2905 language-arts results | sort by:
Modern Haiku
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Try it for samples of contemporary haiku efforts, or submit the best works from your class.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Free Rice - freerice.com
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Reminiscent of The Reader's Digest "Enrich Your Word Power" feature, this is a great little time filler, especially for those students who always seem to be ahead of the rest of the class. They can challenge themselves to better their "level" as gauged by the site. They can challenge each other to see who will give the most grains of rice in any given session. If your class has a vocabulary glossary wiki, this site will provide many new entry ideas! You might even get into a conversation about how much 20 grains of rice really is and where around the world it might do the most good.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Aish Hanukkah Introduction - Aish
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or with a projector. Perhaps start with the Basics tab at the top and have students take the Hanukkah Quiz as a formative assessment. Then have small groups of students assigned to the different sections from the top menu. Use Jigsaw Classroom, reviewed here for students to research their section and share with others. You may want to use Padlet, reviewed here as a bulletin board for students to brainstorm what they learned and as a way for them to share with other groups.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Bookmaking with Kids - Cathy Miranker and Susie Peyton
Grades
K to 12Teachers who desire professional development and fresh ideas will want to include this site in their repertoire.
In the Classroom
Use this site to help ANY grade level create original books. Have students work with a partner to create a book together. With older students, challenge them to create a book as a culminating project for a research assignment. Have younger students create books at the beginning of the year to introduce themselves to the class. The possibilities are endless at this creative site! Modify learning and use some of the ideas to make online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Books Should Be Free - Loyal Books
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Upgrade your literature circles and include e-readers that are speech enabled. Share the stories (or full text) on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Books Should Be Free - Loyal Books provides links to the free text that accompanies the audio track. Sites such as Project Gutenberg, reviewed here, contain free versions of the full text. Students can simultaneously listen and read books on either a classroom computer, iPad, Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android, or other mobile or cell phone. These recordings will also boost fluency instruction by serving as an oral reading model. Audio-assisted books will encourage students to read with expression, improve reading comprehension, stimulate vocabulary development, and provide a way for students to read text beyond their reading level.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Supalogo - Supalogo
Grades
3 to 12.
In the Classroom
Students can create custom logos for class blogs or site. Logos can also be created for use with multimedia projects and presentations. Have groups design logos for their project or for your class, then use them throughout the year to promote pride of ownership in class projects and accomplishments. During the first week of school, have students design "personal" logos that tell about themselves and include them on your class web page. Demonstrate this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students try out the site on their own.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Sleepover Planet - BBC
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
Use this website to prepare a drama and/or musical with your students. Or pick and choose smaller segments of the website to incorporate into your lesson plans. If you plan to have students write and perform short plays as part of a social studies or interdisciplinary unit, this site is a great reference. Share this lively website with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector (be sure to turn up the volume).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Banned Books Week - American Library Association
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Compare the banned book list with your curriculum. Find out how many of your students' favorite books (like To Kill a Mockingbird) have been on the list.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Library of Congress Read.gov - Library of Congress
Grades
K to 12A special feature of the site is an exclusive story, called "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure." The Exquisite Corpse was a game in which someone would start a story, fold over their part, and the next person would add to the story and on it would go until the last person ended the story. For this Exquisite Corpse, Jon Scieszka started the story and passed it on to Katherine Patterson, who passed it on . . . and so it goes for 18 episodes. The entire story took a year to write to the finish.
In the Classroom
Check out "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" and have students listen to the stories. As a challenge ask students to look at the differences in writing style for each of the authors. Project a chart about the plot and the writing style on your interactive whiteboard or projector, and have students list the differences and similarities in writing style. Another idea for an activity is to have the students read the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling (not found on this site) and then have them read the very touching national contest winner letter to the author about his poem found here. Students could then write their own letters to an author of a favorite book or poem. Extend student learning and have students create podcasts to read their letters to the authors using a site such as podOmatic, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Video: X (formerly Twitter) in Plain English - Common Craft
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
This is a great site for professional development and further understanding of the current microblogging "twend": X (formerly Twitter). Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use X (formrly Twitter) in the Classroom (with parental permission). Have students create writing prompts and share them on X (formerly Twitter). Have your government students follow the "Twitter News" of politicians they can find on X (formely Twitter). Have students in science class follow the X (formerly Twitter) Feeds like Science News. Challenge students to create their own virtual collective X (formerly Twitter) scavenger hunt. The possibilities are endless! You can also use X (formerly Twitter) as a springboard for discussions about the changes in the political landscape and society with the advent of social networking tools. Ask them: are there any negatives or cautions to sharing your life on X (formerly Twitter)?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Video: Social Media - Common Craft
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
If you are looking to learn more about various social media, check out this short video. Learn more about the "flavors" you could use in your own classoom. For research projects have students create a blog, wiki, or even a podcast and compare the pros/cons of each regarding communication and safety. Create podcasts using a tool such as podOmatic, explained here. If you use "centers" in your classroom, put the video on a "center" computer, do a "right click" on the video, select "save as" and save to the "center" computer.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
American Centuries - Memorial Hall Museum Online
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Browse the collection for images and descriptions of specific artifacts. Explore themes like Shay's Rebellion, the lives of African-Americans in early rural New England, or the Civil War era in New England. Interactive activities allow you to look at Early American tools, examine artifacts using a 360 degree view or see what clothing was worn (down to the underwear!) by people of the time. If you plan to share objects as part of a lesson "collect" them in a personal collection so you can pull them up easily. Challenge secondary students to use the activity labeled "Create a chronology" to group artifacts from the collections to illustrate a concept, such as slavery, clothing, or background of an author, artist, or historical event. With younger students, use one or more of the activities on an interactive whiteboard or projector or design a simple scavenger hunt within YOUR collection of objects for students to find out about colonial life and times. If you turn them loose on the entire site, you will never get them back.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
PuzzleMaker - Discovery
Grades
1 to 9In the Classroom
Create your puzzles by following the simple directions. These can be used both online and in print form. You or your students can create games for use on an interactive whiteboard (students highlight the answers in different colors). Have students create their own to challenge classmates! If you have kinesthetic learners or those with weak fine motor skills who have trouble with pencils, the whiteboard is a real help. Make it a center. Build a class collection of student-made games and puzzles for use over and over. Tip: If you take a screenshot of a word search or print it to a pdf, you can save it electronically. Screenshots: Prtscrn key on a Windows machine, then PASTE into a document; Command+shift+4 on a Mac; press both buttons at once on an iPad to save a screenshot to the camera roll.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Movieclips - movieclips.com
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use the clips for vocabulary with ESL or ELL students. Introduce other curriculum topics or lessons using the clips on this site. For example, use video clips to get students thinking about concepts such as tornadoes, animals, feelings, or decision-making. As you teach about characterization in literature or creative writing, use movie clips to illustrate how a writer can "show not tell" about a characters personality or motivations. Have students observe the outward signs the actor uses to SHOW what he/she is feeling, then use these signs in writing their own stories: the way the eyebrows move, the body language, etc. Emotional support and autistic support teachers can use the clips to help students learn to "read" human feelings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela - PBS Frontline
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans and activities offered for ideas on how to integrate this site into your classroom! This would be a great resource for almost any Social Studies teacher.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
September 11 Teacher Awards - Tribute World Trade Center Organization
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use these award winning ideas to commemorate September 11 in a lesson to demonstrate unity or build worldwide understanding. Use the concepts as a springboard to a collaborative project. Ideas vary from sending chains of origami cranes as a wish for peace, composing and singing a song for unity with an online tool such as Zeemaps, reviewed here, writing letters to local politicians, creating poems and transforming them into digital videos or multimedia presentations using Adobe Express for Education, reviewed here, or taking responsibility for the environment while creating a sense of community by planting gardens. Choose from many ways to inspire students to recognize the importance of September 11 and to involve them in working together to become a more tolerant society. You might be so amazed with the results that you will want to submit your students' projects to be considered for next year's Tribute Center September 11th Teacher Awards. The annual award ceremony takes place on February 26, to commemorate the 1993 first attack on the World Trade Center.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Expository Escapades - Detective's Handbook - IRA & NCTE
Grades
6 to 8Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
CyberBullying - Bill Belsey
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
This is a great site for computer teachers (and regular education teachers using computers in their classrooms) to share with their students and parents. Please review the "What Can Be Done" section with students. Cut and paste, then laminate the rules into small posters to be hung near all computers. Create a notebook of cyberbullying facts, and include the fact sheets at this site. Be sure to share the link with parents and your PTO/PTA, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Art Access - Art Institute of Chicago
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take a few minutes to explore the art of a continent, country, or time period you introduce through social studies or literature. Include this site on your teacher web page as you study these related topics to students and parents can access it outside of class even if you do not have enough time to devote a full lesson. The images are not very large, so viewing on individual computers or using a projector that has a zoom function would help you share with a class. Teachers will like the creativity of some of the "family" activities and may want to use them at school or suggest them in a newsletter or on your web page.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Heroes and Heroines in the Family - Yale University
Grades
7 to 8In the Classroom
Discuss what qualities heroes share. After going through the lessons students are asked to write their own folk or fairy tale about present day life. Have them write their modern-day version of a heroic tale. Discuss who modern heroes are, and what characteristics they share with the classical ones.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).

Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
Close comment form