Students discuss and compare differing versions of Little Red Riding Hood and other tales about wolves in cumulative read-aloud sessions and text set explorations.

In this lesson, students analyze similarities and differences among depictions of slavery in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Frederick Douglass' "Narrative", and nineteenth century photographs of slaves. Students formulate their analysis of the role of art and fiction, as they attempt to reliably reflect social ills, in a final essay.

Students will really get into the swing of things as they analyze the text and film versions of Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Pit and the Pendulum."

Using picture books as mentor texts, students learn effective strategies for organizing information that compares and contrasts. Students can then apply appropriate organizational strategies to their own papers.

Contains plans for two 50-minute lessons that teach about the comparison/contrast organizational pattern. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to PDF handouts and sites used in the lessons as well as assessment and reflection activities.

The Comparison and Contrast Guide outlines the characteristics of the genre and provides direct instruction on the methods of organizing, gathering ideas, and writing comparison and contrast essays.

This unit introduces students to a variety of poetic forms and elements, as they compile their own collections of poetry.

Contains plans for eight lessons in a poetry unit that asks students to write poetry in various forms after reading models. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons as well as assessment and reflection activities.

Students identify, explore and apply the elements of circle plot structures to their own stories by using graphic organizers, reading and writing stories, and using checklists to assess their work.

Students use themed graphic organizers to compose cinquain poems on topics common in the early elementary classroom.

Reinforce student understanding of parts of speech through the analysis of sample cinquain poems followed by the creation of original cinquains.

Excellent lesson plan that requires students to work collaboratively to select parts of poetry and "perform" poems for the class. Uses the book "Berenstein Bears," but any children's book could be acceptable for the lesson plan.

Contains plans for three lessons designed to improve comprehension of nonfiction, especially nonfiction texts on the web. It focuses on identifying text features, locating specific information, and generalizing that information. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons as well as assessment and reflection activities.

In this unit, students become active archivists, gathering photos, artifacts, and stories for a museum exhibit that highlights one decade in their school's history.

Students explore the connotations of the colors associated with the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."

Using Construct-a-Word, students learn letter-sound correspondence by combining a beginning letter or blend to a word ending to create words.

After reading "The Tempest" or any other play by William Shakespeare, students work in small groups to plan, compose, and perform a choral reading based on a character or theme.

Students explore the menu genre by analyzing existing menus from local restaurants. They review adjectives and descriptive writing and then work in groups to create their own custom menus.

This lesson takes advantage of students' interest in music and audio sharing. Students investigate multiple perspectives in the music downloading debate and develop a persuasive argument for a classroom debate.

Students investigate how and why copyright law has changed over time, and apply this information to recent copyright issues, creating persuasive arguments based on the perspective of a particular group.