Rather than extending a two-page paper to five pages by restating facts, philosophizing aimlessly, or simply making things up, students engaging in this revision lesson learn how to make the cut. In Zinsser’s guide for nonfiction writing, he states, “The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components”

Students analyze the literary features of Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” and then imagine themselves as one of the characters in the poem many years in the future. Partners share their responses and then brainstorm details on audience, purpose, and tone, before students write a first draft of the selected character’s story. Students use a rubric and peer review as they complete polished versions of their work.

In this lesson students identify with Dr. King through reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities that provide a glimpse into Dr. King's life. Students record what they know about Dr. King on a KWL chart. They then read aloud the picture book My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers and add information to the KWL. Throughout the week, they explore websites and other sources of information about Dr. King, record new information on the KWL chart, and keep a journal of their own thoughts and ideas. As a culminating activity, they plan a birthday party for Dr. King to celebrate is birthday.

Students are immersed in popular culture. As educators, we have an opportunity to engage them in literacy activities that make use of this fun and engaging resource. In this lesson, students develop media literacy skills as they explore and analyze an episode of a popular television series. Possible shows include Zoe 101, The Secret Life of the American Teenager,or any of the High School Musical movies. Students reflect on characters, motivations, problems, and solutions as they view and interpret media. They then propose a new television series that more realistically portrays teenagers.

In this lesson that tightly integrates personal writing, research, and thematic response to literature, students discuss the importance of having a recorded history of humanity. As they explore this topic, they gain a deeper understanding of the horror of Jonas’s dystopian society in Lois Lowry’s The Giver. This understanding generates a keen interest in and context for the descriptive writing of students’ own history. Students gather ideas from several sources, including their own memories, interviews, and photographs, and then write their own descriptive memoirs.

In this lesson, a three-pronged approach is used to help students create mental images while reading. The first approach develops schemata (prior knowledge) and visual awareness (the understanding and interpretation of visual images) by introducing content-related picture books and having students respond to the illustrations using a series of question prompts. The next approach capitalizes on existing visual comprehension using a strategy called Watch-Read-Watch-Read (W-R-W-R), where video clips build background knowledge and assist students in developing "memory pegs" as they read. Finally, students use a strategy similar to the think-aloud approach, creating drawings to illustrate and understand relevant information gleaned from print.

The students will explore reading strategies using the think-aloud process as students investigate connections between the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe. The unit, which begins with an in-depth exploration of “The Raven,” then moves students from a full-class reading of the poem to small-group readings of Poe’s short stories (“The Black Cat,” “Hop-Frog,” “Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”). The unit concludes with individual projects that explore the readings in more detail.

In this lesson, students create a two-column list of nouns and ordinary verbs specific to a particular occupation. They then pair a specific noun from the first column with an occupation-related verb from the second column to create descriptive lines with vivid verbs being used in a different context. The trick lies in the fact that the verbs must be used in a new way, having nothing to do with the occupation. Often this approach to writing leads to a natural metaphorical passage as a result. Students refine this writing strategy by rotating through computer stations, each housing a descriptive passage begun by other students, revising and suggesting improvements or just adding lines to the descriptive passages.

This lesson encourages students' natural curiosity about spiders and builds on their prior knowledge. After a shared reading of Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin, students work cooperatively using a strategy called Fact–"Faction"–Fiction to identify what they know, gather information, and create their own multimedia diaries using PowerPoint. Although the topic example used here is spiders, this lesson is easily adaptable to any content area topic.

With a focus on critical and visual literacy, this lesson challenges students to identify a song and to evaluate the meaning of the lyrics and music. Students then select digital images they think represent the meaning of the song and learn to create a multi-media presentation through the use of Windows Movie Maker. There are opportunities for self-reflection and evaluation in this lesson.

This lesson plan has students do research on the myths surrounding Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. They will engage in reading, writing, and research activities that will have them learn skills in distinguishing truth from fiction as well as developing a deeper understanding about an important American historical document. Links to suggested sites for students to do their research on the myths are provided in the lesson.

In this lesson, students create a name tag using information about themselves. Each student's name tag, while being similar, will visually represent personal information. These name tags will help the teacher learn students' names, but they will also help the students get to know each other and practice a visual, contemporary literacy when they interpret glyphs made by others. Students learn that communication is symbolic on a very fundamental level in this lesson.

In this lesson on Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, students will do the following: represent a a secton of the novel visually; present and discuss their visual intepretations; analyze three connected sections of the novel, focusing on the relationship between language and meaning; and synthesize their understanding of those sections in a brief, written response. Focus questions and rubric materials available.

In this lesson, students read books and explore websites highlighting contemporary Native Americans and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast their ideas about Native Americans.

Have you ever wondered how to get students talking meaningfully about books? The Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy helps students identify questions as "in the book" or "in my head" so that they know whether to draw on their own impressions or the book for answers. In this lesson, which can also be used in the sixth-grade classroom, introduce QAR through a read-aloud, sorting questions as they are answered and working with students as they learn how to sort questions themselves. Students then use the strategy to develop questions for a peer-led book discussion.

In this lesson, the teacher will show a variety of activities related to note writing that can be incorporated into the classroom throughout the year to promote authentic writing among students. Model note writing in context by taking advantage of opportunities that come up in the classroom both to read actual notes and to think aloud while writing them. Read books featuring notes, discuss why the notes were written, and copy the notes for classroom display. Enlist families in the fun by asking students to collect notes from home to share with the class.

This lesson takes advantage of that interest by asking students to create a soundtrack for a novel that they have read. Students begin by analyzing how specific songs might fit with a familiar story. Students then create their own soundtracks for the movie version of a novel they have read. They select songs that match the text and fit specific events in the story. Finally, students share their projects with the class and assess their work using a rubric. Examples in this lesson focus on The Beast by Walter Dean Myers, but any piece of literature can be used as the basis of students' soundtracks.

In this lesson, students make a list of the ways original stories have been revised—changed or altered, not just “corrected”—to begin building a definition of global revision after reading several fractured fairy tales. After students have written a “revised” story of their own, they revise again, focusing more on audience but still paying attention to ideas, organization, and voice. During another session, students look at editing as a way to polish writing, establishing a definition of revision as a multi-level process.

Use literacy skills to make connections among those in your classroom with this lesson that focuses on building classroom community by sharing favorite texts with one another. In this lesson, the class explores environmental print then focuses specifically on a teacher-created display on a favorite book. After exploring the teacher’s display, students write about their own favorite book, genre, or author. Students then select one of several options for making a display of their favorite book to share with the class. After creating their own presentations, students share them with the class and complete peer- or self-assessments.

This lesson is designed to assist students with improving their use of punctuation to include: commas, semicolons, colons, and exclamation points. The lesson is designed to encourage students to focus on emotions and their connections with given forms of punctuation. By examining emotions, students gain the ability to better understand the different uses of various punctuation marks. The lesson includes multiple student handouts and examples. There are also pertinent extension activities attached.