Beacon Lesson Plan Library

   Lesson Plans - Learner Level 3: Language Arts

• 100 Years...100 Movies (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After students choose one of the top 100 movies to view, they research critical reviews and then write their own reviews.

• 2004 Summer Olympics Internet Scavenger Hunt (Authored by Elana Collins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Have you ever been on a scavenger hunt? Have you ever been on one using the Internet? In this activity, students will participate in an Internet scavenger hunt as they search for the answers to questions about the 2004 Summer Olympics.

• A Geopoem about Alaska (Authored by Joyce Honeychurch.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gather information on the physical and human characteristics of Alaska (geographic theme PLACE).They organize this information on a concept map to be transformed into a geopoem about Alaska.

• A Graphic Scene (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using collected information, students compare and contrast characters from various texts within a Venn Diagram.

• A Moment in Time (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A moment in time before shooting a foul shot or the moment right before a runner steals a base can make for a fascinating poem. Students study poems to see how punctuation, line length, rhythm and word choice can be used to create a memorable moment.

• A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast characters from various texts and compile the collected information into several graphic organizers.

• A Short, Short Story (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students must write an original short story that cannot contain over 100 words.

• Acrostic Poetry (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using newspapers or magazines, students create an acrostic poem where words are divided into parts of speech.

• Actions Speak Louder than Words (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: No matter how good a written speech is, the delivery is what the audience remembers. Learning about and practicing volume, stress, pacing, and pronunciation helps students to deliver an oral presentation effectively.

• Alike, Different, or Both? (Authored by Christy Simms.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast two characters from the play [The Diary of Anne Frank] on a Venn diagram and write a paragraph showing similarities and differences.

• All's Well That Ends Well (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Beginning and ending are two of the most important parts of a speech! The middle is rather important also. Students check out the importance of organizing a speech.

• Analogies (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about relationships between words and then are expected to figure out the missing word for a list of analogies. This lesson is a good lesson to use with ESOL students or students who are having difficulty with word relationships.

• And Your Point Is . . .? Part I (Authored by Lois Christensen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is Part I of a two-part series. Part I introduces students to point of view through a structured WebQuest. Part II (See Weblinks) extends understanding through student engagement in a variety of debate activities.

• And Your Point Is . . .? Part II (Authored by Lois Christensen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is Part II of a two-part series. Part I introduced students to point of view through a structured WebQuest. (See WebLinks.) Part II extends understanding through student engagement in a variety of debate activities.

• Animals in Research - Right or Wrong? (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research and discuss a sensitive or controversial issue and attempt to make a decision based on group findings.

• Are They the Same or Different? (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a graphic organizer, students synthesize and separate collected information.

• Are You Moody? (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Are you moody? Is a novel? Students continue their study of the novel, [Jacob Have I Loved] and their examination of literary techniques the author uses to grab their attention.

• Attracting an Audience with Purpose (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Making sure that the purpose of an oral presentation or speech, and the intended audience are compatible will help students become good speakers.

• Attractive Adjectives (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This ESOL lesson, that is part 3 of a unit, reviews nouns and verbs, then introduces adjectives. Students learn to identify and use adjectives in sentences, identify them in listening activities, and review all three in a commercial.

• Bag It (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a paper bag or a gift bag, students create a book report providing information on the elements of the book.

• Batty Facts (Authored by Carol Cline.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Go batty! Students use a KWL chart as a prereading strategy to organize and display their knowledge of bats, nocturnal animals.

• Become a Detective (Authored by Shannon Flynn.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Everyone loves a mystery and now your students can be the detectives! In this lesson, students read a mystery story while searching for clues to help predict the outcome. They record the outcome then finish the story to see how well they predicted.

• Better to Tell the Truth (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The purpose of this lesson is to teach students to distinguish between emotional and logical arguments in advertising.

• Big on Biography (Authored by Lorinda Luther.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students select a person to research for biographical information. Utilizing resources in the Media Center, students record information on note cards; students then interpret and categorize information for appropriate placement on a graphic organizer.

• Bio-Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a biographical poem about themselves using an easy formula.

• Biographical Research Paper (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using resource materials, students write a biographical research paper.

• Book Jeopardy (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students participate in a fun, educational game of -Book Jeopardy- which can be used to review material before a comprehensive test on any novel.

• Book Selling Project (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create an oral presentation that uses a visual aid to sell their books to their classmates with the goal of trying to get their classmates interested in reading the book.

• Book Share (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students meet in small groups to reflect on and share their thoughts after reading a short story, poem, chapter in a novel, etc.

• Brainstorm This! (Authored by Jena Lewis.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about brainstorming, and how to effectively use this prewriting tool for four different writing tasks - persuasive writing, expository writing, character development, and the development of vivid and precise details for any subject.

• Break It Down (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This engaging game may be used as a group activity for the reinforcement of identifying word parts. It could be modified to be used as individual assessment of the same skill.

• Broadcasting World War II (Authored by Richard Johnson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and perform radio broadcasts relating to events and situations that affected American society in World War II. They test their listening skills during these broadcasts. They practice by responding to tasks like those found on the FCAT.

• C is for Cookie-A MEAN-ingful Graphing Activity (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in groups to dissect a variety of brands of chocolate chip cookies and calculate the mean for each brand. Students create their own bar graphs, pictographs, and line graphs to represent information

• Can You Figure Language? (Authored by Robin Ziel.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Everyone always compares themselves to someone else, however, can they understand figurative language or compare two dissimilar objects? This lesson teaches similes and metaphors and how to understand and create them.

• Can You Hear Me Now? (Authored by Miriam Buchanan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will explain steps to guide another student to reproduce a drawing. Students will also do peer evaluations critiquing articulation abilities.

• Cartoon Vocabulary (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A student’s comprehension of a vocabulary word is tested by having the student draw a picture to illustrate the meaning of the word.

• Character and Choices: Dickens' A Christmas Carol (Authored by Jeff Gillard.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this three week lesson, the teacher provides instruction in the basic elements of literature. By reading Dickens' novel students are provided the opportunity to understand how their choices can change their attitudes and behavior.

• Character and Plot Development Through Comics (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are introduced to character, plot development, point of view, and tone through the use of comic strips. Students identify these four attributes in the comic strip and present their findings to the class.

• Character Traits and People in Black History (Authored by Cynthia Lott.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read a one-page biographical essay and write in paragraph form how an African American has demonstrated a certain character trait.

• Chris' Culture Club Cruise (Authored by Christine Broyles.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Ride the virtual highway on a field trip to museums, cultural centers, and exhibition spaces to discover exciting roles of public and private facilities. Follow various links on a cultural cruise of new knowledge and make local connections.

• Cinderella Around the World (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast two versions of the same fairy tale. Students use a Venn diagram to graphically illustrate the similarities and differences in the two stories.

• Class Act (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Theater (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students in small groups prepare a short videotaped presentation dramatizing a poem.

• Classified Clues (Authored by Deborah Shaw.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using classified advertisements, students work in groups to draw conclusions and make inferences about the writer of the ad and to whom the ad may appeal.

• Clean Air (Authored by Mary LaLane.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a graphic organizer to clarify information for a presentation.

• Collaborative Compositions (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the final lesson in an expository writing unit. Students are set loose to develop, draft, and elucidate information for a research topic. Students work collaboratively to write a paper as practice for the final task of writing their own papers.

• Common Commas (Authored by April Smith.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students identify where to place commas in a word series sentence and is appropriate for ESOL students.

• Common Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots (Authored by Deborah Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way for students to identify word parts, such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words by cutting and pasting.

• Conservation Critters Anonymous, Etcetera (Authored by Wilma Horton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students access one of the designated Everglades National Park Websites to understand the intricacies of conservation and relationship balance of flora to fauna.

• Coping with Verbs (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This ESOL lesson that is week 2 of a unit, gives a review of nouns, introduces verbs, helps students understand how verbs function in sentences, explains verb tenses, and gives visual/verbal/written practice with verbs.

• Crazy Critters are Figuratively Fantastic (Authored by Andrea Farage.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The -Crazy Critters are Figuratively Fantastic- lesson uses creatures created from student’s imaginations to teach hyperbole, simile, metaphor, and alliteration in association with creative writing.

• Crazy Critters Creative Writing Assignment (Authored by Andrea Farage.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During the Crazy Critters creative writing assignment, students develop characters that take part in a narrative involving creatures that reside in a student’s imagination.

• Crazy Critters Teach Parts of Speech (Authored by Andrea Farage.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During -Crazy Critters Teach Parts of Speech,- students examine a paragraph they have written to determine the individual strengths and weaknesses of their writing. Included is a specific study of adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, nouns, and verbs.

• Create Your Island Paradise (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Create a descriptive essay and map describing your island paradise.

• Creating My Personal Animal ABC Book. (Authored by Louise Kent.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create an Animal ABC book to present to a young child. Along the way they research specific information about animals.

• Critic’s Choice (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read three to five genres and choose one as his or her favorite. Students write an essay persuading the class to read the genre.

• Design a Character (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Upon completion of the novel, [The Witch of Blackbird Pond], students write a character sketch about one of the two main characters, Kit or Hannah Tupper.

• Diagramming Annabelle Lee (Authored by Susan Taylor.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a Story Diagram Chart and a K-W-L Chart, students examine the parts of the Edgar Allan Poe poem, “Annabelle Lee.”

• Disect a Toon (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is an engaging way to introduce students to the literary elements of setting, plot, and character development.

• Do-deca-he-dron-It’s Greek to Me! (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is great for reinforcing and demonstrating knowledge of the elements of a short story. Students create a “visual” report of the literary elements with a short story. The report is a 12-sided ball called a dodecahedron.

• Does Word Choice Affect the Quality of a Piece of Writing? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will work in groups to rank a list of words from one extreme to the other, such as cold-hot, love-hate, etc. Groups will share their results with the class. After discussion and upon reviewing model descriptive writing, students will apply their knowledge by making more specific word choices to complete a descriptive writing assignment.

• Dog Gone Good Note Cards (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research a dog breed and create at least three note cards detailing information obtained about the dog breed. This is the first of three lessons that are part of a unit called, "Dog Gone Paw-erful Writing and Presenting with PowerPoint."

• Don't Eat Your Words (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using different shapes of macaroni dyed various colors, students work in pairs to apply knowledge of punctuation rules to sentences.

• Dream Killers (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What is a dream killer? A person? An idea? Students continue their exploration of figurative language and point of view in the novel, [Jacob Have I Loved].

• Dreams, Stars, and Beaches (Authored by Bobbi Shapiro.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson, students compare their own lives with that of a girl in a tenement building in New York City. Through reading -Tar Beach,- a story by Faith Ringgold, students better understand the hopes and dreams of the less fortunate.

• Easy Essays Step 1 (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the first lesson of a three-step Unit Plan: Easy Essays in Three Steps, designed to guide teachers through teaching the five-paragraph essay to students.

• Easy Essays Step 2 (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is the second step in the UnitPlan: Easy Essays in Three Steps. Students participate in mini- lessons which will encourage better essay writing.

• Easy Essays Step 3 (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the third step in a three-step Unit Plan: Easy Essays in Three Steps, which has been designed to guide teachers through teaching the five-paragraph essay format to students.

• Eating More or Less? (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Health, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate by using the Internet to research the types of eating disorders and summarize their effects on the body by creating a PowerPoint presentation or poster presentation.

• Electromagnetic Spectrum (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum.

• Email Buddies (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Teachers set up an e-mail system whereby students in different classes or schools can communicate research-based questions and answers on a given topic. (NETS for Students: 4.1)

• Environmentally Friendly (Authored by Cynthia Lott.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The focus of this lesson is to practice researching a project and write a formal letter. Students research using computers to gather information on wildlife management and use the information to write a letter to an agency.

• Escape to Freedom (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read “They Called Her Moses,” create a “Wanted Poster” for Tubman, compose a journal entry imagining they are William Still, and work in groups to create a newspaper depicting the incident of the runaway slaves and events from the time period.

• Espresso Your Feelings in Poetry (Authored by Dee Camp-White.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover that using descriptive, figurative, and vivid language to write “free verse” can be a fun form of self-expression. Students create poems using online resources and share their creations in a “coffeehouse” setting.

• Euro English (Authored by Peggy Craig.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read a short essay and cull out the directions. Then the students rewrite the essay using standard English spellings.

• Everybody Else Has One! (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Commercials have an amazing impact on buyers of all ages. By creating a commercial, students become more aware of the propaganda techniques used to impact the buying power of the consumer.

• Exposing Expository Text Structure in a Rainforest Setting (Authored by Laura Hobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson represents the first two days lessons of an expository text structure unit. In this unit students explore expository text structure through the creation of a thematic booklet containing examples of different types of expository text structures. Students use graphic organizers that correspond to a particular text structure and aid in clarifying meaning. Students locate, record, and apply their knowledge of signal words in both teacher-selected expository text and their own writing of expository text. This project culminates in the student’s reflection of their knowledge of the different types of expository text structure.

• Fable Writing (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using fables, students determine the moral or -central theme- of a piece of writing. Students create their own personal fables, editing for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.

• Fabulously Famous ABC’S (Authored by Christine Broyles.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Surf the Internet, library or even a textbook to find famous individual for a talk show at your school. Write script for an imaginary two-minute radio interview with this famous (past/present) individual.

• Fact or Fiction - What Is Expository Writing? (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the first lesson in a unit on expository writing called Info Expo. Students take a pre-test, compare and contrast various forms of writing with a Venn diagram, and explore the various formats for expository writing.

• Figuring Solutions (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Health, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Sometimes students express their resistance to learning academic concepts. This lesson avails students opportunities to discuss their attitudes and feelings so they discover possible ways to constructively respond to them.

• Filling in the [Holes] (Authored by Donald Hines.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use graphic organizers and note taking to help gain understanding and clarify meaning from the novel [Holes] and write daily inferences and generalizations about what they have read in that day’s assignment.

• Film Historian (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students determine main concept, details, stereotypes, and bias through movies. After viewing the movie, students write an essay explaining the film's influence on issues presented in the film.

• First Class Mail (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Upon completion of the novel, THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND students write a Friendly Letter to Elizabeth George Speare, the author, discussing their points of interest in the novel with her.

• Florida: A Paradise for the Written Word (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the pamphlet, FLORIDA LITERARY HISTORY, students read the article -Paradise for the Written Word: 400 Years of Literary History in Florida- by Kevin McCarthy and then answer FCAT-like questions to assess comprehension of the reading material.

• Florida’s Prize-Winning Authors (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After students study a gazetteer of Florida’s prize-winning authors in a pamphlet entitled Florida Literary Map, they select one of the mentioned authors, research his or her life, take notes, and prepare a brief biographical report.

• For Sale-Ageless Water (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a two-part lesson in which students research bottled water advertisements on the Internet and printed ads and then create their own magazine advertisement (second lesson) for the spring water in the novel [Tuck Everlasting] by Natalie Babbitt.

• Forget Us Not (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are reminded of the Holocaust and its terrible cost by examining literary selections that deal with the conflict of the Holocaust. They respond in writing using a word processing program.

• Formal or Informal? (Authored by Tresha Layne.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: With this entertaining activity students practice formal and informal English by using teacher-created scenarios. Peers evaluate each other based on a questionnaire and discussion.

• Fragments Wanted (Not) (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a newspaper employment ad, students work together in pairs or groups of three to rewrite the ad using complete sentences. Then, each student will choose an ad to rewrite.

• Free Reading Chart (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will read library book daily for ten to fifteen minutes and then log in information on a Free Reading Chart, giving a brief summary of what they just read and then writing a brief reactionary response to the reading.

• From Different Angles (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will participate in a Socratic seminar discussing a person's right to refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

• Get the Joke! (Authored by Carole Bennett.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Middle schoolers love jokes! Capitalize on this by using jokes to help them understand how word context and inference are used in everyday language to create humor.

• Getting to Know You Through Peer Editing (Authored by Linda Sheffield.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn to formulate effective questioning techniques and understand the characteristics of the interviewing process.

• Getting to Know You Through Questioning (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students have opportunities to get to know their classmates through 'personalized' sentences that feature one student each day, and offer practice in proofreading and peer-editing related to capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and/or grammar rules.

• Getting Your Students Started (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: On alternating days, students will begin class by either doing sentences for editing OR a gratitude journal. This is designed so students have a quiet activity which starts immediately at the beginning of class. The teacher is now free to take roll, etc.

• Give Me the Seven Digits (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the telephone directory, city directory, and business directory, students practice locating specific information.

• Give Me Your Vital Statistics (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a great -first week of school- activity that allows students to get to know one another while giving them the opportunity to practice their logical thinking skills.

• Good and Bad Grammar (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students collect bad grammar examples from business signs, magazines, and other printed material and then individually teach a mini-grammar lesson on at least one bad example.

• Hands On Essays (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students relate the concept of individuality of geometric shapes to the individuality of topic sentences. Students write and revise a persuasive argument essay using the Florida Writes Rubric.

• Happy Birthday to Them! (Authored by Gwen Hafford.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the Internet to "pop-in" on popular singers. (NETS for Students: 5.1)

• Happy Holidays (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After using Chris Van Allsburg's POLAR EXPRESS as a writing prompt, students create a holiday story while working in cooperative learning groups.

• Hello... I'd Like You to Meet..... (Authored by Dixie Wheelock.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students interview and introduce each other to the class as an opening activity at the beginning of a new class, semester, or school year. This can be adapted to any group meeting for the first time.

• Help Me Learn About the Holocaust (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in groups using presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint to create a slide presentation highlighting the elements of literature contained in Holocaust novels. The slide presentation follows preset criteria.

• Hero Spontaneous Lecture (Authored by Christine Schuyler.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students select and research a real-life hero. They then prepare short lectures for their classmates based upon the research they gain from a variety of primary and secondary sources.

• Hey Mom, Are We There Yet? (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students locate, organize and interpret information from a variety of sources to create a travel brochure for a selected destination of their choice.

• Hey, I Don't Have Enough Stuff! (Authored by Nina Treadway.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover through this simulated activity that resources are unequally distributed throughout the world and that regions use resources differently.

• Hide and Seek Vocabulary! (Authored by Linda Gobran.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity uses a unique strategy to build student word recognition. Student partners practice new words using their verbal, visual, and kinesthetic intelligences.

• Holey Story (Authored by Michelle Gordon.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Holey Story!! Student groups create story sheets with missing vocabulary words. Students locate context clues, justify their work, and evaluate their responses.

• Home Sweet Home (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and implement a schedule of activities designed to help their parents improve their physical conditions.

• Honest Abe's Economy of Words (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write expository essays using the FCAT writing prompt format and the FCAT scoring method and rubric after reading ACROSS FIVE APRILS and a study of the Gettysburg Address

• Honk If You Love Writing (... and Bumper Stickers!) (Authored by Jeannie Overby.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this activity, students collect and create bumper stickers and examine how they influence people.

• Household Products - Past to Future (Authored by Judy Marburger.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will research and explore the development of household inventions.

• How Can We Organize Study of a Given Place? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The Five Themes of Geography is an organized way to study any area of the world. It is the adopted method of the National Geographic Society. This is a beginning of the year cooperative group activity where students embark in discovery of basic facts about an assigned continent and are asked to organize their information into categories. The Five Themes model is taught and students reshuffle their information appropriately and make a display and class presentation of their findings.

• How Do I Get There From Here? (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a school map to create a charted course and a corresponding written description of the directions for travel from class to class, beginning with an arrival location in the morning and ending with a departure location in the afternoon.

• How Logical Is Garfield? (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students analyze the comics found in the newspaper for samples of logical, emotional, and ethical appeal. They write a paragraph for each selected comic strip explaining how the comic strip represents the use of logic, emotions, or ethics.

• How Long Is Forever? (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use graphic organizers to predict events that may take place in the novel, [Tuck Everlasting] and make inferences about what is read.

• How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation (Authored by Sheila Sexton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is designed to help students become familiar with creating a PowerPoint presentation. After being given a demonstration of how PowerPoint works, students create a PowerPoint slide presention that can be used in another subject area. (NETS for Students: 3.1 and 3.2)

• Human Impact on the Everglades Environment (Authored by Cheryl Darbyshire.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research changes the Army Corps made in Everglades, focus on the human impact on the environment, design graphic organizers, summary statements, develop a Florida map of the Everglades region and give a presentation about what they learned.

• Human Sentences (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson allows students a hands-on opportunity to learn grammar. The students will work in groups to create human sentences to demonstrate for the class how to correctly use commas when punctuating dates in sentences.

• I Am a Book (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are encouraged to take advantage of their right to read books.

• I Hate My Sibling? (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Can you truly hate your sibling? Students explore this controversial question and examine literary techniques used by the author as they begin to read the book [Jacob Have I Loved].

• I Highly Recommend It (Authored by Carmel Monaghan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis, students submit critical reviews via the Internet as a way to publish their personal responses to the novel.

• I Just Want to Say (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: I just want to say- I love you, I hate you, things haven’t been easy for me, and much more. Through the use of poetry, people can relay a powerful message. Students study poetic devices included in conversation poems and explore their eloquent messages.

• I Love Navarre (Authored by Regan Lee.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The Navarre Beach area (or your area) is growing rapidly. The Chamber of Commerce wants help in creating a brochure for families with middle-school students who may be moving to our area. Students engage in a project-based lesson to provide the needed information. Note: This lesson addresses only the part of LA.B.2.3.3 dealing with using appropriate formats, presenting the brochure as one type of persuasive format. This lesson only addresses the part of LA.B.1.3.3 that deals with producing final documents that have been edited for correct spelling and punctuation. Students should have had prior experience and instruction in editing.

• I Think Mom Loves You Best (Authored by Margaret Graham.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an introductory lesson for teaching the literary element, point of view. Students apply understanding of information from a picture book story to write their own family position paragraphs.

• I'm A Poet and Now I Know It (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the final phase of the poetry unit, I’m a Poet and Didn’t Know It! Using ideas generated from other poems and their own inspiration, students create original poetry. A celebration is included as students bind and submit poems for publication.

• I’m a Little Crab Pot (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students delve more deeply into figurative language and conflict/resolution as they complete the novel, Jacob Have I Loved.

• I’m Convinced! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After learning about the various kinds of persuasive techniques used to sell products, students create and write an advertisement for peanut butter.

• Illustrated Quotes of Julius Caesar (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students make a booklet of twenty illustrated quotations from William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar.

• Improving the Quality of Life (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson focuses on contributions made by individuals of diverse backgrounds in medicine, science and technology.

• In the Presence of Oxygen (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Working in groups, students design a poster depicting aerobic and anaerobic exercises or activities. Posters are set up at stations for students to examine and determine which activities are aerobic and which are anaerobic.

• Incredible Inventions That Make A Difference (Authored by Beverly Simpkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use reading and research skills to effectively retrieve and synthesize information about inventions that have made an impact in their lives. This is an introductory lesson on developing timelines.

• Information Sensation! (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the second lesson in a unit on expository writing. Students are brought up to speed on narrowing the topic, conducting research, and creating source cards. Students practice recording bibliographic information in a research scavenger hunt.

• Information Shuffle (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the fifth lesson in an expository writing unit. Students are set loose to explore, examine, and evaluate information for a research topic. Ultimately, students shuffle and physically sort their note cards into an organizational pattern for writing.

• Introducing World War II (Authored by Richard Johnson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students practice listening skills while getting an overview of the events of WWII. Emphasis is placed on events mentioned in the novel, [Jacob Have I Loved]. Writing an FCAT style short response on one of the focal events assesses writing skills.

• Invertebrates, No Backbone, No Problem (Authored by Cheryl Darbyshire.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students study characteristics of invertebrates, observe a micro-habitat for two weeks, research an invertebrate, create a profile poster, and present a report.

• Investigating Langston Hughes (Authored by Joan Phillips.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will read and appreciate the writing of great American Authors. For example, Langston Hughes was the first African American author to be published and widely acclaimed in the literature world. An investigation into his life and times will give students an insight to his genius. Long term goal: The students will use technology to garner information about famous American authors. The students will have selected sites to explore. The students will learn to save that information from the internet to a disk. The disk will store the data and pictures that will be used later for a PowerPoint presentation. (See PowerPoint attachment.)

• It Is a Job (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read a non-fiction book about a career and write a six-paragraph expository composition about the book.

• It's Raining Idioms! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through illustrations and paraphrasing, students will analyze idioms in order to comprehend their literal meanings.

• Langston Hughes (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Come and enjoy Langston Hughes' poetry and lyrics via the Internet. No books needed!

• Language for Sale (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students rewrite a catalogue description of an item for sale. The new ad reflects a change in the voice of the writing, and the writing is edited for conventions.

• Lead Me On - Writing Lively Leads for Book Reviews (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the concepts found in a PowerPoint presentation, students learn to write leads for book reviews that attract readers and stimulate book interest.

• Leading into Good Writing (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students identify and create “leads” for art work and essays.

• Legends Old and New (Authored by Martha Grant.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this activity, student teams read Native American legends from books and Web sites, write an original legend with enriched word choice and elaboration, and practice volume, pacing, stress, and pronunciation through a suede/flannel board presentation.

• Life Box (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will decorate the outside of a small box, using words and pictures to depict how they see themselves, and they will decorate the inside to show how others see them. Students will present an oral presentation, explaining the box’s decorations.

• Life Is Like (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Is life really like a box of chocolates? Is it more like a bowl full of cherries? Students explore how to create their own metaphors for life.

• Little Mysteries Solved in a Poem (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is designed to help students think abstractly and randomly about solving life's little problems and then taking that knowledge to create a life is... metaphor or simile poem.

• Living Biographies (Multimedia Project) (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a multimedia slide presentation containing facts, graphics, and sounds relating to a biographical figure based on their reading of a biography or an autobiography. Students present their slide presentations before the class. (NETS for Students: 3.1 and 3.2)

• Look It Up! (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students improve their writing skills by finding, defining, and correctly using new and interesting vocabulary words.

• Look Who's Talking to Me (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are able to make a determination of effective speeches based on good speaking habits and then use the information to aid in improving their own presentations.

• Mad About Parts of Speech (Authored by Stefanie Bozeman.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students review and use the different parts of speech using Mad Libs or Web Libs. They also utilize creative writing skills by providing the most interesting word(s) for the story line.

• Map the Mystery! (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Upon completion of the novel, THE HOUSE OF DIES DREAR students analyze the plot and recall events chronologically to create a story map.

• Mass Manipulation (Authored by Heather Burnett.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson encourages students to discover, become aware of, think about, and record methods the media (news journalists and programs they produce) used to persuade the audience to think the way they want them to think.

• Mass, Volume and Density (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast mass, volume, and density of various objects.

• Mathematical Contributions by Women (Authored by Diane Bates.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students explore the contributions of women to mathematics by writing a research paper, presenting a summary to their peers, and sharing an activity with their peers.

• Mathematicians Through Time (Authored by Kim Douberley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson offers students the opportunity to conduct research on the Internet about mathematicians and to synthesize that information into a timeline.

• Meet Me at My House (Authored by Cheryl Weaver.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students improve their writing skills by writing directions from school to their houses to give to a friend. The directions must be sequential and include direction words (north, south, east, west), landmarks and specific street names.

• Memory of a Kiss (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read, discuss, and memorize the poem -Jenny Kissed Me- by Leigh Hunt. The students then write a letter to Jenny imagining that they are an elderly person reliving the memory of her kiss.

• Millennium Santa! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a paragraph using descriptive language to create a vivid image of their idea of a more modern, updated version of Santa Claus--the Millennium Santa!

• Millennium Scrapbook (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a millennium scrapbook, collecting stories about the past millennium and including photos of local, national, international events. They may also include information about personal lives.

• Mix and Match Poetry (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and use mixed up one-word poetry cards to write short, vivid poems.

• More or Less (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a workout program that concentrates on aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercises. They demonstrate exercises to their peers and participate in their individualized fitness program for six weeks, tracking their progress in their journals.

• Mouthwatering Adjectives! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use adjectives to write descriptions of food items in order to create a restaurant menu.

• Mr./Ms.Scientist, This Is Your Life (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a timeline of ten events in chronological order about a scientist to include his/her accomplishments. Students practice by completing a personal timeline in which they follow verbal instructions.

• My Reading Words in My Social Studies Book? (Authored by Michelle Gordon.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Student groups, using subject area textbooks, locate words with specific word parts (prefixes, roots, suffixes) in order to better comprehend the word meaning.

• Nature Walk Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write and share a poem after taking a -nature walk- for inspiration.

• Neat Nouns (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This week long lesson is part 1 of a unit that teaches ESOL students about grammar. Students construct sentences using nouns, recognize nouns in listening activities, identify nouns, and present nouns from a song to the class.

• Neb -u- la (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson will allow students to conduct research on the life cycle of stars using the Internet.

• News Anchor (Authored by Mary LaLane.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students understand the effect of volume, stress, pacing, and pronunciation on the deliverance of a mock newscast.

• News Poetry (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students choose a newspaper article and dramatize it in a well-constructed poem.

• Newspaper Knowledge (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The purpose of this lesson is to acquaint students with a local newspaper and to teach them to interpret the written information for their own use.

• Newsworthy Fairy Tales (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reviewing several familiar fairy tales, students work in small groups to rewrite the familiar story as it might read as a news article in today’s newspaper.

• No Plagiarism, Please! (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the third lesson in a unit on expository writing. Instruction provides boundaries for taking notes by differentiating between paraphrasing, quoting, and summarizing. Students practice writing note cards.

• Novel Tee (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students illustrate a fiction novel by painting a depiction of the book on a tee shirt and then share with the class.

• Observing Sensory Details (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In small groups, students choose two experiences or images from a given list and experience or directly observe each detail before they write about it, describing each one in several sentences.

• Off to a Great Start (Authored by Cecilia Harbin.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are introduced to the school handbook which includes rules for student conduct. Class rules and expectations are also discussed.

• Oh Man, History in Language Arts (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: As an introduction to a video-literature unit on [Jane Eyre], students research aspects of the Victorian Era.

• Oh My Darling (Authored by Rebecca Hobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What happened to Clementine? Students make generalizations/summations of each verse of ("Oh, My Darling") "Clementine" and infer what kind of person the narrator is.

• Oh, Say Can You Said? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students revise a document replacing the overused verb -said- with more elevated word choice.

• On Becoming a Grammar Guru (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students review and practice the basic parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, and possessives) by creating and entering their own stories on a Website or by sharing their stories with a friend. (NETS for Students: 3.1)

• On Top of the World (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After the teacher reads excerpts from an autobiography and a magazine article about a blind’s man journey to climb farther than the eye can see, students write a bio-poem about him.

• One Pager (Authored by Shelly Clark.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel FREAK THE MIGHTY students will be able to describe and illustrate the setting of the novel, explain character development through production of a graphic organizer, and identify the elements of the plot.

• Out of the Dust 1 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After being introduced to the novel, OUT OF THE DUST, students create an autobiographical poem using figurative language.

• Out of the Dust 2 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel OUT OF THE DUST students explore language from the past.

• Out of the Dust 3 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: While students are reading the novel, OUT OF THE DUST, they create charts, answer questions, and ultimately take an FCAT type assessment to demonstrate understanding of what they read.

• Out of the Dust 4 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel, OUT OF THE DUST, students create a free-verse poem about a treasure.

• Outline and Shine (Authored by Candace Culberson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Use the note taking strategy of outlining to reinforce an understanding of setting, character, plot, and theme.

• Painless Poetry (Authored by summer zephyr.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Children learn how to write poetry in a painless way. They learn that it can be fun and that our language can be flexible. By putting together various forms of easy-to-write poems they will learn to write them independently.

• Palindromes to WOW Student Minds (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create “Palindromes,” simple sentences and phrases which read exactly the same backwards as forwards, and identify each as a sentence or fragment.

• Paw-er up for PowerPoint (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to display research material in PowerPoint slide format. This is the second lesson in a unit called, "Dog gone Paw-erful Writing and Presenting with PowerPoint."

• Perky Prefixes (Authored by Eva Kilpatrick.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson focuses on prefixes. The students create games of their choice to be played with the class to reinforce their knowledge of prefixes.

• Personality Plus (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a -Personality Box- and present to classmates using specific speaking skills.

• Personally Speaking (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students reflect on the choices they have in society today and compare them to Kit's choices in the novel, THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by writing expository essays in which they discuss these choices.

• Personify This (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Can a tree’s fingers really stretch towards the setting sun? They can if the author is using personification! Students study personification in published works of poetry then create their own through the use of diamante or cinquain poetry.

• Picture Me with Words (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will produce an art and writing project that introduces them to the concept that words define who we are.

• Playing Detective (Authored by Bethany Cookman.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using Roald Dahl’s “The Landlady,” students play detective to learn about foreshadowing and how it contributes to plot development in a text.

• Please Tell Me a Story (Authored by Sabrina Allen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: To a sixth grader, what is a day to remember? During this activity the students write narrative essays, which demonstrate an organizational pattern having a beginning, middle, end and transitional devices.

• Plot the Oysters’ Peril! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the narrative poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll, students use a comic strip format to study the organization and presentation of ideas and supporting details in the plot sequence of the poem.

• Poetry Book (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in cooperative groups to find poems that exemplify the characteristics of word choice, dialect, invented words, concrete terms, abstract terms, sensory language, figurative language, sentence structure, line length, and rhythm.

• Poetry in Motion (Authored by Darnita McDaniel.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is an excellent way to reinforce students’ knowledge of poetry and allow students the opportunity for self-expression through creative writing.

• Poetry Pot (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Student delivers oral, informative presentation on a favorite poem that the student has artistically illustrated with images, title, author's name, and words of poem on a clay flowerpot, effectively communicating ideas and feelings about the poem.

• Point of You (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about point of view by rewriting an existing narrative paragraph (using a different point-of-view). Students expand this knowledge by writing an expository paragraph, then rewriting it to reflect a different point-of-view.

• Ponyboy, What’s a Theme? (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students seek supporting proof of major conflicts and themes in the novel, [The Outsiders] by S.E. Hinton.

• Portfolio Autobiographies (Authored by Louise Kent.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students create autobiographies. The final projects are published using word-processing and computer graphics. (NETS for Students 1.1, 3.1 and 3.2)

• Post-It Poetry (Authored by Kathryn Bonelli.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Are you tired of reading students' bland language? This lesson teaches students how to spice up their work using vivid words and images.

• Practice Makes it Better (Authored by Cheryl Weaver.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students produce a final document that becomes published on the World Wide Web.

• Predictions, Predictions, and More Predictions (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students pose questions about the subject of a short story based on the title and cover illustration; then read the story and determine if their questions actually pertained to the story line, and, if so, how the story answered the questions.

• Preposition Pizazz (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a poem made up of prepositional phrases.

• Presentations Come Alive! (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students deliver oral presentations about a book or short story using audiovisual aids.

• Prewriting Strategies (Authored by Evelyn Rivera.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Tired of listening to students saying they don’t know how to start writing? This lesson guides students in selecting appropriate prewriting activities to make writing a painless and fun experience.

• Properties of Waves (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students observe and investigate wave properties.

• Read All About It (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a variety of magazines, students work cooperatively to determine the main idea of a text and how details help support the main idea.

• Reader's Review (Authored by Patricia Wachholz.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create their own booklets to provide information on the elements of a novel, including plot, setting, character, major and minor conflicts and theme.

• Reading for Righties and Lefties. (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a year-long project which appeals to students who are concrete-based learners as well as those who lean toward the abstract. This reading workshop program is an open reading forum in which students choose their own novels they would like to read.

• Reading Restaurant (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Transform your classroom into a Reading Restaurant where students enjoy a variety of book titles through oral reading.

• Rest in Peace, Maniac Magee (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel, MANIAC MAGEE, students use precise words to create an epitaph for each of the major characters reflecting the individual character¹s personality and nature.

• Riddles and Words (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What color is a jaundiced pig? Hamber, of course! Using an exciting vocabulary game in which students create riddles and answers, this lesson explores word choice, paraphrasing, and summarizing.

• Rights in the Holocaust: Imagine and Remember (Authored by Christine Sermons.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This poetry writing activity is designed to introduce students to the Holocaust as a violation of personal, political, and economic rights. It is a component of a larger unit on American constitutional government.

• Ring, Ring . . . Please Get That Phone (Authored by Athena Gill.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a multimedia PowerPoint presentation using proper telephone procedures. Using the Internet, students produce a presentation containing proper telephone procedures. (NETS for Students: 3.2)

• Rip, You're Sleepin' Your Life Away (Authored by Cheree Brown.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A Venn diagram is used to show how two things are alike and different. Think about Rip's life before and after he fell asleep for 20 years. Fill in the Venn diagram by writing how Rip's old life and his new life are alike and how they are different.

• Roll With the Punches: Can't We All Get Along? (Authored by Shirley Baker.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After participating in a segregation experiment, students reflect and explore their feelings and reactions to the experiment through poetry.

• Roll With the Punches: It's Not in Black and White (Authored by Shirley Baker.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students evaluate the responsibilities of history textbooks in reporting events related to minorities.

• Roll With the Punches: Oprah's On! (Authored by Shirley Baker.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel [Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry] by Mildred D. Taylor, students participate in an Oprah Winfrey Show to review events in the novel and gain a more in depth understanding of them.

• Roll With the Punches: What Do You Know? (Authored by Martha Simmons.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through a cooperative group activity, students activate prior knowledge about life in the South during the Great Depression in preparation for reading the novel, [Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry].

• Sail on the Vocabulary Ship (Authored by Patricia McAdams.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: ESOL students make paper ships on which to identify and write root words, prefixes and suffixes.

• Say What You Mean (Authored by Timothy Mark Dillehay.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are challenged to create what their partners are viewing, with only verbal communication. The reporter is not allowed to see what the receiver is drawing, which forces students to understand the importance of detailed instruction, clear communication, and following directions.

• Scavenger Search (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using library resource materials, reference books, electronic media, and the Internet, students search for answers to questions.

• School Daze--Remembering First, Best, Worst (Authored by Glenda Fillingim.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gather and record information in interviews with adults discovering their first, best, and worst school memories. Students transfer this interview information to a memory page containing the interview information. Students orally present one part of their memory page.

• Scrambled Stories (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students brainstorm several examples of plots, settings, and characters and randomly select these elements to create their own short stories.

• Scrambled Stories II (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use different parts of other students' story outlines to write very unique short stories. This activity allows the students to use their imaginations as they try to put together a story using only the information they are given.

• See How They Run (Authored by Ramona Guth.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students view non-print campaign advertisements and analyze for factual and persuasive information. They determine which advertisement is the most persuasive and share reasons to support their decisions with a peer.

• Seeking Super Cities (Authored by Louise Jones.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Did you ever want to move to another city in the United States? If so, come travel with us on a Super City Search. Researchers, start your engines!

• Self-Portrait Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a self-portrait poem, giving the reader an indication what he or she is like on the inside, instead of picturing how he or she looks on the outside.

• Selling, Spending, or Saving (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use commercials to discover emotional benefits and challenges associated with communications about finances.

• Sidewalks to Success in Middle School (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a brochure that will be placed in the receiving area of the school to educate incoming students on how to succeed in middle school.

• Slang Ain't the Thang! (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: By creating a visual image with words, the listeners are invited into the scene created by the speaker. Students look at a speaker's tools to learn how to use words and images to express a message.

• Slithering into Revision (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using Aesop’s short fable, “The Dove and the Snake,” students will learn the importance of sensory language and sentence structure in creative writing while practicing the steps and procedures to good writing.

• Sneetches by Dr. Seuss (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity provides the students with the opportunity to use persuasive writing to influence others regarding prejudicial issues.

• So You Want to Be a TV Reporter! (Authored by Sue Orth.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gain information from an interview with each other in order to write a script for a video segment.

• Sold! Ageless Water (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: With the popularity of bottled water today, students create a magazine advertisement for the spring water, which causes a person to live forever, in the novel [Tuck Everlasting] by Natalie Babbitt.

• Solving Science Mysteries (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using resource materials, small groups investigate a science-related mystery, then write and deliver a persuasive speech that supports the theory of the mystery.

• Song Analysis (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students pretend that they have just landed a job with a local music magazine, and their first assignment is to write a short article in which they interpret the lyrics of a popular song.

• Southern Fried Sentences (Authored by Traci Damron.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: You can’t deep-fry your students, but you can immerse them in the process of creating properly written sentences! Take a fun stab at extreme Southern dialects by having students read aloud and correct improper sentences. Get ready to laugh!

• Space: The Final Frontier (Authored by Cynthia Lott.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use electronic technology to find information on the solar system and then construct a graph to explain the information. They also demonstrate a solar or lunar eclipse by providing a written explanation with an illustration of the planet chosen.

• Speeches to Introduce (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create multimedia speeches of introduction which focus on women and Hispanics.

• Story Mapping: The Hundred Dresses (Authored by Mary Coyle.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Note: This lesson is a follow up to lessons on story mapping and the book [The Hundred Dresses] by Eleanor Estes. Story Mapping is a creative tool for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a story. Within this assignment, students illustrate and paraphrase each chapter of [The Hundred Dresses], creating a graphic organizer through the use of story mapping.

• Studying Anchor Papers (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How can students best learn something? By doing it! By scoring Florida Writes/F-CAT essay anchor papers, students are provided an opportunity to better their own essays.

• Subject and Verb Agreement: Using Literature (Authored by david gingold.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Given two excerpts from a classic literary novel, language arts students will identify and correct the discrepancies in subject and verb agreement.

• Symbolic Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write and share a symbolic poem about simple things that stand for deeper subjects.

• Take My Word for It (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students take a summative assessment, then begin researching and organizing information for an oral presentation on significant leaders in history.

• Take the Challenge (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a program that will improve their overall fitness levels. They keep daily records in personal journals of all exercise and physical activities, as well as their personal thoughts and reflections on their progress toward their goals.

• Teacher of the Year (Authored by Kenny McCay.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Each student selects a teacher who he or she feels should be named as Teacher of the Year. The student plans and drafts a paragraph to convince the class of his or her choice. After revising and editing, the student presents a clean copy of this paragraph to the selected teacher.

• Tell Me That You Love Me 5-7-5 (Authored by Dixie Wheelock.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson students compose Haiku poetry and visually enhance it with writing ink .

• Telling Tales (Authored by Lucille Andreu.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students share personal versions of fairy tales from their memories with each other. They listen, analyze and paraphrase the tales’ differences and similarities in a Venn diagram while asking questions for clarification.

• That Was Alpha Smart of You (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students utilize the Alpha Smart mini word processor units during a writing workshop to draft and edit a piece of writing.

• The 3 R's of Common Denominators (Language) (Authored by Michael Newton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After solving various word problems that deal with common denominators, students practice writing the mathematical explanation they used to obtain the solution.

• The 3 R's of Common Denominators (Reading) (Authored by Kathleen Long.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The purpose of this lesson is for the teacher to introduce common math terms that are relevant to determining the common denominator for two or more fractions. This is a lead in to Math Part 2 of this lesson.

• The Assassin’s Hand (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, students research the assassination of another historical figure.

• The Days of Jane Eyre's Life (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students watch the video [Jane Eyre] by Charlotte Bronte and visually discover the elements of the novel.

• The Grass is Always Greener (Authored by Judy Marburger.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will use common grass to observe and experiment with cellular division.

• The House that Dies Drear Built (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Virginia Hamilton is a master of descriptive language. Create a descriptive paragraph describing the landscape around your house.

• The Inside Story (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: When is a door not a door? When it’s symbolic of something else! Students study the usage of symbolism in poetry and examine how symbolism can be used to explain their own lives and emotions.

• The Land and the Water (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast the tragic event that occurs in a work of fiction to a real-life tragic experience that occurs in a work of non-fiction.

• The Language of Shakespeare (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In small groups, students write and dramatize a scene using Elizabethan language.

• The Multimedia Heart (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Health, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Working in groups, students research the different aspects of the human heart. Groups work through steps to create a multimedia slide presentation. The presentation must follow preset criteria.

• The Mysteries of Twins (Authored by Melinda Dukes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How can twins help us uncover important information about hereditary? Students are taught how to read science content through the modeling of proper summarization techniques using the article, "Mysteries of Twins." Then, they practice the same reading techniques using another section of the same article.

• The Problem with Prejudice (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will read/discuss -The Hangman- by Maurice Ogden and answer questions about the poem. Students will list things they can do to combat prejudice using each of the letters in the word and create a small poster with a slogan against prejudice.

• The Rest of the Story (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a short story as a writing prompt, students use background knowledge to predict ideas, give rationale for predictions, and confirm predictions as the story progresses. Students also complete a cooperative group writing assignment.

• The Story of My Life (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students respond to daily autobiographical assignments that will be published into a book.

• The Timeline of a Lifetime (Authored by Haley Caraway.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The student will know what a timeline is, create a timeline with 4 important events of their life, to include 2 national events and 2 world events. The student will then write an essay about their life including the four events.

• The True Story (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students rewrite their favorite fairy tale from another character’s perspective other than the one in which it is written. This lesson helps students become familiar with the the literary term -point of view.-

• There's a Writer Waiting Inside Me (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Psst....Did you know there’s a writer waiting inside each of your students? In this introductory lesson, students are introduced to the concept, What Makes Good Poetry? and are asked to explore the writer within!

• This is Straight From The Horse's Mouth (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a PowerPoint presentation to learn about the history of some idioms, how they are used in our language today and practice using idioms themselves.

• This Lesson is Totally Trippy Man (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A fun way to link the past to the present is through the identification of slang terms. Small group work, interviewing of parents, relatives or neighbors helps students discover slang is not unique to their generation but has existed for a long time.

• Those Baffling Bibliographies! (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the fourth lesson in a unit on expository writing. Instruction guides students in using source cards to create a Works Cited list for a report.

• To Read or Not to Read ? That Is the Question (Authored by Nancy Montague.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to use the book jacket to predict what the book is about. This aids in the decision to read or not to read the book, and decreases the amount of time they spend trying to find a book for pleasure or research.

• Toontime (Authored by Millard Nixon.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson students write an essay about the govermental issues that surrounded Andrew Jackson's presidency. They discuss how editorial cartoons are made and create an editorial cartoon of their own about a president.

• Training for the Big Show (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using PowerPoint as a visual aid, students orally present information from research to the class. This is the third and final lesson plan in the unit.

• Traveling Through Europe with Brochures (Authored by Sheila Sexton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is designed to help students become familiar with the cultural aspects of their chosen country through creating a travel brochure and an expression booklet. (NETS for Students 1.2 and 5.1)

• Tree Brains (Authored by Linda Doty.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Do you want your students to have fun and learn at the same time? Why not try hanging their brains out on trees? This lesson will teach students to pre-write using graphic organizers, checklist, and a rubric.

• Uniforms vs. Fashion: Want to Take a Side? (Authored by Constance Light.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a draft of a persuasive essay to the principal addressing the issue of whether or not Three Oaks Middle School should adopt uniforms.

• Up and Down (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students participate in a variety of aerobic exercises placed at different stations and calculate their recovery heart rate after each exercise.

• Vocabulary Bingo (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students extend their vocabulary by participating in the Vocabulary Bingo activity. This activity can be used with other subjects to help improve vocabulary.

• Vocabulary Drawing (Authored by Jeannie Overby.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Vocabulary review by drawing pictures and writing sentences on index cards. Variations are found in CRISS strategies. This review can also be used with other subject area vocabulary studies.

• Wanted New Authors! (Authored by Gloria Smith.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will learn to write a short autobiographical sketch and produce an author page to be used throughout the year with their writing. Students will learn how to take digital camera photos and produce a PowerPoint slide show with their photos and information.

• Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 (Authored by Patricia Wachholz.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use graphic organizers and create timelines to make an historical connection to the 1960s as a prereading activity for The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963.

• Web It! (Authored by Gloria Smith.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about using a web graphic organizer effectively as a prewriting tool for expository writing.

• What a Difference a Year Makes: Billy's Letter (Authored by Thomasine Kennedy.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students complete a post reading activity for the novel [Where The Red Fern Grows]. They write a RAFT letter from the point-of-view of the character Billy to his grandpa reflecting about the death of his dogs and his adjustment to life in town.

• What Do You Think? (Authored by Janice Jowers.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The story, THE PAIN AND THE GREAT ONE, written from two different points-of-view, is read to the children. The students then read statements made by the characters in the book and identify from which character’s point-of-view the statement was made.

• What Goes in Must Come Out (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Applied Technology, Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students devise a plan for modifying caloric intake and energy expenditure. Each week, they track information and record it in their journals. They use feedback to adjust their plans and then assess their progress.

• What Goes Up Must Come Down (Authored by Karin Friend.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity has students creating a story map identifying the complex elements of plot, after reading the novel [The Cay].

• What Is the Language of Television? (Authored by Lisa Meltzer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson, students explore the language of moving pictures. By creating and understanding the basic building blocks used to form a video sequence (wide shot, medium shot and close-up), the student will discover how communication is enhanced. (NETS for Students: 4.2)

• What Kind of Student Do You Want to Be? (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write an essay which answers the question, “What kind of student do I want to be?”

• What Makes a Good Speaker? (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Improvement of public speaking skills doesn’t have to be difficult or boring. In the first lesson of the unit, -Speak for Yourself,- students respond to a diagnostic assessment to determine what they need to know in order to become good speakers.

• What's for Dinner? (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this activity, students use adjectives to describe foods listed in restaurant menus. In cooperative groups, students create menus and identify the adjectives used in the menu created by their group.

• What's in a Name? (Middle School) (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a quote from Shakespeare’s [Romeo and Juliet], the student creates a flower that illustrates himself or herself using scraps of colored paper and markers. In an informal presentation, students share how their flowers represent them.

• What's So Nice About Fairy Tales? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read fairy tales and then write a modernized version of the story. Students then compare their version to the original version and analyze whether or not the author's purpose is compromised.

• What's the Big Idea? (Middle School) (Authored by Abby Hill.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn to identify the main idea in a reading passage by using a technique to eliminate unnecessary words that are not relevant to the main idea.

• What's the Scoop on Casey? (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read and then use details from Ernest L. Thayer's "Casey at the Bat" to create a newspaper article about Casey's infamous at-bat.

• What's the Scoop on Slang? (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a fictional news article about a sports event using slang (jargon) which is based on the special jargon (slang) that sportswriters have developed for writing and talking about sports.

• What's the Story? (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the novel [The Giver] by Lois Lowry, students write a continuation story based on Jonas’s and Gabriel’s journeys into Elsewhere.

• What's Up, Doc? (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Applied Technology, Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and then participate in a fitness program designed to improve their cardiovascular fitness. Students document the benefits of participation in the fitness program in their journals.

• What's Your Opinion? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through a Think-Share pre-reading activity, students formulate and negotiate opinions on issues that will be addressed in the literature to be studied in preparation for reading the novel, [Sing Down the Moon]. Students also make predictions based on the activity about what events might occur in the novel.

• When Old Meets New (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a T-chart, students synthesize and separate collected information. Students define comparison and contrast in literature for diagnostic assessment.

• Where Is Your Story Set? (Authored by Kathryn Clark.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students develop an understanding of setting in literature by first examining where their own life stories are currently set and then imagining what their ideal settings would be.

• Where No Student Has Gone Before (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: As a pre-reading activity for the novel, A WRINKLE IN TIME, cooperative writing groups create a story about an unknown planet suddenly invaded by humans.

• Which Car Will Mom Approve? (Authored by Dawn Kaunike.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Which car will Mom spend the money for? This lesson focuses on writing a comparison/contrast essay about two cars the student wants. The student’s purpose is to determine which one of the two cars should be purchased from the parents’ perspective.

• Who Is That Ghostly Character? (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students provide an additional scene to the radio play, "The Hitchhiker," by Lucille Fletcher. The conclusion explains the role of the hitchhiker and ends Adam's traumatic travel experience.

• Who Me? A Writer? (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gain information from an interview and organize the information in order to create a three-part biography of the person they interviewed. This is a good lesson to do the first month of school.

• Who Needs a Dress Code? (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the Dress Code Guidelines from a Code of Student Conduct, students make notes and create a poster to present appropriate/inappropriate examples of students’ grooming/attire, and include comments regarding the need for each guideline.

• Who's Confused? Not Me! (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create flashcards that explain often confused words which enables them to understand correct usage in writing.

• Who's Speaking? (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students prepare a short speech, record it on video tape, edit, then deliver the speech. (NETS for Students: 4.1 and 4.2)

• Whodunit? Creating Mysterious Plays (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The activity is designed to have students study mystery plays and then write and perform their own plays.

• Why Do Authors Write? (Authored by Delshuana Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson students use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author’s purpose for writing.

• Working Hard or Hardly Working (Authored by Jennifer Hall.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an individual research project during which students learn about a specific career. The project provides students the opportunity to gain new information, utilize electronic technology, and write a grade-level appropriate paper.

• Write or You’re History! (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write letters demonstrating their knowledge of how to use English in formal and informal settings.

• Yes, No, Maybe So! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After looking at various pictures, the students, as a class, identify the ones illustrating action verbs. Then, after looking at a picture individually, students write sentences using strong, active verbs summarizing the action in the picture.

• You Are What You Read (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students select a prose, poetry, or nonfiction excerpt from a book of their choice and share it by reading aloud to their classmates, who identify the genre and respond to related questions in their journals.

• You Can Judge a Book by Its Cover (Authored by Kimberly Marlow.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: As an introduction to teaching a new novel, students make predictions about the novel's story line. Students then form groups of three to come to a consensus prediction about the novel which is presented to the class.

• You Do Judge a Book by Its Cover (Authored by Patricia Morres.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After viewing several magazine pictures of different types of people, students recognize how much we stereotype.

• You G.O.T. It! (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a graphic organizer, students synthesize and separate collected information. G.O.T. stands for Graphic Organization using a T-chart.

• Zoom In with Internet Keyword Searches (Authored by Linda Robertson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gain an understanding of appropriate search skills for locating information while using the Internet as a reference source. Students will search for answers for content-specific questions after identifying keywords and phrases to use as they access different search engines on the Internet.