Curated OER
Word Wall Activity List
Second graders perform a variety of activities with a dynamic, ever-changing classroom word wall as outlined in these lessons. They become less dependent on the word wall as the school year progresses.
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Robinson Crusoe: The Original "Survivor"!
Fourth graders read and analyze Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and participate in problem solving activity similar to television show, Survivor. Eight lessons on one page.
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Words We Know
Students explore environmental print. In this emergent literacy concepts of print instructional activity, students bring examples of environmental print from home which are put on display in the classroom. Students view websites to...
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Mini-Unit: Natural Resources
Students explore how their choices affect others. In this character development and ecology activity, students debate choice-making issues. Students listen to The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and identify choices the characters made about tree...
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The Mayflower Compact
Eighth graders investigate historical documents of the United States by reading the Mayflower Compact. In this U.S. History lesson, 8th graders analyze the wording of the original Mayflower Compact of the first U.S. settlers and...
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Clean Air
High schoolers read sales promotion reports and create a sales promotion summary using information from the report. They develop a graphic organizer to outline their information for a presentation. There is an assessment checklist...
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Computer Mysteries
Who has been messing with my trampoline? Young writers choose local events as the basis for their own “Who Did It?” mystery. They then devise a plot, problem, and cast of characters and write an introduction explaining the problem and...
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Adjective? What's an Adjective?
Mount a variety of pictures (fantasy, rustic, portraits, action) on large sheets of paper and post them around the classroom. Groups rotate from poster to poster, adding adjectives to describe each of the pictures. Writers use these word...
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Creating a North Carolina Gallery
Eighth graders, in teams, create a new North Carolina Gallery at the North Carolina Museum of Art. They explore the concept of citizenship by creating criteria for an artist's inclusion in the gallery.
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 12
How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...
National Math + Science Initative
Reading an Informational Text: "It All Started with Sputnik"
Sputnik was one of the greatest scientific advancements of the 1950s, and this reading lesson does it justice. Pupils start off with pre-reading questions and a video. They then read an excerpt from an article, which is accompanied by...
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CDVs at Home and School
Students identify the rules they have at home and at school. They connect the values to the core democratic values and discuss whether all rules should connect to the core values. They create a mural showing students following the rules...
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Lesson 9: Would the Real Portia Please Stand Up?
Students explore the subtext of the two scenes in which Portia appears. They compare the language she uses with her husband Brutus in 2.1 with the language she uses with her boy servant Lucius in 2.4. Students use their analysis of...
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Can't Buy Me Love?
Students activity find the multiplicity of meanings buried within Shakespeare's language. They examine how the meanings of words differ in modern America and in Venice.
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Text Map: The Structure of Shakespearean Drama
Students identify the structure of Shakespearean Drama. In this Shakespearean drama lesson, students identify features common to Shakespearean drama and explain their purpose.
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Prospero: Turkey or Tyrant?
Students study characterization and the difference between subjective and objective points of view by creating tableaux to depict three interpretations of the story of Prospero's overthrow, each with a very different point of view. They...
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The Art of Chess
Students discover the history of the most popular board game in the world, chess. In this model building lesson, students create their own chess pieces using a theme they have decided on and clay modeling pieces. Students investigate...
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Part of a Masterpiece, by John W. Healy
Learners step into paintings. For this visual arts lesson, students imagine themselves walking through a famous piece of art. Learners research the artwork and then use computer programs or artistic methods to literally put themselves...
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The Devilish Tinker Bell!
Twelfth graders examine how cultural context impacts interpretation and that there is more than one correct interpretation of text. Students compare Disney's version of Tinker Bell, from Peter Pan to James I's version of a fairy in...
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Introducing the Ghost: Asking Questions and Finding Answers
Students write words that describe the Ghost in Hamlet and act out scenes to grab the audience's attention. In this Hamlet lesson plan, students use language to interpret feeling and grab the audience's attention.
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Word Origins
Have you ever studied historical words and found that they were deeply rooted in racism or prejudice? Select a long list of these words to have your class examine. What familiar roots do they have? Do they know when this word originally...
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Lesson Exchange: Introduction to Research Papers (Senior, Literature)
Although unlikely in today's English classroom, this lesson focuses on introducing research papers to seniors in high school. It briefly reviews the parts of an essay, and mentions showing learners example essays, but no examples are...
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Writing an Analytical Essay From a Supreme Court Case
Critical thinkers read a summary of a United States Supreme Court case, including important background information and the court's final decision. They form an opinion in agreement or disagreement regarding the case and then write an...
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Thesaurus Practice
Learners practice consulting a thesaurus to find synonyms for each of 14 words on a list. They circle one of three choices as a synonym to match the target word. The list features adjectives you might call esoteric.