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Lesson Plan
University of North Carolina

Roles & Powers of the President

For Teachers 8th Standards
Here is a fantastic, comprehensive resource on the roles and powers assigned to the president of the United States. It includes several critical thinking exercises and engaging activities, from cartoon analysis and the opportunity to...
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Lesson Plan
University of North Carolina

American Revolution: Events Leading to War

For Teachers 8th
After learning about the growing revolutionary sentiment among colonists, class members work in small groups or pairs to design a political cartoon.
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Lesson Plan
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University of North Carolina

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

For Teachers 8th Standards
After reading the article "Kings Dream Everyday," class members conduct a Socratic seminar discussion of Martin Luther King's contributions to the civil rights movement. They then read and respond to a passage from Michael Eric Dyson's...
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Lesson Plan
University of North Carolina

The War of 1812

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
After reading a sample memo regarding the conflict between Britain and France before the War of 1812, class members assume the role of James Madison and brainstorm how to handle the situation. They will then analyze the creation and...
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Lesson Plan
University of Minnesota

Inquiry Cubes

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
How do you teach kids to "science" effectively? Inquiry cubes are a "sort of" puzzle with no answer—promoting even more questions! Group members work together to use the evidence on the visible sides of each cube to infer what lies on...
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Lesson Plan
University of Minnesota

Motor Learning and Memory

For Teachers 4th - 12th Standards
What do our brains have to do with reaction timing? Everything! In a hands-on learning activity, young scientists participate in four card activities that measure reaction timing. Each activity gets progressively more complex, and...
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Lesson Plan
University of Minnesota

Close-up of the Nervous System

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
Make sure your class gets on your nerves! Learners of all ages practice peering into the nervous system to see what's inside. Groups examine prepared slides of mammalian nervous system tissues, all while gaining microscope skills. The...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Reflection

For Teachers 7th Standards
The tenth lesson in the 12-part poetry unit asks seventh graders to reflect on their learning about poetry and share their work with other poets.
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Poems and Resources for the Struggling Writer

For Teachers 7th Standards
The 11th resource in a 12-part poetry unit is a bonus lesson comprised of poems, activities, and resources that review the essential concepts of the unit.
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Ballad

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young balladeers analyze examples of ballads and generate a list of common traits (story, quatrains, rhyme schemes, refrains, etc.), then identify these traits in Robert W. Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and a ballad written by...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Concrete Poems

For Teachers 7th Standards
Concrete poems, or shape poems as they are sometimes called, are the focus of the eighth instructional activity in this poetry unit. Young scholars examine several examples of concrete poems and consider how the shape contributes to the...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Personification

For Teachers 7th Standards
Spongebob Squarepants helps teach middle schoolers about personification! After discussing the human characteristics demonstrated by the cartoon character, scholars identify the personification in poems by Emily Dickinson and Langston...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Poetic Devices

For Teachers 7th Standards
Introduce middle schoolers to poetic devices with a lesson plan that asks them to find examples of alliteration, anaphora, onomatopoeia, metaphors, similes, and personification in various poems. Young scholars craft examples of these...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Mood

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young scholars learn how to distinguish between the mood of a piece of writing (how the work makes the reader feel) and the tone (the writer's attitude toward the material) in the sixth lesson in a poetry unit. After watching two very...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Theme

For Teachers 7th Standards
A study of Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If," launches a lesson plan about theme. Class members read Kipling's poem and poems by other seventh graders to identify the themes.
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Lesson Plan
1
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Curated OER

Revision

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young poets learn the value of using a thesaurus when crafting and revising poems. They examine poems rich in figurative language and then a revised version with the figurative language removed. To demonstrate what they have learned,...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Tone

For Teachers 7th Standards
Identifying the tone in a piece of writing can be tricky. Readers don't have the advantage of studying the images and colors used in a painting or the instruments and sounds of a song. The second lesson in this poetry unit teaches tweens...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

What Is Poetry?

For Teachers 7th Standards
The first lesson of 12 in a poetry unit asks class members to develop their own definition of poetry. After crafting a response, they examine a variety of examples and decide if the resources are or are not poems.
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Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "Instructions on Not Giving Up" by Ada Limón

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
What do the myth of the phoenix bird and Ada Limón's poem "Instructions on Not Giving Up" have in common? Young scholars create a list of what they notice about both the myth and poem, then consider what the similarities might indicate...
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Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond" by E. E. Cummings

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Scholars engage in a role-play exercise, compare their demonstration to a time-lapse video, and to a poem by E.E. Cummings. The ensuing discussion asks learners to consider the similarities among the three.
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Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "Once the Magnolia has Blossomed" by Ed Roberson

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A free write, an image of magnolia leaves, and the Ed Roberson's poem "Once the Magnolia has Blossomed" ask scholars to use their noticing skills to reflect on the lesson plan beauty teaches about loss and grief.
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Lesson Plan
Utah Education Network (UEN)

Know Your Literature Genres

For Teachers 7th Standards
Open the library for young readers by introducing them to the main genres and sub-genres. A podcast and two presentations identify the characteristics of the different genres. Groups then sort through a box of books and, using evidence...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: Leadership and a Global Stage

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is, among other things, the study of a ruler's ambitions. Young scholars watch videos, read articles, and keep a Commonplace Book while studying the play. At the end of Act III, pupils stage the play that...
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Lesson Plan
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Utah Education Network (UEN)

7th Grade Poetry: Sonnet Poem

For Teachers 7th Standards
Two sonnets provide seventh graders with examples of Shakespearean sonnets. After discussing the story of the poems and analyzing their rhyme scheme and rhythm, young poets craft a Shakespearian sonnet and share their work with two...