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Experiencing the language of great poets provides a rich learning context for students, giving them access to the best examples of how words can be arranged in unique ways. By studying the works of renowned poets across cultures and histories, students extract knowledge about figurative language and poetic devices from masters of the craft. In this lesson, students learn about personification by reading and discussing poems by Emily Dickinson, William Blake, and Langston Hughes. Then they use the poems as a guide to brainstorm lists of nouns and verbs that they randomly arrange to create personification in their own poems.

Students compose found and parallel poems based on a descriptive passage they have chosen from a piece of literature they are reading. They pick out words, phrases and lines from the prose passage then arrange and format the excerpts to compose their own poems. This process of recasting the text they are reading in a different genre helps students become more insightful readers and develop creativity in thinking and writing.

"Lesson Plan Character Clash: A Minilesson on Paragraphing and Dialogue"

Activity 1: Introduction to the Genre of Memoir: Writing a Comparison/Contrast Essay, ONCE I WAS; NOW I AM (adapted from BEAT NOT THE POOR DESK, by Marie Ponsot and Rosemary Deen, Boynton/Cook Publishers, Portmouth, N.H., 1981).

Memoir article and lessonSee how Gabriel Garcia Marquez transforms memories of his grandparents into an unforgettable memoir. (PDF)

Memoir article and lesson: See how Gabriel Garcia Marquez transforms memories of his grandparents into an unforgettable memoir. (PDF)

How to have an accident in one easy lesson By LEONARD PITTS The amazing thing about the debate over the need for laws to ban texting while driving is that there is a debate over the need for laws to ban texting while driving.

Writing Fix website is a fantastic resource for mini-lessons for writing workshop, mentor texts, units of study and genres, and 6 Trait materials.

"Mentor Text Lessons: Published Poetry"

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson: Inspired by both William Carlos Williams and the main character in Sharon Creech's Love That Dog, the writer will create four original 16-word poems that capture interesting images. The writer will then choose a favorite 16-word poem and ask, "Why would so much depend upon that image to someone else?" The writer can then create a short story about an original character who might have written the 16-word poem.

Grade 7 Poetry Unit

Community Classroom is an innovative and free resource for educators, offering short-form film modules adapted from ITVS's award-winning documentaries and standards-based lesson plans for high school and community colleges, NGOs, and youth organizations."

Mini-lesson: improving sentences with thoughtful prepositional phrases. We have this text in the middle school library: 398.5 MAC

"Teacher Ideas This page features all the lesson plans and classroom ideas I've collected. They're organized by topic, with general education and Dahl resources first, books next, and shortstories last"

Short Story unit

"Short stories by Ray Bradbury is the online text version of All Summer in a Day for use with Elements of a short story Application Lesson. "

"Plot Structure Scenarios"

Through the use of dramatic reading and the exploration of Internet resources, sixth- through eighth-grade students build a greater understanding of poetry and the poet's voice. Further, the experience requires students to analyze and develop their own interpretation of a poem's meaning and representation through performance. Extension activities involve students giving an oral poetry performance of their own poetry writing.

How can you help students find meaning in informational texts and become independent strategic readers and thinkers? Nonfiction Reading Power gives teachers a wealth of effective strategies for helping students think while they read material in all subject areas. Using the best children's books to motivate students, Adrienne Gear shows teachers how help students zoom-in, question and infer; find the main idea, make connections, and transform what's on the printed page. Key introductory concept lessons for each of the five reading powers provide valuable insight into the purpose of each strategy. The book also explores the particular features of nonfiction and offers lists of key books organized around strategies and subject areas.

Unit 1

Students learn about child labor, as it occurred in England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and as it continues around the world today. Selected websites describe the conditions under which children worked during the Industrial Revolution. Each student gathers information at these websites and prepares and presents a monologue in the "voice" of someone involved in the debate over child labor in England. After dramatically assuming that person's point of view on the issue, he or she responds to audience members' questions. Students then explore and discuss the conditions of contemporary child laborers and compare them to those of the past.

In this activity, students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using lists of accurate, powerful adjectives. In class discussion, students support their lists with details from the novel.

Welcome to Kenn Nesbitt's poetry playground, Poetry4kids.com, where you will find lots of funny poems and poetry books for children, games, contests, lessons, discussion forums, and journals, plus a rhyming dictionary, funny poetry podcast, school visit information and lots more.

"What's a Feature Article?"

Feature article unit