University of Kansas
Newspaper in the Classroom
Newspapers aren't only for reading—they're for learning skills, too! A journalism unit provides three lessons each for primary, intermediate, and secondary grades. Lessons include objectives, materials, vocabulary, and procedure, and...
Curated OER
Lights! Cameras! Action!: Creating a Drama About the Lyme Art Colony
Discuss the lives of artists in the Lyme Art Colony in the 1900s with this resource. Young historians write and perform a short scene depicting individuals who lived in the Griswold boardinghouse, used by the colony artists. They use the...
Curated OER
Monsters
Do monsters really exist? Find out what your class thinks with these discussion questions prior to reading Beowulf. Incorporate music and a video clip into the anticipatory set to engage your learners. Take a day to search online...
Curated OER
Goal-O Bingo
While playing a long-term game of Goal-O Bingo, your class will practice replacing unkind words with kind ones. First, read Casey and Amazing Giant Green Shirt by Margaret Ross. Then have your class write down 25 goals they would...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Letter-Sound Dominoes
What do dominoes and phonemes have in common? Quite a bit in this engaging phonics game! Each domino has a letter on one side and an image on the other. Everything you need is here; partners place the starting domino on the table then...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
When We Are A Story
Drama and story elements go hand-in-hand. Have the class dive into a dramatic play to show character intention, conflict resolution, main events, and the dialogue in a Hawaiian folk tale. They read the story, then group-up to...
Curated OER
Guy Fawkes
Sixth graders access their prior knowledge of the job of Parliament and its relationship to the monarchy. In this Gunpowder Plot lesson, 6th graders research the Gunpowder Plot, summarize key story ideas, and role play the plot. They...
Curated OER
Modern Minstrelsy: Exploring Racist Stereotypes in Literature and Life
Satires may be designed to expose a bias to ridicule but if misunderstood can they reinforce that bias? Langston Hughes poem, “Minstrel Man” opens a discussion of racist stereotypes, the minstrel tradition, and the musical, “The...
Curated OER
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves Storia Teaching Guide
There was an old lady who swallowed some leaves? Little learners read a new version of the old swallow story with a fall twist as they try to answer the big question; Why is that lady swallowing all that weird stuff? The teacher's guide...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Lesson Learned: Creating a Life Reports Project
Tap into the wisdom and knowledge of older members of the community with this New York Times plan. To warm up, learners write about and discuss advice they have been given. After reading "The Life Report," an op-ed column that asks older...
Curated OER
Anansi and the Tug O' War
Read a short book with your first graders! Anansi and the Tug O' War is the focus of this lesson. After reading the African story together, they complete language arts activities to practice reading comprehension. A stellar...
Curated OER
Jack of All Tails
After reading the book Jack of All Tails, learners complete vocabulary activities, play charades, consider a list of questions, and complete a list of verbs. There are also several suggestions for how to connect this language...
Curated OER
Arti-Factual Evidence
Practice responding to controversial information with the New York Times lesson provided here. Middle schoolers watch a video interview with the director of The Lost Tomb of Jesus. After reading a companion article, they identify...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Rain School: Text-Dependent Questions and Vocabulary
The engaging story Rain School is further explored in the third lesson of a larger unit that explicitly teaches close reading skills by answering questions whose answers can only be found inside the text. Through teacher...
C.S. Lewis Foundation
Study Guide to The Great Divorce
Break the content and theological barriers of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce with the ideas and suggestions available for analysis and discussion using an easy-to-understand study guide. This stupendous resource introduces Lewis’s...
EngageNY
Developing Reading Fluency: Selecting a Text and Practicing Reading Aloud
Young readers continue to strengthen their fluency skills with a text of their choosing. The teacher first engages the class with an audio recording or read-aloud of a short poem, modeling for children how to read fluently. Next it's...
Curated OER
What is the Setting of a Story?
First graders explore the concepts of what setting is and how it's determined in a story. They play the KidWorks program to help facilitate the setting in a story. They use resources such as a picture dictionary or word wall to find and...
Curated OER
Paragraph Structure
Practice writing paragraphs with this scaffolded worksheet. The "hamburger" model is used on the second page, following some examples and guided practice on the first page. Give beginning writers concrete, tangible support as they embark...
Curated OER
Configuration Station
Here is a unique configuration station instructional activity which invites learners to complete thirty questions involving a variety of activities with the eight parts of speech and grammar rules.
Curated OER
The Cat in the Hat is 50!
Have your class react to a number of statements about The Cat in the Hat, then read a news article about a special event honoring the birthday of the popular book. The teacher introduces an article with a discussion and vocabulary...
Curated OER
Verbos con cambios radicales
Stem-changing, or radical changing, verbs are fairly common in Spanish. Provide your Spanish class with this reference guide to discuss the stem changes that occurs in the yo, tú, él, ella Ud., ellos, ellas, and Uds. forms.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Final Phoneme Spin
Segmenting words into different phonemes helps kids on the road to reading and writing. Have some fun with this spinner game which includes all the print-outs you will need. Simply assemble the spinner using a brad and lay out the...
Curated OER
Writing a Topic Sentence
Here is an inventive, and easy-to-implement lesson on the writing of topic sentences. Learners review what a topic sentence is, practice identifying topic sentences in an informational article, then play a really cool game. All of the...