Advocates for Youth
What is Sexuality?
Set the record straight with a series of health-related lessons that discuss human sexuality. Over the course of 11 group and individual activities, learners discover biological, emotional, and social facts about sexuality.
PBS
The Supreme Court: Liberty of Contract
How did the Supreme Court apply the Fourteenth Amendment to cases involving working people? Learn all about labor rights in a resource that focuses on the liberty of contract and protections for workers. Scholars complete handouts that...
PBS
The Planets of the Solar System
Launch a lesson that's sure to capture middle schoolers' interest! Exploration enthusiasts examine the planets of our solar system using an activity from PBS's Space series. The resource includes images and information for each planet,...
Curated OER
A River Runs Through It; Anticipation Guide
Students answer questions to consider before they read A River Runs Through It. In this anticipation guide lesson, students complete a worksheet responding to declarative statements and then discuss their responses in...
Curated OER
Using Artifacts to Engage Students in Critical Thinking Activities
Creating learning centers with artifact-related activities are a great way to promote deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills.
PHET
Planet Designer: Retro Planet Red
What does the atmosphere on Mars look like? This fourth lesson in the series of five is designed for high schoolers. Scholars apply previous knowledge to add atmosphere to Mars in an online simulation. This comprehensive lesson includes...
Santa Ana Unified School District
Getting to the Core: Early American Poets
How do poets convey emotion and represent their views of life? Pupils learn more about Whitman and Dickinson through the unit and analyze their bold reinvention of craft and style for poets to come. Looking at classic pieces such as...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
How Novel Icefish Genes Can Improve Human Health
Designed to accompany the 13-minute video The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes, this handout serves as both a viewing guide during the video and an analysis of how the adaptations of the icefish might help treat...
National History Day
“War Is Hell. We Know it Now.” American Soldiers in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive
Understanding the soldier's experiences during World War I sometimes takes a newscast. Learners see the importance of understanding multiple points of view with a newscast project surrounding the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Compare and...
Bantam Books
The Tempest: Chalk Talk
Discussion doesn't always need to be spoken. Before you begin The Tempest by William Shakespeare, have kids connect their ideas and experiences to central questions of the play with a silent discussion activity. Once they have...
Curated OER
We Are All Authors: Create a Book
Every child is an author with this engaging reading activity. First the class reviews the various parts of a book such as the title, author, dedication, and author-biography. Then each individual will choose a story of their...
Speak Truth to Power
Harry Wu: Forced Labor
Over the course of two class periods, young historians explore human rights issues; specifically, forced labor in China. This resource provides everything you need, including relevant vocabulary, an anticipatory activity, and a...
Curated OER
DNA Replication
An excellent review of the very specific stages of mitosis, the detailed slides start with explanations of the directionality of DNA and then develop the concept of daughter strands. The intricate diagrams are intended for experienced...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Night to Life is Beautiful
After reading Elie Wiesel's Night, watching the movie Life is Beautiful, and researching World War II, class members write a comparison essay on the book and film. This includes a prior knowledge activity, discussion in whole and small...
EngageNY
Getting to Know Esperanza (Chapter 2: “Las Uvas/Grapes”)
Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core designed instructional activity draws on material from the...
EngageNY
Getting to Know Esperanza (Chapter 2: "Las Uvas/Grapes")
Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core-designed activity draws on material from the previous day and homework...
Illustrative Mathematics
Lake Algae
Introduce learners to exponential growth with this real-world problem about algae that is rapidly spreading across a lake in a city park. The task presents the rate of growth and an end value and asks learners to determine what happened...
Baylor College
Fossil Fuels and the Carbon Cycle
Humans are quickly depleting Earth's fossil fuels and locating them is becoming increasingly difficult! Layered muffins are used for models as young geologists take core samples in order to determine the presence of oil. Consider first...
Curated OER
Building a Case for Clues
Here's a strategy that can be used with any narrative, whether read by the instructor or as independent reading. At the end of each chapter, learners predict, using prior knowledge as clues, what will happen in the next chapter. Readers...
Curated OER
Making Inferences - An Introduction
Help your learners identify the inferences they make every day with this SMART board activity. With a comic strip in the first presentation slide, they make inferences about the situation. A discussion addresses what type of prior...
Curated OER
Student Exploration: Eclipse
In this earthquake exploration worksheet, students complete 3 prior knowledge questions, then use "Eclipse Gizmo" to conduct several activities, completing short answer questions when finished.
Curated OER
Student Exploration: 2D Eclipse
For this earthquake exploration worksheet, students complete 2 prior knowledge questions, then use "2D Eclipse Gizmo" to conduct several activities, completing short answer questions when finished.
Curated OER
Spider "How To" Make a Spider
Young chefs follow the set-by-step instructions of a recipe and use their prior knowledge of the body parts of a spider to make edible spider cookies. After completing a pre-writing graphic organizer they then write a "how to"...
Curated OER
Octopus Lesson Plan
Children explore the life of an octopus. They listen to a story, answer prediction questions and share their prior knowledge of animals. Students observe the defense mechanism of the octopus. They create an imaginary defense mechanism...