Language Arts lessons in Pokémon Learning League

These are all the lessons that appear in the Language Arts section of the Pokémon Learning League website. Lex appears in all of these lessons.

Lessons

Story Elements

Ash and his friends are traveling through a forest, May is complaining that they have been walking for a while and asks Max for directions. They find out that they have been walking in circles. Ash suggests that they climb a mountain to get a better view of the area. They all agree and race to the top. They finally spot the next town, only for the weather to change for the worse. To avoid the rain, they take shelter inside a cave. The gang realizes that they had quite an adventure and decide to contact Lex and tell him about their experience. Lex then teaches the group about the parts of a story.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

In the original pilot version of the lesson, Norman is called to deliver the lesson, and he uses Mt. Chimney as an example.

Similes and Metaphors

Ash and Brock are backstage with May's Eevee at a Pokémon show. May finds out that for this competition, descriptions must be written about the Pokémon being entered. They contact Lex who teaches the group about similes and metaphors.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Adverbs

Ash, May, Max and Brock are heading towards another Pokémon Contest, May is quite excited about it. When they get there, the group discovers that there are reporters there, interviewing the Coordinators about their Pokémon. This made May a little nervous, as she wasn’t prepared for that. They decide to practice by holding a mock interview; May gives a response that seems rather... dull. So, they contact Lex to see how they can “spice up” May’s response, and Lex teaches them all about adverbs.

Character that appear in this episode are:

Writing for Different Audiences

Brock was checking his email and finds that his brother, Forrest, has sent him one. Along with how much Brock's siblings miss him, the email also states that he has started an Onix fanclub, because he thinks Onix is a great Pokémon and wants to link other Onix Trainers together. Forrest has sent a rough draft of the letter he plans on sending to every Trainer he could think of has trained an Onix, which includes Brock, Forrest's friends and even Bruno of the Elite Four. However, the letter Forest sent seems rather informal, which is an issue since this letter is being sent to Bruno. Brock decides to contact Lex to see how he can improve Forrest's letter. Lex teaches Brock that it isn't just the content of what you are writing, but who it is for that matters.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Hyperbole, Personification, Onomatopoeia

Ash, May and Max, along with Pikachu, Squirtle and Eevee are all heading towards a Pokémon Contest, and as usual, May is psyched for it, and is hoping that a crowd will be there. Along the way they pass a poster with Bette's Butterfree on it advertising the for the contest, the poster claims that the audience will jump sky high. They pass another contest poster, this time with a Beedrill, which may or may not belong to someone called Toby, claiming that there's a buzz going on at the contest. A third poster with an Electrike belonging to Elena claims that it's thunder will run. These sayings confuse Max and Ash while May freaks out that she doesn't have a poster of her own, and that no one cheer for her (much to the dismay of Ash and Max). She decides to make a poster of her own, but isn't sure how to make it so that it's as exciting as the other posters. They contact Lex who teaches them about hyperbole, personification and onomatopoeia.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Bette, Toby and Elena are coordinators that are mentioned but don't appear in the lesson. Also, on Elena's poster, Electrike is misspelled Elecktrike.

Personal Narrative

Ash and his friends are on a ferry heading towards another battle Ash wants to compete in. Max comments that Ash has been in plenty of battles, and Ash replies that he's had fun at each one. Max then asks which one did he think was the best, Ash couldn't decide and recalls some of them, such as his battle with Ritchie and his Pikachu, and his battle with Falkner, and catching Heracross. However, as he tried to tell his stories, he tended to leave details out or stumble over his wording, which made the stories somewhat confusing to follow. Even Brock who had been with Ash himself couldn't understand Ash's recollections well. Ash was too excited to really make it clear for the group. So they decide to call Lex, who suggests some pointers on how to make a personal story interesting for others.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

During the episode, Brock recalls a dream where he and Harley went out for pizza and Harley couldn't stop talking about himself and that made him fall asleep in the dream, which caused Harley to get mad and throw soda at him, waking Brock up for real.

During this lesson, references to Electric Shock Showdown, Ka Boom With a View!, New Plot - Odd Lot, Going for Choke and Pokémon - I Choose You! were made.

Contractions

Ash, Pikachu and Max were walking towards each other, not paying attention to where they were going. They bumped into each other, causing both their papers to fly in all directions. Ash decides to help Max pick up all the papers. He asks him what they are for. Max replies that he's helping Roxanne write descriptions of Pokémon for her guide for new Trainers at the Trainer's school. The only problem is that his descriptions are too long and must be shortened. Ash decides to contact Lex to help out Max. Lex introduces the concept of contractions.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Syntax

May is waiting for Ash at the Pokémon Center. However, she is becoming increasingly bored and hungry just waiting for him. Not even her "May's expedition" game is helping, so she heads off to find lunch. At the picnic table, she only finds a sandwich, which she's not in the least bit interested in. She decides to call Lex to see what he's up to. She finds that Lex is working on a new song with his electric guitar. She explains her situation, and even mentions that she's so boring that Max doesn't even want to read her diary. Lex brings up that writing can be useful for relieving boredom. May reads him an entry from her diary, which is very dull and non-descriptive. Lex then suggests syntax to her improve sentence structure and make the story far more interesting then before.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Context Clues

Brock is busy sight-seeing around a town. However, he would like it better if he was sight seeing with a pretty girl. He spots an Officer Jenny by the library, so he rushes to her side and in Brock fashion, asks Jenny if she could sight-see with him. Officer Jenny is just happy to show Brock around the town and its many attractions. As she is thrilled to show off how "resplendent" the town's "vista" is, Brock becoming increasingly confused by her abnormally large vocabulary, he quickly rushes off to call Lex about his predicament. Lex suggests to use context clue to figure out what this "cognizant" Officer Jenny means.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Writing a Business Letter

Max has just received a new telescope called the "Star Explorer Telescope 3000", which will help him view a comet that is supposed to show up once in a lifetime. However, when he opens up the box, it comes in various pieces, and there doesn't appear to be any instructions on how to put it together. He decides to call Lex if he has any ideas. He suggests to send a letter to the company that makes the telescope. He then teaches May and Max how a business letter is properly written.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

The business letter Lex uses as examples during the lesson has addresses from the United States.

Sharing and Reflecting

Max is very bored. It's been raining for a few days and he's read every book in his backpack. He asks May if she has any books for him to read, but she has none. Ash however, mentions that he's read a book about different Trainers' experiences, and that Nurse Joy might have that book. Max asks for the book at the front, and Nurse Joy gets it, but he's too eager to wait so he asks Ash about it. Ash couldn't really say much about it aside from it being good. They decide to call Lex, since he's an expert at this sort of thing. They call him up and he teaches them about how to share and reflect on what they have read.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Lex mentions a fictitious book he read as an example called Simcha in the City.

The Poképilot is capable of uploading excerpts from books almost instantaneously. Ash loads a book written by a Pokémon Trainer named Logan who is chased by a swarm of Beedrill, only to come face to face with a Gyarados, something Ash has done multiple times in the anime.

Outlines

May, Max and Eevee are heading towards Professor Oak's Laboratory in Pallet Town. Max is psyched that he'll spend time with Professor Oak, but May thinks he'll be too busy. Max then has the idea to work on an entirely new project with Professor Oak, but has no idea where to begin. May suggests that he studies Eevee, simply because it's cute, but Max isn't convinced as "cuteness isn't scientific". But he's somewhat convinced he could study on Eevee's claim to fame. However, May complains about the heat, causing Max to recall the time he helped the Shroomish in the mansion by planting trees. Max gets over-excited on how Pokémon live in their natural habitats, but he isn't sure on how he could propose the idea to Professor Oak so it sounds impressive and official. They call up Lex and learn about outlines and how they're laid out before project is written.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Apparently, May is grossed out by feet.

Point of View

Ash, May and Max have been caught in the rain, luckily, Ash spots a mansion where they could take shelter. Max is hesitant since nobody seems to live there. May hears squeaking and concludes that the place is haunted. However, they need to get out of the rain so they head into the house, despite May's protests. From behind a bush, Team Rocket watches, and invent a new plan to catch Pikachu, with Meowth disguising himself as a ghost. Ash and his friends head into the kitchen, where May spots a Meowth-shaped shadow run across a doorway. This freaks out May, but the others didn't even see it. Ash and Max investigate, where they spot Team Rocket tiptoe by. Trying to follow them, they fall into a hole in the floor, leaving May all alone. She spots Team Rocket and then hears Max's voice coming from the dark basement. While Ash, Max and Pikachu stumble around in the dark, May has no idea who's talking, so she opens up the Poképilot and contacts Lex, who teaches her how to tell who's talking by understanding the point of view.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

This episode is quite similar to Take this House and Shuppet, and not surprisingly, uses the same backgrounds as the episodes.

It is also the only episode of the learning league that uses the Narrator from the English versions of the anime and Pokémon Battle Revolution, This lesson also uses a female narrator voice, which is only used in the Try section.

Peer Feedback

Ash has just won a draw for the chance to be a guest judge a Pokémon Contest. The only problem is that he's never judged anything before, so he has no idea how to give a fair review for all the entries, including May. He's also concerned about if the other entries will agree with what he has to say, which makes Brock, Max and May all glad they were chosen for the task. Ash contacts Lex and he teaches them how to review fairly, accurately and tactfully.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

This episode also appears in the Life Skills section.

Brainstorming

Ash and May are traveling to another town for another battle; they're trying to get there as fast as they can. Unfortunately, they come across a Snorlax blocking their path. They try to think of a way to get it out of their way, but are unable to. So, they call up Lex to show them how to put ideas together.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Ash mentions that a Poké Flute can wake it up, but they don't possess one.

This episode also appears in the Life Skills section.

Comparative Adjectives

Ash has brought a video tape of a Gym challenge to DJ Mary for the local news. He is then asked by DJ Mary to do the forecast on the 6 o'clock news. Ash agrees and is supposed to show up by 5:30. He calls Lex up to help him. Lex suggests to compare different weather patterns in different places using comparative adjectives.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

The weather map in the background of the news room is of the Kanto region, even though DJ Mary lives and works in Goldenrod City in Johto.

Pronouns

Ash has just received a letter from Professor Birch. In the letter, he wrote that he's writing a book about the different experiences of Pokémon Trainers, and has asked Ash to send him a story for his book. Ash tries to come up a story, but is having trouble with his sentences. He calls Lex who teaches him about pronouns.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

While the episode uses Professor Birch, it would be Professor Oak who would be more likely write a book about Trainers and Pokémon. Professor Birch's area of expertise is Pokémon's interaction with the environment.

Pokémon Centers also seem to function as post offices.

Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

The episode starts of with Nurse Joy starting off the stamp rally and explaining the rules of said event. Max and May have entered the competition, As did Team Rocket. They must find the different rally points with the clues given to them. Suddenly, a Spoink joins them. Max decides to feed it a small Berry. It eats the Berry and bounces onto Max's head. May tells him to focus on finding the first clue. Which is read as "Cliff The Under" with a picture of a box above it. Neither of them can make heads or tails of it, so they call up Lex, who figures that the words are scrambled and actually reads "Under The Cliff". He then teaches them about prepositions and prepositional phrases, using the Spoink as an example.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

This episode is almost identical to Off the Unbeaten Path, only people are paired up with other people, not with Pokémon.

Persuasive Writing

May and Brock are watching Skitty and Squirtle in the park. The park is full of people with their Pokémon. Brock decides that it's the perfect time and place to test out new recipes of Pokémon food, and he asks May if she could get people to get their Pokémon to sample some. First though, they have to give some to Skitty and Squirtle; They love it. May is convinced that Trainers will line up for food that good, so Brock and May decide to set up a food stall with free samples for the Trainers in the park. Once they set up, they discover that nobody is coming for the food, even though Skitty and Squirtle enjoy it. They call up Lex to see if he has any ideas on how to attract people. He suggests to use persuasive writing to get people interested.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

The lesson references Lucy as an example.

Introductory Paragraph

The episode begins with May trying to recite something, but it's not going very well. She mentions that Lilian asked her to give a speech about her experiences as a Pokémon Coordinator, but she's having trouble beginning it. May's convinced that if she just knew how to start it off, the rest would come very easily. She contacts Lex, who teaches her about introductory paragraphs.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Prefixes

Max is excited as he is going to one of Roxanne's beginning Trainer weekend events, which is being held at her Gym. Max has a manual which has details of the events, and he is very eager to read it. However, as he reads, he's having trouble with some of the words, like "insure", "irresponsible" and "misuse". So he calls Lex and learns about Prefixes.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

It's worth noting that the picture of Roxanne used for the cover of Max's manual is similar to the one used for Pokémon Adventures.

Subject/Verb Agreement

Ash has to hurry to a certain spot to meet Brock. When he gets there, he finds that Brock isn't there yet, and doesn't appear until later. Brock arrives and explains that he has found the girl of his dreams. He hasn't learned her name yet, but he wrote a poem about her. He recites the poem, but its verses sound...pretty terrible. They call Lex and learn about subject/verb agreement.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Run-On Sentences

Ash and Max are talking about a Pokémon battle Ash just won. They meet May who congratulates Ash on the battle. They find that there's a questionnaire about the battle, which asks to write about a description of the battle and what the writer liked best about it. Max eagerly wants to answer it. However, the sentence Max comes up with sounds a bit too long and didn't make much sense, since they were running together. Ash decides to call Lex, who explains to them about run-on sentences.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Cause and Effect

The episode starts off with the Poképilot open but lying on a desk in a library with no one around. Lex wonders who's calling and Max answers, but he's nowhere to be seen. He then appears out from behind a pile of books. Max says that he checked out all the books in the library on Trainers since he wants to know what makes a great Trainer great. He read many of the books, but isn't quite sure on some of the causes and their effects. Lex explains it to him.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Possessive Pronouns

Ash and his friends made it to a festival, and there are plenty of people and their Pokémon out. Including a lot of girls for Brock. However, they only have tickets for the first day. Max notices all the workshops where he could learn things and plenty of games as well. So they all decide to make the most of this one day by see everything they can and meeting up just before the festival closes. Three hours pass and they meet up at the same spot. May won a kite and Max tries to tell a story about a Lickitung and its Trainer, but didn't use any possessive pronouns, making the story somewhat confusing to follow. Brock mentions that you can use "him" and "her" in a sentence and the story will make sense. However, Max isn't sure what pronoun to use to refer to the Lickitung. So they call Lex and learn about possessive pronouns.

Characters that appear in this episode are

Team Rocket, Flannery and Kyogre only appear as examples during the lesson. Team Aqua is also referenced.

Root Words

Ash and his friends are all visiting Misty at the Cerulean Gym. However, when they get there, all they can find at the Gym is a note. As Max reads the letter, he gets distracted by Misty's Horsea. It jumps out of the water and causes the note to get all wet, and is unable to be fully read. All they could make out was that there were a few series of battles that Misty was excited about. They call Lex to see if he could help them decode the rest of the note. He teaches the group about root words.

Characters that appear in this episode are

Commas

Brock congratulates Ash and Pikachu on a great battle. Ash mentions that Pikachu performed an awesome Volt Tackle, but Brock appears to be looking at something, Ash wonders what it is, and Brock says that he's looking for a gift shop to buy a gift for his brothers and sisters, as he is going back to Pewter City to visit them. He also mentions that Tommy and Susie wrote him a letter about bringing back some souvenirs from Rustboro City. But Brock has no idea on what exactly they want, since the letter has no commas to separate the items on their lists. Brock decides to also teach them about comma placement, so he calls Lex, who teaches Brock and Ash about commas.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

The two siblings of Brock that wrote the letter were Susie and Tommy. Geodude, Steelix, Donphan, Swellow, and Forrest are also mentioned.

Suffixes

Brock is teaching the rest of the group how to cook, and are all confident that they'll come up with delicious results. Brock begins with teaching them how to make noodles. However, as they read the directions, they're a bit confused on some of the words such as "doneness" and "boiling". The words are familiar, but the endings are not. They begin to lose their confidence on their cooking skills, so Brock calls Lex and he teaches them about suffixes.

Characters that appear in this episode are

Newspaper Article

As Misty is training her Azurill and Psyduck how to swim, she receives a phone call from Tracey at Professor Oak's Laboratory. He called her to tell her that he met a reporter from the local paper who wanted to do an article on the Cerulean Gym. However, she wants the article from Misty herself. Tracey was so excited that he forgot to ask the reporter on what sort of article she wants exactly. Misty decides to call Lex, who explains to her on how a newspaper article is written.

Characters that appear in this episode

The newspaper article used in the "Apply" section is one relating to the lack of activity and childhood obesity in the United States.

Possessive Nouns

Misty is writing tips for water Pokémon Trainers and Gym Leaders, but Psyduck keeps interrupting her. She looks at her notes but something seems to be off, until Psyduck splashes water onto them. She looks at the tank Psyduck is in, only to find that it's almost completely empty. She puts a hose in it to fill it up, which gives her another idea for a tip to write down. As she looks at what she wrote, she isn't sure if it's spelt "tanks'" or "tank's" or even "tanks". She calls Lex and learns about possessive nouns.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

This is one of the few episodes where a character from the anime helps out with one of the mission guide's problems. Misty helps out with Lex's song lyrics.

Misty brings up that all of her sisters (including her) seem to share the same bike.

James, Carnivine and Roxanne only appear as examples. Also, Carnivine is the very first Pokémon introduced in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl to appear on the Learning League website.

This episode also references the Pokémon Intelligence Agency.

Parts of Speech

The episode begins with Dawn and Piplup at a TV studio. Professor Oak is doing a live TV show and Dawn wants to show how much she admires him. She decides to write a poem, since Professor Oak is well-known for his poetry. However, she doesn't exactly know where to start. So she calls Lex and he teaches her on the parts of speech and written language.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

During the lesson it begins to rain, and the end result is that the live TV show is postponed, much to Dawn's disappointment.

Quotation Marks

Team Rocket tries another scheme to steal Pikachu. This time, Meowth is disguised as a wild Weavile with the ability to talk. He shows himself to Ash and his his friends and begins to speak. They are amazed and want to write down what the "Weavile" is saying; however, Dawn isn't quite sure on how to separate what the "Weavile" is saying from everything else. So they call Lex and learn about quotation marks.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Just like in the anime, Ash and his friends catch up to Team Rocket, who has stolen Pikachu. In an attempt to get rid of them, James sends out Carnivine, who predictably, bites James's head. This causes him to flail about, accidentally releasing Pikachu (who promptly blasts them off).

Main Idea

Dawn and Piplup are sitting on a bench. She shows Piplup information on a local newspaper's writing challenge for upcoming Pokémon Coordinators. The topic is the friendship between the coordinator and Pokémon, and the winner gets tickets to a special contest workshop. She decides to enter. There is an example in the material for what the writing challenge should be like. It details the relationship between a Trainer and his Chimchar, but Dawn isn't too sure what the article is getting at. She calls Lex and learns about the main idea.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Oddly, Dawn's paragraph about her friendship with Piplup fails to mention anything that actually happened when they first met.

Summarizing

Dawn is busy writing a letter to her mother — so busy, in fact, that Piplup starts to complain about it. Dawn is writing a letter because, even though her mother said not to call all the time, she didn't say anything about writing letters. She has written several pages and she's apparently not even halfway finished. She knows she has a bit too much and needs to cut down, but isn't sure how to do it without leaving out important things. So she calls Lex and learns about summarizing.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Dawn mentions that she met Mesprit and even calls it by name.

Compare and Contrast

The episode starts with Ash coming up with various battle strategies, however he's come up with a lot of information, so much of it in fact, that Pikachu gets confused by looking at it. If Pikachu has a hard time understanding it, how could Dawn or anyone else? Ash decides to call Lex and learn about comparing and contrasting the information.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Simple Verb Tenses

Misty is walking back to the Cerulean Gym with books and art supplies. She wonders if Tracey is done with his sketches. When she gets there, Tracey shows her a sketch of a Seaking he drew, but then notices a poster for an artist's competition. The drawings that are supposed to be submitted are supposed to show the relationship and training of their Pokémon - In the past, the present, and the future. Misty suggests that Tracey should enter, he naturally agrees to it, and chooses his Scyther as his subject. Tracey then notices that artists must also submit an essay to explain each off their sketches. He isn't sure if he could do that. Misty agrees to help him. Tracey starts out with a sentence about Scyther, but they aren't quite sure if it's about the past or the present. Misty calls Lex and they both learn about simple verb tenses.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Inferences

Ash is reading a magazine article at the Pokémon center. Nurse Joy shows up and asks Ash what he is reading about. Ash explains that it's about a boy (Amir) who wants to become a Pokémon League Champion so his siblings can look up to him, but he hasn't won a single Badge so far. Ash wants to know what happens next, but as he keeps reading, he finds that the next few pages are torn from the magazine. Nurse Joy explains that she has to head back to tend to the Pokémon in her care, and that Pikachu is having a nap, so Ash has some time on his hands. Ash really wants to know what happened to the Trainer in the article. He calls Lex up and explains his situation. Lex explains about inferencing.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

It's later revealed by Ash's intuition that Amir was better suited for Pokémon Contests rather than Gym battles. The missing pages then mentions that he has won several Ribbons and is going to compete in the Grand Festival.

Synonyms and Antonyms

Dawn is practicing her contest moves with Piplup. It uses BubbleBeam and Dawn is impressed by it. So much so that she decides to show it to her mother. She calls her mother up and shows her what Piplup can do: It shoots BubbleBeam and then goes into a Peck to pop the bubbles. Johanna is impressed. She then asks Dawn about how her journey is going, unfortunately the only reply Dawn can think of was "awesome". Johanna points this out and says that what she says has just as much importance as what she does, especially in the interviews of the contests. After the phone call is over, Dawn calls up Lex and she explains her situation. He teaches her about Synonyms and Antonyms.

Characters that appear in this episode are:

Lessons that appear in other sections

Some episodes that are listed in this section may appear in other sections and may be taught by a different mission guide.