Because Common Core promotes the importance of all students studying the arts, we have highlighted places where ELA instruction could be enhanced by connecting a genre or particular text, or a theme of a unit, to works of art, music, or film. We suggest, for example, that students study self-portraiture when they are encountering memoirs. Students might compare a novel, story, or play to its film or musical rendition. Where a particular period of literature or the literature of a particular region or country is addressed, works of art from that period or country may also be examined. In each case, connections are made to the standards in the CCSS themselves.

Intergenerational collaborative story creation lesson. Excellent for vocabulary building, speaking, imagination usage, team building. Can be used for all ages.

In this lesson, students will reflect on the ways they have been taught grammar. By composing original songs, dances, poems, skits or artwork, students explore ways to teach writing and grammar creatively and effectively.

"Dovey Coe", a young adolescent novel by Frances O'Roark Dowell of Boone, North Carolina, takes place in the 1930s in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The use of mountain dialect continues to remind the reader of the importance of setting in this novel. The study of a selection from this novel will help students realize the impact of dialect in literature as well as their own speaking and writing.

Investigated in the current study were gaps between secondary schools and higher education in English curriculum and in general areas, as perceived by South Texas secondary school English teachers. Qualitative analysis yielded seven themes concerning the gaps and six themes concerning suggested initiatives and services. Findings from the study confirmed previous studies in which researchers have advocated for more collaboration and curriculum alignment between the two levels of institutions. In addition, practical issues and challenges facing secondary school teachers such as teaching to the test, students’ motivation issues, time constraints, and funding issues were raised. By incorporating concerns raised by secondary school teachers, educational leaders can make informed decisions about how to improve high school graduates’ college readiness.

This two-day lesson plan covers the concepts of memory and invisibility in Ralph Ellison's classic novel Invisible Man. Suitable for AP Literature courses, this lesson asks students to consider the power of memory to inform and transform the present.

Materials emphasizing ways to improve writing skills.

Many students, especially students with limited English language skills, have difficulties determining the difference between narrative and expository texts. This unit will use vignettes written by Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Lesotho and Madagascar to compare these types of texts. As final products, students will write both a narrative essay and an expository essay. This unit was piloted with high school second language learners.

In this lesson students will familiarize themselves with the Western landscape through both Native American folklore and George Catlin's paintings of the prairie. After reading several Native American legends, students will compose and illustrate their own legend.

This booklet is a collection of opinions of nearly 50 important poets from 25 countries in 5 continents on the best ways to present poetry to secondary school pupils. It is mainly intended for use in teacher training programmes, to bring to methods of teaching poetry two important dimensions: the creative perspective of poets themselves, as well as the perspective of different cultures regarding the reading and writing of poetry.

An activity that allows students to explore the words, images, sounds, and movements that represent the season of their birth. Activity incluedes photos taken of arts educators performing during ISKME's OER and Arts Education workshops, Fall 2009.

This middle school lesson uses picture books to integrate American Indian culture and belief systems with language and visual arts.

This storytelling activity started out with template for a story with many sections missing. We went around the circle, with each person filling in different blank spots. Below is the final product our group created. After completing our tale, half of us did a drawing to represent the story, which is also below. The other group acted out the story and performed it for the rest of the group.