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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Journey of the Magi

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students create storyboards. In this pre-Christmas special lesson, students produce a storyboard for a TV version of the poem, "The Journey of the Magi". Options to complete with or without technology are included.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Thornton Wilder's Our Town: The Reader as Writer

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students read a play and create their own play using Thornton Wilder's Our Townas a resource. For this play lesson, students analyze how theatrical elements contribute to a play's meanings and effects. Students recognize differences...
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Unit Plan
1
1
Core Knowledge Foundation

Unit 6: The Genius of the Harlem Renaissance Teacher Guide

For Teachers 7th Standards
Introduce your seventh graders to the Harlem Renaissance with a unit that explores this dynamic period's music, literature, and ideas. The 160-page guide includes a unit calendar, an introduction to the unit, 10 richly detailed lessons...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lift Every Voice and Sing

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students analyze sculpture, poetry, and music to gain an understanding of historical events. In this critical thinking skills lesson, students take a closer look at African-American history as they examine "Lift Every Voice and Sing'"...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Biopoem: Bud, Not Buddy

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Young poets focus on one character from a story they are reading, collect details, and use a biopoem template to analyze this character. The activity can be used with any text.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

What Makes a Novel a Novel?

For Students 4th - 8th
As your authors prepare to write a hypothetical novel, they need all the inspiration they can find! Using a book they have already read (and enjoyed), learners complete a literary analysis by filling in eight short-answer questions....
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Coda: What Gives This Story Power? Re-Examining Powerful Stories

For Teachers 7th Standards
Writers consider what makes a story powerful as they listen to a short story about Frederick Douglass. Once finished, small groups complete a worksheet to analyze what makes the story so enduring.
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Unit Plan
1
1
College Board

Choices and Consequences

For Students 7th Standards
Paul Fisher, the main character in Tangerine, comes to see that it's the choices in life that lead to the consequences that make all the difference. A unit study of Bloor's young adult novel leads readers down this same path. 
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Unit Plan
Simon & Schuster

Classroom Activities for The Call of the Wild by Jack London

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Three activities are designed for readers of Jack London's The Call of the Wild. First, class members research and create posters that reflect the setting of the novel. Next, groups create posters with images that represent each chapter...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson plan focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...
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Lesson Plan
5
5
Curated OER

The Internet of Things: IoT

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
How has the Internet of Things affected our lives? Scholars examine the massive influence of mobile devices in this analysis lesson plan, which begins with a seven-minute documentary clip. They also read a New York Times article (linked)...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students compare and contrast characters from various texts and compile the collected data into several graphic organizers.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
It is entirely fitting and proper that Wilfred Owen’s powerful “Dulce et Decorum Est” is the poem used for an exercise in close reading, discussion, analysis, and argumentative writing. Class members discuss focus questions in pairs,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Outsiders

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...
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Activity
Novelinks

Tuck Everlasting: Similes, Metaphors, and Personification in Imagery

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Poetic language is abundant in Natalie Babbitt's beautiful novel, Tuck Everlasting. Learners note the examples of similes, metaphors, and personification they find as they read, and illustrate how the language creates a sensory...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Use of Symbolism to Convey the Author's Message - The Negro Speaks of Rivers

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students identify the literary devices, symbolism, and first-person narration in the poem A Negro Speaks of Rivers. In this poem analysis lesson, students discuss African Americans and the Harlem Renaissance. Students watch a video about...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Out of the Dust

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Learners create a poem that expresses the physical and emotional turmoil of living through the Dust Bowl.  For this Out of the Dust lesson, students research facts about the time period and discuss the cause-effect patterns associated...
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Lesson Plan
Digital Public Library of America

Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Focus on Figurative Language

For Teachers 7th Standards
Using the poems "First Snow" by Ted Kooser and "Eating Alone" by Yi-Young Lee (or other suggested poems by Robert Frost or Sara Teasdale), middle schoolers search for examples of figurative language. Guide your learners by discussing...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating an Author Brochure

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students, while in the computer lab, visit a variety of web sites and read about the life and work of Langston Hughes. They create an author's brochure on Mr. Hughes from the data they collect from the various web sites. Each student...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Robert Frost

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Start your poetry unit with this basic overview of Robert Frost's life and works. A PowerPoint presentation starts off the lesson, which ends in a short recall quiz about Robert Frost. The presentation would be sufficient for your lesson...
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Handout
Ohio Department of Education

A Glossary of Literary Terms

For Students 7th - 11th Standards
If you're tired of defining allusion, onomatopoeia, and satire for your language arts students, hand out a complete list of literary devices to keep the terms straight. Each term includes a definition that is easy to understand and...
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Activity
PBS

Primary Source Set: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
What did Jo write her stories with? How did the March sisters dress? A primary source set designed for Louisa May Alcott's Little Women prompts learners to look over images of household items and clothes from the 1860s before engaging in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Food and Dialect

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
The dialect words for types of food from across the British Isles get pupils thinking about native dialects and how they differ from Standard English. Class members create a dialect dictionary and discuss the difference between accent...

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