Curated OER
SAT Vocabulary Practice
Eight multiple choice questions test proficiency with "low advanced SAT level" vocabulary words. Each sentence has either one or two missing words, which readers fill using one of five possible answers. Answers are attached, and contain...
Curated OER
Antonyms
Familiarize linguists with antonyms as they examine examples and match up opposites. First, scholars read a short description of antonyms, writing as many antonyms for big as they can. Then, they match up pairs of words that are antonyms...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: I Love You the Purplest (Joosse)
Use Barbara Joosse's heartwarming story I Love You the Purplest (which can be found on YouTube if you don't have it) to practice vocabulary in context with emerging readers. This sensory text is an excellent opportunity to...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: My Chinatown: One Year in Poems (Mak)
Beautiful illustrations and tender memories of cultural identity make Kam Mak's story My Chinatown an ideal resource for budding readers learning four vocabulary words in context: fortune, scraps,...
Curated OER
Writing Women: The Yellow Wallpaper
Students examine the historical, social, cultural and economic context of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Students determine the place of the middle class woman and her role in society.
Curated OER
Arkansas Festivals of the Land
Middle Schoolers research Arkansas community festivals which are tied to the landscape. They create brochures that reflect the festival from a geographical and historical perspective and share them with the class. This ambitious and...
Curated OER
Anonymous Patriots: Songs of the Revolution
Give your class a deeper understanding of the context and meaning behind early American song lyrics. By reading the lyrics to "Yankee Doodle" and "Revolutionary Tea," high schoolers will practice analysis by examining the...
Curated OER
International Day of Peace
To recognize the International Day of Peace, pupils complete activities such as reading a passage, phrase matching, fill-in-the-blanks, correct words, multiple choice, spelling sequencing, scrambled sentences, asking questions, take a...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension 1
What can jump 150 times its own length? Fleas! Assign this reading passage to your class, and they'll not only develop reading skills, but they'll learn about fleas. After reading the excerpt, they answer the questions that follow. All...
Curated OER
Build Mastery: Visualization
What do you see? Young reader tap into the visualization process as they listen to or read a fiction story and fill out a graphic organizer. Model this first with a think-aloud, showing scholars how you visualize a familiar story. For...
Curated OER
Candide: A Herber Readiness Activity
“Everything will end up okay if you believe hard enough.” “People create their own luck, good or bad.” Prior to reading Candide, class members respond to an anticipation guide that focuses on the issues of optimism, prejudice, and...
Curated OER
Heavy Boots: Group Discussion
Jonathan Safran Foer's phrase, "heavy boots," becomes the focus of a class discussion of grief and sadness. During the reading of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, individuals place examples of their own experiences with these topics...
Curated OER
Anticipation Guide: Life of Pi
Create an anticipation guide with your class for Life of Pi. They will have likely heard of the novel and maybe even seen the movie, but provide them with this guide to get them thinking. Eight statements are given, and your class...
National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium
Sun Printing
Ozalid acid paper is sensitive to the light. It reacts by getting darker, and it's the same paper photographers use when they print their pictures. Here, kids get to use photo-sensitive paper to create sun prints to find out...
Curated OER
Modernism: American Literature 1914-1945
What characterizes modern literature? The first few slides of this 31-slide PowerPoint discuss what sparked the change to Modernism and discuss some of the key figures of the time (like Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud). The 20s and 30s are...
Curated OER
Convey Ideas in Writing
Use the platforms of the 2004 presidential candidates to bring persuasive writing to your class. Young voters identify the three issues most important to them in the election and research the issues and candidates' positions. They write...
Curated OER
Building a School Model: An Academic Challenge
First and second graders explore aspects of design. They discuss and design the ideal classroom building complete with window and door placement. Additionally, students observe and note features found in neighboring classrooms as...
Curated OER
A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
The Nashua River serves as the focal point of an investigation of the treatment of and care for natural resources. A reading of A River Rand Wild: An Environmental History by Lynne Cherry, launches the study and class members consider...
University of Southern California
Coming to America After the War
As part of their exploration of the American dream, class members examine primary source materials to compare immigrant experiences of those arriving early in our country's history to those arriving in the US after World War...
Curated OER
My Ideal World
High schoolers create an image symbolic of their ideal world. In this lesson inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird and the artwork of Edward Hicks, students use Adobe Photoshop to create an image symbolic of their personal utopia.
Curated OER
Writers and the Old South Myth
Learners are introduced to authors of the South. In groups, they compare and contrast the pastoral and counter pastoral traditions present in some forms of Southern literature. They use a database to examine the covers of the books...
Curated OER
Self-Portraits Inspired By Saint Helena
Students create their own self-portrait revealing personal information employing two types of aesthetics: imitation and expression. Emphasis is placed on the painting "Saint Helena with True Cross" created by Lucus Cranch the Elder.
Curated OER
Total English Upper Intermediate: Traveling and Going Places
In this travel key vocabulary worksheet, students complete 8 sentence starters and evaluate 3 descriptions of holidays in order to write about their ideal companions for each.
Curated OER
Blessing Boxes
Pupils create "Blessing Boxes" to show what they are thankful for in this Art instructional activity ideal for the Thanksgiving holiday. The materials needed include empty (and clean) milk cartons, brown construction paper, and magic...