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Art: Faith Ringgold Story Quilts
Twelfth graders examine the impact of African American culture on the United States by inspecting Faith Ringgold's story quilts. Working in groups, they create a collective story quilt about current cultural issues. They research their...
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Presentation to Class and School
How's the weather today? Elementary and middle schoolers plan severe weather awareness day in this lesson on research presentations. They present their research reports, along with their action plan and any other associated products...
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Whose Feat?
Play a vocabulary game with words from an article about Savion Glover's contribution to the film "Happy Feet." Then, small groups of young scholars design and create original movie advertisements using vivid vocabulary to give Glover the...
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Writing With Punch
Students watch the series "Unforgiveable Blackness". They examine the media's response to Jack Johnson in the film. They role-play the role of reporters to compose poems of headlines.
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Health: Overweight Youth
Investigate the primary causes for the increase in overweight youth and discover its impact on the health care system. After watching segments from the Bill Moyers Now program, your students develop campaigns to implement in school that...
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Getting Well
Scholars share ideas about health topics relevant to teens. They read posts on Well, the Times health blog, and produce their own health blog featuring teen health issues. In addition, they read and discuss the article "Well: A Times...
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A Personal Journey
Learners will share ideas about class mobility. They create a timeline that chronicles milestones in their own lives, and synthesize their learning by writing personal essays about their class status and aspirations for the future.
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Keep Heritage Alive
Youngsters share ideas about cultural and/or spiritual rituals by participating in a fishbowl discussion, which explores the ways rituals have changed over time. They write reflective essays about their own cultural traditions.
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"No News Like Ancient News"
Want to know more about Ancient history? Young historians will read a minimum of two web sites to complete the chart "Residents of Olympus". They choose one Greek god or goddess to research. This could be a small group activity or...
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Olympic Challenge
Have your class research a country related to the Olympics. They participate in physical education activities included in the Presidential Physical Fitness Test and write about their country. This is a very interactive plan.
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Call of The Wild
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
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A Lens into the Past
Explore the history of immigration through photographs. Scholars will view and discuss photographs depicting the culture and lifestyle of late 19th and early 20th century immigrants. They take pictures of current examples of culture in...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Poems that Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost
Dig in deeper with Robert Frost's, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Learners will read and discuss poems by Robert Frost and learn the meaning of terms such as narrative and personal. They journal, collaborate, and present poetry...
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Dancing Lights
Students view artwork and navigate the Internet, and read books to learn about the Aurora Borealis. In this Northern Lights lesson plan, students complete a KWL and separate the facts from the myths about the Northern lights....
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Math News
Young writers design and publish a newsletter with articles that demonstrate knowledge of mathematical concepts. They explain mathematical procedures and basic operations in a news article format. Next, they compile several articles to...
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War Literature
Working in groups, young historians review a war poem written by Stephen Crane. After reviewing the poem, they present an oral interpretation of the poem and hold a panel discussion about their analysis. The panel is made up of five or...
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P.C. Games
Discuss and share opinions on violent computer games. After reading an article, your class will discover the controversy surrounding online games. They analyze the suitability of computer games and write their own letters to a developer...
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Language Arts: Telling a Painting's Story
Use art museum paintings as inspiration for your class's creative writing works. Observing the paintings closely, middle and high schoolers list details and write descriptions. Their completed stories are displayed on bulletin boards...
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Story Telling through Photography
Use this writing and photography lesson plan in your descriptive writing unit. Elementary and middle schoolers write and create a story line incorporating photos from Inspiration or their own personal photos. They experiment with...
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What is Art?
Students become familiar with the art and architecture and history of the Chicago World's Fair. In this public arts project lesson, students compare and contrast fine art and public art through a study of the exhibits at the...
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Invent It!
Students explore invention and unveiling of world's first Ferris wheel, analyze photographs and poster of first Ferris wheel, and discuss engineering achievements of Ferris wheel, including how it worked, how it was built, and its...
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Mary Todd Tours the World
Pupils analyze how distinguishing another culture encourages us to respect each other. They research culture and all its avenues, recognizing and comprehending the relationship between people and geography. Ultimately, they can apply...
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Animal Fact or Fiction?
Read and discuss the article "Welcome to Cicadaville (Enter at Your Own Risk)" to gain a better understanding around the confusion regarding cicadas and locust swarms. In groups your young analysts research statements about animals to...
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Mouse Mess
Scholars practice rhyming and phonemic awareness using trade books and poetry. They will listen to the book Mouse Mess several times throughout the week, identifying rhyming words, and matching words that begin with the same sound. Then...