The lesson, which focuses on vocal renderings of poems, will encourage students to discerning meaning through tone of voice, inflection and context.

This lesson pairs a magazine article about the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck in 1975 with the Gordon Lightfoot song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." After comparing and contrasting the elements of each text, students will choose a historical event and, using the song as a model, create a narrative poem about their chosen event. In addition, more contemporary songs and current events will also work for this activity.

In the TED Ed lesson focused on language, students will explore spelling, meaning, and the complex history behind the structure of words. Discussion questions and additional resources are linked in the sidebar.

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skills in distinguishing truth from fiction as well as developing a deeper understanding about an important American historical document.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 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.

Improve student vocabulary with this large collection of student NYT crossword puzzles with answer keys. Search by topics including Black History Month, The Declaration of Independence, The Great Depression,
The Cold War, The Great Recession, American Labor History, Hispanic Heritage, The Pilgrims and much, much more.

This four-week unit focuses on the theme of nostalgia. Students will study several genres of literature (poetry, nonfiction, fiction) and write informal and formal analytical commentaries. Students will also do writing about their own childhood memories.

REMIX - Avery County Schools

Brainstorm the why, what, who, when & how of GoOpenNC,
and determine what next step(s) you plan to take.

Possible Sentences is a pre-reading vocabulary strategy that activates students' prior knowledge about content area vocabulary and concepts. Before reading, students are provided a short list of vocabulary words from their reading, which they group and eventually use to create meaningful sentences. After reading, students check to see if their "possible sentences" were accurate or need revising.

In this lesson, students will discuss the importance of using precise language and domain-specific vocabulary, focusing on paragraphs 8 and 9 of the "Atlanta Compromise Speech."

In this lesson, students learn inductively and experientially that moving-image media texts such as movies and TV shows employ a visual language. Additionally, students will analyze and evaluate how "authors" of film and TV media texts construct narratives by selecting from, and combining as needed, particular techniques and conventions.

Two important speeches to be given during the Cold War were McCarthy’s Fifty-seven Names speech and Truman’s 1947 address to Congress, commonly known as the Truman Doctrine. These documents provide the advanced student the opportunity to analyze persuasive structure in two primary source documents(Reading Informational Texts  5, 6 and 9) as well as provide the opportunity to practice the specific vocabulary that is required for analyzing rhetoric at the advanced and college level (Language 5 and 6). Initially, these documents serve as practice for analyzing rhetoric for advanced students. Beyond the initial analysis of these documents, they pair well with Miller’s popular drama, The Crucible, to support Miller’s interpretation of the zeitgeist of the 1950s. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students complete multiple readings of Jonathan Swift’s 1729 essay "A Modest Proposal": guided reading with the teacher, a collaborative reading with a peer, and an independent reading. After independent reading, pairs of students develop a mock television newscast or editorial script, like those found on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update,” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, or The Colbert Report, including appropriate visual images in PowerPoint.

Stephen Crane's own experiences informed his short story "The Open Boat," one of the best examples of American literary naturalism. In this lesson students answer text-dependent questions in order to examine the relationship bewteen man and nature as well as the role of the third person, omniscient narrator.

In this series of 3, 50 minute lesson plans, students will compare formal and informal language styles and articulate the specific features common to each style. Students will examine their own language use to note how it varies across contexts. By becoming aware of the changes in their own language use, students can gain greater control over the language styles they adopt in different contexts. (Videos and worksheets included.)

Exploring the use of style in literature helps students understand how language conveys mood, images, and meaning. After exploring the styles of two authors, students will translate passages from one author into the style of another. Then they will translate fables into style of one of the authors.

Students engage in a character study of the numerous figures created by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. Students first compare and contrast several forms of communication: email, text message, and telephone. They then complete a character study chart that breaks down physical background, character traits, social status/background, unanswered questions about the character, and a final judgment about the character. Next, students will create text messages between numerous characters that show the relationship between the characters, their background, and plot points that they are involved in. The lesson concludes with students sharing their text messages and a discussion of the rationales behind their choices.

This resource from the New York Times contains a rich collection of lessons, artciles, and activities for teaching William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

This resource from the New York Times contains a rich collection of lessons, artciles, and activities for teaching William Golding's Lord of the Flies.