Curated OER
Understanding Characters
Students analyzing characters from a story by creating an article about one. For this story analysis lesson, students read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and pick one character to write descriptively about. Students...
Curated OER
Billie Holiday's Song "Strange Fruit"
Pupils analyze a variety of primary source materials related to lynching (news articles, letters written to or written by prominent Americans, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.) in order to assess the effectiveness of the anti-lynching...
Discovery Education
Mood Music!
Grouchy? Sad? Here's a great resource that shows kids how music can be used to lift their spirits. Kids collect and chart data on the effects of music on emotions. After analyzing the results of their experiment, they develop their own...
Curated OER
Ornithology and Real World Science
Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...
Japan Society
A Remade Environment
Art is a wonderful way to express feelings of social unrest or change. Learners will examine the works of two contemporary Japanese artists, and how they each have used art to say something big. They analyze the work of Katsuhiro Saiki...
Curated OER
When Art's a Craft
What would it be like to restore modern works of art? By acting as modern art conservators, learners assess the first-hand difficulties faced in restoration efforts. In addition, they create modern art pieces from random materials. Then,...
Curated OER
The Roots of Prohibition: Examining the Effort to Prohibit Alcohol in America
Five segements from Ken Burns' documentary series Prohibition, easily accessed on the PBS website, are at the center of a terrific short unit on the roots of America's ambivalent relationship with alcohol. Engage your secondary class...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading of the two...
Curated OER
Patriots and Loyalists
Students examine portraits by John Singleton Copley and discuss how the subject's appearance communicates important information about his or her life. They write a diary entry from the point of view of a portrait subject.
Curated OER
A Boxful of Character
I can't wait to try this activity with my class. It's versatile and could be modified to fit any character analysis lesson. To analyze characters thoroughly, learners create life boxes. Each box will pertain to a character from any...
Curated OER
Trey and Dave go to Africa: Music
Trey from Phish and Dave from the Dave Mathews Band took a trip to Africa to explore music, culture, and history. Your class watches this episode from VH1's Music Studio to understand how African culture and music have influenced modern...
Curated OER
A Pill with a View
Students brainstorm a list of potential uses for micro-video technologies. After reading an article, they analyze the development of a new pill-sized camera. In groups, they create a children's book that shows them the various systems of...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: A Bird's Tale
Who wouldn't love to get a letter from a blue bird? Elementary art enthusiasts analyze the social and historical context of Ason Yellowhair's Navajo piece, Bird and Cornstalk Rug. They examine the construction and images on the rug...
Curated OER
Place Value & Picasso
Place value to the millions is the focus of this math lesson. Third and fourth graders investigate multiple ways to represent a number. They examine place value while studying factual information about Pablo Picasso. Resources are provided.
TED-Ed
From Aaliyah to Jay-Z: Captured Moments in Hip-hop History
To take "the definitive portrait of that person in that moment" is the quest of photographer and hip-hop historian Jonathan Mannion. In this short video, Mannion details his dedication to his art and the process he goes through to catch...
Curated OER
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Fourth graders discover facts about John Brown. In this Harper's Ferry Raid lesson, 4th graders evaluate the lyrics to the song "John Brown's Body", and write a descriptive obituary about John Brown. Students also view pictures of John...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Communicating With Body Language
The Olmec were an ancient people native to Mexico who lived from 1000-500 BC. Young artists examine the Olmec piece Seated Figure to analyze the use of body language to communicate a tone or feeling. They then use clay or play-dough to...
Curated OER
Lesson: Paint Inspiring Words
The painting Three Young Girls circa 1620, was believed to be painted after the death of the subjects' mother. Art enthusiasts analyze the image details to determine if they come to the same conclusion. They then use the sensory details...
Denver Art Museum
Lesson: Facebook for a Prince
In 1538 a portrait and a praise poem were created in honor of Edward, Prince of Wales. Your class will analyze the poem and painting, research the life of young Edward, then use the information to create a Facebook page. They will...
Maryland Department of Education
Our Children Can Soar
Amazing efforts of African American leaders are celebrated in a lesson on civil participation. The engaging resource focuses on primary and secondary sources to analyze the impact of African American leaders such as Ella Fitzgerald....
Curated OER
Picturing America: Images and Words of Hope from Romare Bearden and Langston Hughes
A carefully crafted three-day lesson integrates poetry and visual art. By analyzing and comparing Langston Hughes' poem "Mother and Son" and Romare Bearden's collage "The Dove," readers explore the theme of hope. The lesson activates...
Curated OER
Defining the Images of African American Slavery
High schoolers view and analyze various artists' representations of slavery. They create their own illustrations of slavery.
Curated OER
Pet Pellets
Students create and design advertising for a tempting new pet food! They create an imaginary pet food, analyze and identify types of propaganda and design packaging and advertising for the pet food.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Exhibiting Common Threads
Artists working in different media often explore the same themes—to model how these same themes weave their way through different forms of artistic expression, scholars analyze images by Dorothea Lange, identifying key themes in her...