assertive verbs.

This video review the concept of the simple past tense. It goes over when to use the simple past tense and how to conjugate verbs in the simple past tense.

This video continues to examine the simple past tense, starting to look at irregular verbs and how they are modified differently from regular verbs.

This video further elaborates on the simple past tense by examining how to question using the simple past tense, both with and without question words.

The final video in this series finishes discussing questioning using the simple past tense and moves into a discussion on how to correctly pronounce conjugated past tense endings. Also included are interactive segments for students to practice.

In this lesson, students will learn how to repair sentence fragments and run-on sentences in their arguments.

In this lesson, students will learn how to use commas to repair sentence fragments and run-on sentences in their narratives.

In this lesson on narrative writing, students will correct fragment and run-ons, making sure that they use commas correctly.

In this lesson, students will learn comma rules and how to fix sentence fragments and run-ons in their essays.

This lesson will help students identify the various uses of language and understand their appropriateness within context. Students participate in journal writing as well as writing literacy narratives describing multiple uses of language. The lesson is designed to accompany a ready of "Mother Tongue"; however, the lesson may be used in conjunction with a study of other writings in English by authors who write or speak English as a second language.

This resource provides a lesson designed to help students understand the use of satire and the myriad technicques that authors may use to add it to their writing. Students use the film Shrek to examine the four techniques of exaggeration, incongruity, reversal and parody. Students prove their understanding by using satire to rewrite a fairly tale.

Students are introduced to the idea of "The Simpsons" as satire by comparing what they did on a typical day to the things the Simpsons do in the opening sequence of the show. Students use the character profiles on the Simpsons website to analyze six characters, identifying satirical details that reveal the comment/criticism being made about society through the characters. Finally, students use a graphic organizer to record and analyze specific examples of satire as they watch a full episode.

This resource includes a lesson plan designed to assist learners with the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination and the American Dream. Students will examine the "I Have a Dream Speech" and select powerful words and themes from the text and arrange them into original diamante poems.

In this lesson, students will use an acronym to recall the coordinating conjunctions and practice their use in order to master this technique in their writing. Students will also practice writing compound sentences.

In this lesson, students will use the acronym FANBOYS to recall the coordinating conjunctions and practice using them to create compound sentences in order to master this technique in their writing.

Students will reflect on their reading experiences in and out of school and discuss the roles that both fiction and non-fiction played. Next, they will become familiar with what the Commmon Core Standards say about reading, and what critics and supporters have written in reaction. Ultimately, students will write about the question, "What should students read?"

This lesson-plan focuses on students analyzing, critiquing, and examining the language and meanings of historical and cultural documents such as The Pledge of Allegiance and the First Amendment. Through this activity they will also examine the impact and meaning of language, as well as the relevance of the meaning behind the words of each document. All handouts are downloadable and printable from this site.

Students will go "inside" the NY Times Best Sellers List to explore recent best sellers across categories, then use those lists as models to create their own in categories of their choosing. They will write one-sentence summaries for each book on their lists, then analyze and explain their choices by writing "Inside the List" articles. Ultimately, students will answer the question, "What do best-seller lists tell us about our culture?"

George Orwell's experiences as a policemen for the British Empire in India formed the basis for his early writings, including this essay. After receiving some background information on British rule in Burma as well as on Orwell, students will read the essay in order to analyze its use of metaphors, symbolism and irony.