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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Peer Critique: Historical Accuracy of Ideas and Vocabulary

For Teachers 4th Standards
Promote collaboration in the classroom with a historical fiction instructional activity. Fourth graders partner up and read the other's narrative to give feedback on vocabulary choice and the accuracy of historical information. After...
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Unit Plan
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Voyagers: Challenge Activities (Theme 5)

For Teachers 3rd
Young voyagers face the challenge of the wide dark sea, travel with Yunmi and Halmoni, and even get trapped by the ice as they explore the reading selections offered in these enrichment activities designed for the Houghton Mifflin...
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Unit Plan
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program

The Backpack Travel Journals

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record interesting...
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Lesson Plan
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program

Dinosaurs Before Dark

For Teachers 1st - 5th Standards
Young readers travel back to the time of the dinosaurs in this literature unit based on the story Dinosaurs Before Dark. Intended for use with upper-elementary special education students, this resource provides reading comprehension,...
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Lesson Plan
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Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program

Mummies in the Morning Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics

For Teachers 1st - 4th Standards
Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Light in the Storm

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Examine the genre of historical fiction while reading A Light in the Storm. They extract events in chronological order to make a timeline. Then, they use information in the book important to the characters to create a presentation of an...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Voices from the Past: History and Literature

For Teachers 10th - 11th Standards
Art can enhance the understanding of history. That's the big idea in a instructional activity that has young scholars read Randall Jarrell's poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" and an excerpt from John Hersey's Hiroshima, which...
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PPT
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Livaudais-Baker English Classroom

Kindred Introduction

For Students 11th Standards
A 16-slide PowerPoint presentation introduces readers to the themes, motifs, and literary devices used by Octavia E. Butler in her time-travel, first person slave narrative.
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Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Puppet Show

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
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...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Catch-22: Satirize This!

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed Standards
Some assignments are great, some can become great, and some have greatness thrust upon them. This one is great. After completing Joseph Heller's classic satire, Catch-22, groups craft and present their own political satire.
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Interactive
PBS

Shifting Perspectives in Toni Morrison's Beloved

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
An interactive provides readers with an opportunity to record their reactions to Beloved, Toni Morrison's powerful narrative based on the life of Margaret Garner. Prompts ask them to consider how the shifting point of view contributes to...
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Lesson Plan
Literacy Design Collaborative

Exploring Character Development in The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
How did the Civil Rights Movement affect young people in the United States? Scholars read Christopher Paul Curtis' novel, The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963. Next, they write compare and contrast essays showing how the main characters...
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Lesson Plan
Pace University

Genres in Literature

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Enthusiastic readers take part in a book club unit that focuses on genre, particularly historical fiction, fantasy, and adventure. Over the course of 10 days, groups read a variety of stories and choose leveled activities from a learning...
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Study Guide
Reed Novel Studies

Sing Down The Moon: Novel Study

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Human trafficking has existed in many forms throughout history. Using a novel study of Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell, readers learn the story of a young Native American girl taken into slavery. Reading comprehension and vocabulary...
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Lesson Plan
Penguin Books

An Educator’s Guide to Ruta Sepetys

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...
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Lesson Plan
Penguin Books

Core Curriculum Lesson Plans for Jefferson's Sons

For Teachers 5th - 7th Standards
Thomas Jefferson lived a controversial life. A series of lesson plans shares information about Jefferson's Sons, a novel about the infamous founding father. Discussion questions and other tasks explore different points of view and cover...
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Lesson Plan
Learning to Give

What Are Your Thoughts?

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The varying responses of the characters in Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to the discrimination they experience or perpetrate provides readers with an opportunity to not only examine the feelings of the characters but to...
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Lesson Plan
Vanderbilt University

Stories from the Panama Canal

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a instructional activity about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build,...
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Lesson Plan
Alberta Learning

Creating Authentic Diaries

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "What is history but a fable agreed upon?" A series of lessons encourages learners to look beyond the basic fable agreed upon related to events in history and consider multiple accounts of the event. The...
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Worksheet
Prestwick House

The Orphan Train

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
What do a girl in foster care and a 91-year-old widow have in common? A crossword puzzle related to Orphan Train highlights some of the similarities the two characters share in the book. The puzzle pulls out key details from the novel to...
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Activity
Pleasantville Public School

Summer Reading Project

For Teachers 3rd - 4th Standards
Summer means sun, fun, and a good book! Boost scholars' enthusiasm and proficiency in reading with a summer project of their choice—a book jacket, collage, or shoe box diorama. A variety of titles and authors from every genre offers...
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Thomas Jefferson and Monticello: An Introduction to Writing Historical Fiction

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Thomas Jefferson is one of the most recognized names and faces in America—but is there more to the third president of the United States? Upper elementary and middle schoolers conduct research on Jefferson, his famous home at Monticello,...
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Abe Lincoln Remembers Lesson Plan

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd Standards
Discover the life of Abraham Lincoln with help from the story Abe Lincoln Remembers by Ann Turner. After listening carefully, scholars reflect on what they deem as Lincoln's most influential life event and how it relates to them,...
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Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Civil War Newspaper

For Teachers 8th Standards
One photograph can represent so much more than the images on the film. Eighth graders select a photograph from the Civil War era and conduct additional research based on the subject matter from the picture. Once they complete the...