Celebrate El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros by having students write and share their own multilingual stories:

• Read a book with parallel stories with the class, such as La Llorona: The Weeping Woman or The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El Dia Que Nevaron Tortillas, both by Joe Hayes. With students, examine the way that the books tell the story in two different languages.
   
• Arrange students in mixed multicultural groups and explain that together the groups will compose an illustrated, bilingual, or multilingual children's storybook to share with younger students.
   
• Return to the parallel stories read by the class to model how students will compose their own stories.
   
• Spend time exploring and creating the different parts that make up a professional book: title pages, acknowledgements, and dedications.
   
• Use the Book Cover Guide to discuss covers and dust jackets. Have students design these additional parts of the book.
   
• Students can use the Book Cover Creator to make the polished covers.
   
• Once the books are assembled, students can deliver them to their intended readers for a celebration of Día!

After finishing one or more of the lessons on advertising below, have students create original advertisements. Have students review the advertising techniques they've studied (propaganda, advertising fallacies). Next, have students identify a subject for their ad, such as a favorite television show, CD, or product; an upcoming event; or a political candidate. Then, ask small groups to create advertisements designed to persuade others to use a product, hold a viewpoint, or participate in an activity. Students can use one of the following activities to share their ads:

• Videotape student presentations.
• Perform skits in the style of radio or television commercials.
• Draw posters or print flyers using the Printing Press interactive.

Political cartoons, because of their powerful means of communicating the artists' message, are subject to "freedom of speech" protections. Have students create their own political cartoons after studying First Amendment rights and freedom of speech issues.

• First, explore free speech issues and the First Amendment using resources on this EDSITEment Freedom of Speech Week webpage. Ask students the following: "What constitutes free speech? When does one's freedom of speech become an infringement on another person's rights? How do political cartoonists exercise their first amendment rights?"
• Then, after completing one or more of the lessons below, ask students to comb the newspaper or Internet resources and create a list of current events.
• From this list, have students draw original cartoons using the techniques they've studied.

After students have completed their work, consider having them published in the school newspaper, or share them in the school library.

Promote school-wide awareness of bullying issues by sponsoring a poster contest. First, complete one of the lessons below and review information learned about bullying and the roles of bystanders and victims. Divide the class into three groups, and have each group create a poster representing the role of the bully, the victim, or bystanders to educate other classes about bullying issues. Then, advertise a poster-making contest to other classes, asking students to create posters that illustrate ways each student in the school can help stop bullying and make the school environment safer.

• Invite entrants to use any medium they wish to create their posters, including pencil, crayon, paint, or even an interactive medium such as the ReadWriteThink Printing Press (flyer format).
  
  
• Ask other classroom teachers, the school counselor, and the art teacher to help in judging the posters. Be sure to communicate your judging criteria as part of the contest.

Include a reproduction of the winning poster in the school newsletter or website, or feature the poster in the library, cafeteria, or main office.

Share with students one of Seamus Heaney's most famous poems, "Digging." Ask students to focus on the figurative language the speaker uses to characterize himself as a writer, especially as he compares himself to his father and grandfather. Challenge students to discern the speaker's attitude toward himself as a writer, and how metaphor, simile, and image contribute to their understanding and appreciation of the poem.

Using Heaney's poem as an inspiration, invite students to write a poem that uses an extended metaphor (or a series of metaphors or other comparisons) to express their own attitudes toward themselves as writers. Point out that the speaker of "Digging" expresses his attitudes by comparing his pen positively to a gun, and then later, his pen both positively and negatively to a shovel or spade. Encourage students to use, as Heaney does, specific, vivid images to support the comparison they make.

Have students compare and contrast two views of the Holocaust from different authors. Have students first read both Night and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Then, have them look at the similarities and differences between these two accounts of Holocaust events. Ask students the following questions, using a Venn diagram to record responses during your discussion. If you prefer, students can work in small groups to create their own Venn diagrams using the ReadWriteThink Interactive.

• How are the two authors similar and different?
• How did their experiences during the Second World War differ? How were their situations similar?
• Did Anne Frank and Wiesel's main character share similar feelings?
• How did the formats of these two texts differ?
• What were the differences between the endings? Were there any similarities?

Extend students' study of the Holocaust by having them research stories of other survivors who may or may not have published books. Have students create a presentation highlighting the person they select.

Note Franklin's service as Postmaster General by setting up your own classroom postal service. First, have students investigate the roles and duties of the USPS Postmaster General and Franklin's role in particular. Discuss Franklin's contributions to postal history, then have students set up their own mail delivery service.

• First, have the class nominate (by show of hands or ballot) and select a Postmaster General, who will organize your postal service.
• Set up mailboxes, such as mail pouches attached to student desks, shoeboxes with slotted lids, shelves, decorated coffee cans, etc. Then choose a frequency of delivery-daily? Morning and afternoon?
• Finally, have the Postmaster General organize a group of "mail carriers" to collect and deliver mail from and to mailboxes. You may wish to have all students take turns along with other classroom jobs, or accept volunteers who can be scheduled for mail duty on a rotating basis.
• Students can use the interactive Letter Generator to write letters to their classmates. Be sure students understand that their letters should be appropriate for the classroom, and that everyone should be included. More tips are  available for use with the Letter Generator.

A Modest Proposal is considered to be one of the best examples of satire ever written. Have students explore the elements of satire and parody using the lessons below. Then, have them extend that exploration by surveying instances of satire and parody in television and film, advertising, and journalism. Begin by dividing students into three groups and assigning each to either television and film, journalism, or advertising.

• Have each group explore their assigned topic, looking for examples of satire or parody. As they find examples, encourage students to locate concrete examples they can bring in for a class display. Examples might include a DVD case or movie review, a magazine advertisement, a newspaper editorial, a book or book jacket, etc.
• Working as a group, have students create an exhibit that highlights their findings. As part of the display, students should describe how each item is an example of satire or parody, what satirical technique is being used, and other related information.

Explore photography and digital imaging to discover new ways of combining visual and textual composition to enhance every area of the curriculum. Create a scrapbook that includes photographs, video clips, audio clips, and student work. First, choose a format based on your available resources. Examples include PowerPoint presentations, websites, videotapes, or booklets. Keep a camera/video equipment handy, and include some of these in your project:

• Students' favorite pieces of writing or artwork, including descriptive captions or commentary
  
• Videotapes of songs or skits
  
• Students' descriptions of what they are learning, via a video or audio interview or in writing
  
• Photomontages of units studied

Work on your scrapbook throughout the year, and then present it to parents at an end-of-year party!

Create your own classroom tribute to Beverly Cleary while students practice persuasive writing. Have students select the characters they believe are the most memorable from Cleary's book and then write short persuasive essays to explain their choices.

• After students select their characters, have them use the Character Map section of the interactive Story Mapping tool to brainstorm ideas about why the characters are memorable.
  
  
• Have students use their Character Maps and notes to write persuasive essays that explain why the characters are special and important. Students can map out their essays using the online Persuasion Map.
  
  
• Next, provide a variety of art materials (clay, paint, pencils, markers) and have students create sculptures, drawings, or paintings of the characters.

Display students' artwork and writing together in a classroom, cafeteria, or hallway as a Beverly Cleary tribute.