Curated OER
Who Could Have Been Who
Can word choice affect a candidate's likeability? Use a New York Times lesson to explore how a presidential candidate's likeability factor can fluctuate in public opinion polls. Young readers choose a presidential election from their...
Curated OER
A Positive Spin
Study word choice and connotation in advertising. Readers examine campaign ads, both negative and positive, from the 2006 mid-term election before discussing an article and analyze a campaign of any candidate they choose. Finally, they...
Curated OER
The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of a...
Curated OER
Shakespeare and Poe Teach Six-Trait Writing
A Six-Trait Writing instructional activity helps your middle schoolers liven up their word choice and shows them how to evaluate their own writing. Class members take a close look at the language used in poems by Shakespeare, Kipling,...
Curated OER
Think Pair Share
Here is a great tool to help train your learners what to do during a think pair share! The graphic organizer has a place for your learners to put the title, their partner's name, notes during their peer discussion, and a place to record...
Curated OER
Digging Up Dino Data
Third graders use the Internet to research a specific dinosaur. They work in pairs and individually to browse dinosaur websites, take notes on pertinent information, write, edit and illustrate reports. They post their work.
Curated OER
Printing and Publishing
Explore African literature and artwork in a multicultural literacy and art lesson. Begin with a read aloud of Tiger and the Big Wind: A Tale from Africa, and afterward, have kids retell the main events in the story. They identify and...
Curated OER
Who Works at Our School?
Young interviewers will learn more about the school staff by asking them questions and creating a bulletin board display. They will learn how to make thoughtful interview questions, conduct professional interviews, and organize...
Curated OER
Character Traits in Fables
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the...
Curated OER
A Weave of Woods
Focus on vocabulary, comprehension, and analysis while reading A Weave of Woods, a colorful picture book by Robert D. San Souci. Young learners use worksheets to preview, predict, practice paraphrasing, and make comparisons. The richly...
Curated OER
Band of Brothers
What is a community? Explore the idea of community by investigating countries that have experienced severe damage. Learners discuss the horrible aftermath the 2011 earthquake had on Japan's infrastructure after the tsunami it caused....
Curated OER
Writing Classroom Agreements using Inspiration & Word to Go
How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...
Curated OER
Secrets of the Mummies
How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...
Curated OER
A Rat's Life
Here is a two-page worksheet on rats and mice. Learners answer nine true/false questions about rats and mice, then compose answers to seven short-answer questions about these two rodents. Finally, they must compose a fictional story...
The Kennedy Center
Fairy Tale Variations
Here are two great lessons that work together and are inspired by the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. Young writers and actors will retell the story of "The Frog Prince" through games, improvisational script writing, and song....
Curated OER
Major Regional Dialects
What does your dialect sound like? Examine variation in English as it relates to geographic regions with your class. They recognize some of the major differences between regional dialects and determine that everyone speaks a dialect....
Curated OER
Facing the Ghosts of Our Past
A reading of a New York Times review of the movie Beloved launches research into how the Civil War affected the lives of people living during this period. Creative thinkers select a person from an included list of historical figures and...
NPR
Civil Rights of Japanese-American Internees
Prompted by a viewing of Emiko and Chizu Omori’s Rabbit in the Moon, a documentary about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, high schoolers examine a series of documents, including the Bill of Rights and the UN’s...
Curated OER
The Two Sides of the Declaration of Independence
Budding historians read six documents related to grievances that led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. They then craft an essay in which they discuss the perspective of both the colonists and the king. This DBQ could be...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension 2: Level 12
Ever heard of CTE? A passage about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) provides the text for a reading comprehension check. The subject matter is sure to engage your readers and the questions, based on the passage, assess whether high...
Curated OER
Snail Mail vs. E-mail: Let the Challenge Begin
Compare past and present forms of written communication with a fable to guide your pupils in discovering the benefits of various forms of written communication.
Curated OER
Spring Time Trees/Flowers
Plan ahead! Integrate science and language arts! Schedule your reading of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe to coincide with the arrival of spring. As pupils read Chapter 11 of the Lewis classic, they are assigned one of...
Curated OER
Reference Packet: Pronouns
Pronouns, pronouns, pronouns! Review all of the different types of pronouns, and complete several practice opportunities. Read through the information with your class before sending them off to work on the packet independently.
Curated OER
Peer Editing for Expository Essay
You're class just finished writing an expository essay! Instead of having them do a self-edit, pair them up and give each person this guide. This is not your average peer editing checklist; it is a list of 35 things to look for in your...