Students with disabilities often face barriers that hinder their capacity to access general education curricula and show their learning. Modifications to curricula and lesson plans can help reduce these barriers. Modifications are changes to what instruction is delivered--which tasks students complete and what content they learn. Previous research…

Connecting art and language arts, this guide offers creative lessons for more than 140 favorite children's books, most of which have been published within the last 10 years. The lessons help teachers inspire students in grades K-5 to create art projects related to a book's story. In the first part of the book, the author explains more than 50 art…

A unit on poetry for gifted students is presented. Five activities focus on distinguishing poetry from prose, poetry from mere rhyme, and examining characteristics of poetry. Excerpts of poems and questions for students are included. (CL)

The border between fact and fiction becomes blurred in legend, stories which themselves have a history, and in their evolving shape they carry the imprint of all the hands that passed them. Through the Internet, students can track the growth of a legend like that of King Arthur, from its emergence in the so-called Dark Ages to its arrival on the…

This lesson explores the vision of childhood created by Lewis Carroll in "Alice in Wonderland." Students begin by looking at Carroll's photographs of the real Alice for whom Carroll imagined his story and compare the image of childhood that he captured on film with images of children in our culture. Then students read "Alice in…

Drawing on 8 years of classroom-centered research, the Book Club program integrates instruction in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Student-led discussion groups form the heart of the program, and they provide a real-world context for learning that motivates children and fosters the development of both academic and social skills. This…

This guide contains 65 model lesson plans developed by Delaware public school English/language arts teachers for grades 1-12. Each entry in the guide lists content standards, the type(s) of activities involved in the lesson (for example, class discussion, oral reports, student writing), a description of the activity, and a selection of relevant…

Ancient languages are the deepest root of the humanities, drawing life from that distant time when the study of history, philosophy, literature, and of language itself began. On the Internet, students can return to those times, re-enter that age of discovery, and gain the linguistic skills to help keep the many branches of the humanities rooted…

This book provides practical strategies for K-6 teachers for using nonfiction trade books in language arts and content area instruction. Research-based classroom-tested ideas are spelled out to help teachers: select from among the many quality nonfiction trade books available; incorporate nonfiction into the classroom; work with students to…

This document presents 13 detailed lesson plans for use with limited English speaking students in grades K-12 who also have disabilities. Although the formats vary, each lesson plan usually provides information on learning objectives, appropriate grade level, type of disability, correlation with national or state standards, subject areas…

The borders that separate and connect different cultures often come into sharpest relief when the focus is on themes and motifs found in the literature or the visual arts of several lands. With the Internet, students can discover such points of intercultural contact for themselves, crossing borders that can lead them to a broader perspective on…

This lesson plan highlights one episode in the "Divine Comedy" to provide students with an introduction to Dante's poem. After a brief introduction to the opening of the "Divine Comedy," which portrays Dante as a pilgrim guided by the poet Virgil on a journey through the Christian afterlife toward God, students read Canto 5 of…

Monsters have haunted the literary imagination from earliest times (e.g., the Cyclops, Grendel, etc.), but a particular interest in horror and the Gothic form dates back to the 18th and early 19th centuries. Taking their name from the Gothic architecture that often served as a backdrop to the action, these novels present supernatural events in…

This lesson plan complements study of plot and characterization in "Romeo and Juliet" by focusing on Shakespeare's use of lyric forms and conventions to spotlight moments in the drama and thereby heightens the impact of the action on the stage. Students look first at the sonnet in which Romeo and Juliet meet, analyzing the imagery to…

Anthologists and editors prepare the way for poetry readers, selecting works that reward close reading and assisting interpretation through annotation. But on the Internet people can return to poetry in its native state--one set of words among many others competing for appreciation--and read with fresh eyes. The learning objectives of this lesson…