Standard Course of Study :: English Language Arts

Aligned lesson plans

The zoo is coming, the zoo is coming: The zoo is coming is a lesson that will give students an opportunity to write a letter to a fictional governor about the pros and cons of having a zoo come to their town.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts, Information Skills, and Science); By Steven Sather.

Writing a ghost story/mystery: Building upon the students' knowledge base of Blackbeard the Pirate, the numerous shipwrecks off of the N.C. coast, myths, and legends of the Carolinas, and/or The Lost Colony, students will write a ghost story or mystery narrative of their own.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies); By laura ritchie.

Week 2: Creating a letter of request: In Invention convention, page 5; In this Invention Convention lesson, students will write a letter of request seeking a donation to be used for Invention Convention.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts); By Briana Corke Pelton.

Walking in the woods with Owl Moon: This is an integrated project using the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Students will use the story to write a personal narrative, understand the elements of a story, and practice answering open-ended questions.; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts); By Birty Lightner.

Site robbers: In Intrigue of the Past, page 5.6; Students will use an interview with a Native American to write a newspaper article or letter that expresses concern about robbing archaeological sites.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Pigs and wolf on a map!: The students will construct a Double Bubble Map to compare and contrast two versions of a familiar fairytale.; Format: lesson plan (grade 1–4 English Language Arts); By Cherry Randall.

North Carolina Cherokee Indians: The Trail of Tears: In this two week unit, students will study the Cherokee by participating in literature circles, learning about Native American story telling, writing a letter to Andrew Jackson to protest against the Creek War, and more.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 English Language Arts and Social Studies); By Gina Golden.

Non-Halloween activity for October 31: Students will rewrite the lyrics to a well-known song focusing on Autumn sounds, smells and sights, but without any of the usual Halloween trappings.; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)

Mystery: Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective: This is a three part lesson on mysteries using the novel Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald Sobol.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts); By Christine Weaver.

Let's become chefs!: The following is designed to teach students the characteristics of a recipe. The characteristics to be taught about this genre are: the step-by-step directions, ingredient words and numerical measures.; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts); By Sarah Ann Parker.

Learning about descriptive language through art: In this lesson, students will be introduced to haiku and using descriptive language. Students will discuss a work of art as a way to elicit this descriptive language.; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts); By Amanda Keller.

Haiku and photography: A natural connection: This lesson will allow students to combine photographing nature with creating a Haiku poem to express what they see in the photograph.; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts); By Steven Sather.

Giving can be fun: The purpose of this lesson is to incorporate the use of writing in a friendly letter format to foster the spirit of giving and sharing within the classroom. Using word processing, the students will create a friendly letter that will be shared with classmates in the spirit of giving and sharing.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 English Language Arts); By Sue Hunnicutt.

Creature creation: An elaboration writing activity: This lesson will focus on the writing element of elaboration. It will also tap into higher order thinking skills with the creation of a Coastal Plain imaginary animal and a creative story about the creature. This lesson could be linked to 4th grade Science and Social Studies objectives. For more in-depth knowledge in those other subjects, go to the lesson entitled Researching the Coastal Plain; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts and English Language Development); By Ana Sanders and Heather Ennis.

Connecting folktales and culture in North Carolina and beyond: Students will explore connections to North Carolina culture as they engage in reading and analyzing three folktales of North Carolina Literary Festival author, William Hooks. After comparing these stories to other versions of the traditional tales, students will become authors and storytellers themselves as they rewrite a tale from a new cultural point of view. Opportunities are also included to extend this study to world cultures and folktales.; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts and Social Studies); By Jeanne Munoz.

Bubba: A Cinderella story: This lesson focuses on the whimsical interpretation of the Cinderella story. Students explore the story Bubba, the Cowboy Prince, through rich text and interpretations of the story.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and English Language Development); By Jennifer Fessler and Karen Wright.

Blackbeard: The most feared pirate of the Atlantic: Students will acquire information about Blackbeard and apply their knowledge to create a newspaper article concerning his life.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies); By Carol Holden and Tanya Klanert.

Animal report: After studying the various animal groups, students write a report about an animal of their choosing using well-formed paragraphs.; Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts, Information Skills, and Science); By Kay Sims.

Love Letters: Using imagery to convey feelings: After listening to Arnold Adoff's Love Letters, students will write and share their own love letters. This lesson is especially fun around Valentine's Day.; Format: lesson plan (grade 2–4 English Language Arts); By Jennifer Reid.

Dear Peter Rabbit: Students will identify formal language and sentence structures in friendly letters. They will use similar formal language and style to create friendly letters to other story book characters.; Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts and Information Skills); By Caroline Annas, Elizabeth Gibson, and Stephanie Johnson.