Curated OER
The Life and Times of Tomie dePaola
First graders research information about the author Tomie dePaola. In this author studies lesson plan, 1st graders use the computer to find information about Tomie dePaola's life and writing accomplishments. Students create booklet about...
Curated OER
Using a "Before Reading" Organizer with Informational Text
Lead your students in creating a graphic organizer that uses the titles and subtitles of an informational text. Your class should recognize and use features of narrative and informational text before connecting and remembering the main...
Curated OER
Rediscovering Forgotten Women Writers
Women's voices are becoming more prominent in the world of literature, but for centuries, this wasn't the case. Young historians research a woman whose writings are considered to be lost, out of print, or forgotten. They develop an oral...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss Author Study
Students listen to a story, then use the same format to write a class book.
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...
Curated OER
Eric Carle Author Study
Students view the Eric Carle web page, formulate questions about his work, and e-mail the questions to him. Selections from his book lists are made, art projects created, and communication set up with the author.
Curated OER
Cameras and Careers
Applying photography basics they learn for this project, first graders take pictures of an adult at work focusing on the tools used, the work site, and job responsibilities. After making a career book that includes photos and...
Curated OER
The Presidential Quotation Report
Famous quotations by American Presidents are the focus of this Six Trait writing activity, which could be used in a U.S. History class or in language arts. After reading the picture book Theodore by Frank Keating, have your 7th graders...
Curated OER
Letters to Poets
Add a strong poetry lesson to your literature unit. Middle and high schoolers investigate their writing voices with journaling and group discussion, then choose a famous poet to study. They write letters to their chosen poets, explaining...
Curated OER
Natural Gas: An American Treasure
Do your fourth graders need extra practice with evaluating fact and opinion? An informative resource provides two reading passages in which learners distinguish sentences as fact or as opinion. Additionally, they determine how the...
Middle Tennessee State University
John Brown: Hero or Villain?
"Love it or leave it." "You're either for us or against us." Rhetoric and it's polarizing effects are the focus of a lesson that uses John Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry as an exemplar. Groups examine primary source documents,...
Federal Reserve Bank
Bunny Money
Teach your class about saving, spending, and goal setting with a story about a couple of bunnies who went shopping and related activities. Learners keep track of the bunnies' spending, practice identifying long- and short-term savings...
Northeast Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency
Who Were the Tired, the Poor, the Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free?
Elvira Woodruff's The Orphan of Ellis Island: A Time Travel Adventure is the core text in a interdisciplinary unit study of immigration at the turn of the century.
Curated OER
Creating Life Maps (Elementary, Reading/Writing)
Students create a personal life timeline to better explain how a historical timeline is effective in studying history. They also write a poem about themselves.
Curated OER
1920s Images and Ideals PowerPoint Project
Students explore Teaching the American Twenties, noting fashion, life styles, Hollywood, key authors, key people, and key events. They explore the sites and note what they can identify from the time period for this collection. They write...
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 12
How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of Beowulf
Beowulf, the Old English epic hero, comes alive again in the activities found in a teacher's guide designed to accompany a reading of the classic poem.
Curated OER
“THE LORAX” by Dr. Seuss
Few children's books convey the message of conservation as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Read the story aloud, emphasizing the interconnectedness of plants and animals in an ecosystem and discussing different ways people can help the...
Classroom Adventures Program
Creating Characters
Examine character in depth. Over the course of these six lessons, learners explore their own character traits, determine the traits of characters in the books they read, practice comparing and contrasting, and collaborate in small groups...
Curated OER
Persuasive Practice: A Mt. Rushmore Addition
Budding authors research a US President and persuade the National Park Service to add him to Mt. Rushmore. In addition to the persuasive essay, individuals are required to develop a visual presentation using a web-based software that...
All for KIDZ
Building Relationships: The Orphan of Ellis Island
Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource provides...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Understanding Theme
The ninth in a fourteen-lesson series, this plan marks a sort of midpoint in a unit devoted to the study of short stories. Pupils learn about theme and work on their short story projects by adding to their blogs, checking in with the...
Curated OER
Celebrating Maurice Sendak's Legacy
Lesson ideas that focus on the author and illustrator's contribution to children's literature.
Scholastic
Hillary Conquers Everest
If a field trip to the summit of Mount Everest isn't in your school budget, make the trek virtually! An interactive instructional activity allows class members to follow Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's trail up the mountain, and...