Teaching Tolerance
Community Mural / Poster Campaign
Every piece matters. A creative lesson provides an opportunity for scholars to create murals or posters that represent their views on social justice. Academics work on smaller posters or pieces of a mural that will ultimately be...
Judicial Branch of California
Defining Civic Duty and Participation
A instructional activity, geared toward older elementary scholars, combines art with social studies to explain the purpose of civic duty and how to encourage others in the community to participate. Academics create advertising campaigns...
Teaching Tolerance
Puppet Show
It's a play, it's a story, it's a puppet show! A lively resource provides academics with a creative outlet to express their views on diversity and social justice. Scholars are responsible for writing, creating, and performing a puppet...
Curated OER
Express Yourself
Reading with expression excites listeners of any age. They will discuss different ways to change their reading expression as they listen to the teacher read Froggy Goes to the Doctor. Then in small groups, they'll practice reading with...
Odell Education
Building Evidence-Based Arguments: "Cuplae poena par esto: Let the punishment fit the crime."
Should a criminal's punishment match the crime? An argumentative writing plan explores this question as class members investigate a variety of mixed-medium sources by experts in the field, form evidence-based claims, and support them...
University of North Carolina
Conference Papers
In the world of academia, conference papers and presentations play a big role. It's through conference papers that professors and graduate assistants share their research with others in the field. A handout on conference papers, part of...
Student Handouts
Social Media Madness
Tired of seeing u instead of you and 2 instead of too? Teach your pupils how to write for an academic setting by asking them to correct these six social media posts that are full of grammatical errors, spelling errors, and text speak.
Curated OER
Socratic Seminar Questions/Observation
Prepare participants for a Socratic seminar by asking them to not only design questions for the discussion, but to also observe an assigned partner during the seminar. A great way to encourage student-led discussions.
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 2
Ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM. The force will be strong in the hearts of your young Jedi as they use their lightsabers to strike the accentted syllables in lines from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Speaking Skills
Students listen to The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and use a teacher created puppet for a listening activity. In this Hungry Caterpillar lesson, students recall the order of events in the story with the puppet and cards of the...
Curated OER
Show And Tell
Have you ever saved your money to buy something you really wanted? Elementary schoolers share how they saved their money for things they wanted, and they bring in one or two items that they bought with their personal savings.
Curated OER
Digital Storytelling
Scholars of all ages can use the various tools of technology to construct and illustrate a story. Utilizing this resource, learners work with a partner to brainstorm and draft a story based on personal experience. They use computer...
Curated OER
Learning the Roles in Literature Circles
I love literature circles! Get your pupils together and have them discuss the book they are reading. They determine and practice their role in the literature circle then discuss the book they are reading. This is a great introduction to...
Curated OER
Unwind: Vocabulary Strategy, Creating an Unwind Glossary
Prior to reading Unwind, Neal Shusterman's 2007 young adult science fiction novel, class members research the common definition of words drawn from the novel that will come to have a very different meaning to them as they are drawn into...
Billabong High International School
Charlotte's Web Vocabulary Sheets
That's some worksheet! A 10-page packet includes vocabulary words from each chapter in Charlotte's Web.
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: The Net Neutrality Debate
Should Internet users who send data-heavy content pay higher fees than those who are involved in activities, like sending an email, that have less content? This question is at the heart of the Net Neutrality debate. After watching a PBS...
Curated OER
Promises, Promises
If someone breaks a promise, is that person no longer trustworthy? Present your 6th and 7th graders with a series of statements and have them debate their opinions with supporting evidence. As an extension, have your students write a...
Curated OER
Write a Harry Potter Script
Examine the technique of writing a script and complete a worksheet in which young writers summarize a favorite chapter in a Harry Potter book. They practice public speaking by acting out the summarization scenes for classmates. Handouts...
Curated OER
Conversation Lesson: The Necessity of Grammar
Start a conversation to convey proper English grammar. In groups pupils voice their opinion, have well supported disagreements, and explain why they feel as they do. This instructional activity builds academic discussion skills and...
Curated OER
Poet James Whitcomb Riley: Famous in His Own Day
An engaging biography of "Hoosier" poet James Whitcomb Riley serves as a springboard for study of his unique dialect-based verse. Several activities illuminate differences between spoken vernacular and formal language. Learners record...
Curated OER
Rewriting Shakespeare
Have your learners play around with Shakespeare's language. In this plan, small groups examine and rearrange soliloquies from Othello, noting how the language changes and morphs. All groups have a chance to change each soliloquy, making...
Curated OER
Topical Discussions
Engaging in topical discussions can be a great way to teach kids how to build strong arguments and support their opinions with concrete evidence. High schoolers choose a controversial topic, build an argument for or against that topic,...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Nursery Rhymes
Students retell a memorized nursery rhyme. In this early public speaking activity, students retell a familiar nursery rhyme with the help of visual prompts.
Curated OER
A? Speak up, I can't hear you!
Students become phonemically aware of various sounds that make up written words. This lesson focuses on the vowel correspondence a_e=/A/. They decode the long a mouth moves in words as well as practice spelling the words themselves.