Curated OER
On the Oregon Trail
Learners work with primary documents and latter-day photographs to recapture the experience of traveling on the Oregon Trail. Working in groups, they write a scene for the movie that is historically accurate and based on the kinds of...
Curated OER
Solid Waste
Students examine how to use their vocabulary, writing skills, and creative thinking to address environmental concerns in this unit. They write messages to using creative writing to address the issues of solid waste and recycling.
Curated OER
Closing the Gaps
Students examine the defining characteristics of their own generation. They apply their analysis to learning about previous generations, and synthesize their learning by creating improvisational skits and writing creative essays.
Learning to Give
Closing Ceremonies
Promote volunteerism in your art or writing classes. In this service learning lesson, middle schoolers create promotional materials that include photographs and newspaper articles based on their personal service experiences in local...
Curated OER
Child Soldier
Students identify the exploitations of child soldiers. In this global issues lesson plan, students listen to a story that puts them in the shoes a 16 year old child soldier. Students discuss the plight of the teenager and then write...
Curated OER
Ballad Blast
Students write epic poems, songs, or ballads to describe adventures of their own. They discover that storytellers often told stories as epic poems, songs, or ballads. They share and discuss some of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad.
BW Walch
“Outsider” Poet Kay Ryan Goes from Poetry Club Reject to Poet Laureate
The cat might have got your tongue, but you can’t avoid the elephant in the room while you wait for the other shoe to drop. After all, the early bird gets the worm and the chickens are circling. After researching Poet Laureate Kay Ryan...
Curated OER
Cinquain Poems
Students write five-line, diamond shaped poems that are very easy to write then submit one through an automatic PIZZAZZ form.
Curated OER
Growth of a Nation: Trading Cards
Learners research and write about events and people that have contributed to the development of Canada. They develop their paragraphing skills and create a package of 10 Canadian History Trading Cards.
Curated OER
Thornton Wilder's Our Town: The Reader as Writer
Students read a play and create their own play using Thornton Wilder's Our Townas a resource. In this play lesson, students analyze how theatrical elements contribute to a play's meanings and effects. Students recognize differences...
Curated OER
Integration of Photography with Other Learning Experiences
Students studied photography in order to establish individual vision, creative thinking and writing skills while communicating ideas and emotions. They exhibit their work.
Curated OER
Oregon Trail Diary
Students write a diary. In this writing and creativity lesson, students pretend they are moving west and keep a diary about their adventures. Students study real-life scenarios about families who made the trip out west before writing...
Curated OER
Sport Comparison and Contrast
Young scholars read a piece of literature relating to sports and discuss sport, how it affects society, and the reasons people participate. They research sport during the time of pioneers and write a compare and contrast paper dealing...
Curated OER
A Picture is Worth...
Students use their photo analysis skills to gain an understanding of what pioneer life in Canada may have been like by examining historical photos. Students are then given an opportunity to present their findings to the class in a...
Curated OER
Using History to Teach Tolerance: A Ripple of Hope
Students investigate the prejudice and racism that has existed in the U.S. for centuries by attending a field trip. In this equality lesson, students visit the Tolerance Museum and discuss the history of the U.S. Students write a poem...
Curated OER
Poetry in Motion
Students create individual poems containing varied line lengths, punctuation, and rhythm, and explain how each contributes to overall effect of the poem.
Curated OER
Ted Hughes "Pike"
Students analyze how a poet uses language to capture creatures and draft a poem on a 'sinister' animal. In this poetry analysis lesson, students read Ted Hughes' poem 'Pike' and analyze pictures of pike fish. Students use their research...
Curated OER
The Underground Railroad and The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
Students discover racism and slavery by completing a role playing activity. In this U.S. history lesson, students analyze documents from the Civil War era and describe the Fugitive Slave Law. Students view a video on YouTube about the...
Curated OER
See the World
Seventh graders locate and write creatively about different places and their cultures. They identify the physical, economic, social, political and cultural characteristics of selected regions in the Eastern Hemisphere. Finally, 7th...
Curated OER
Made for the Movies
Students create a movie flyer to advertise the novel that the class has just finished reading in small groups. They search the Internet, format their flyer, select a slogan for their film, write a brief plot summary, without giving away...
Curated OER
Pizzazz!...Persona-Poems
Students compose persona-poems. They examine the sample poem and then practice writing their own persona-poem. Students collaborate in small groups and write a poem about their partners.
Curated OER
The Water in Our Lives: Be the Bug
Students examine a local water supply and create a fictional invertebrate specifically adapted to thrive in that environment. They write a short story from the invertebrate's point of view.
Curated OER
Looking Back to 1980
Learners use clustering/mind mapping techniques to generate ideas, graphically represent inferences, organize their conclusions and write a report that presents conclusions the writer has reached, and facts substantiating those conclusions.