Curated OER
If a Runner Runs, Does a Sweater Sweat?
Play with words and word meanings involving the suffix -er. After reading a sample list of words, young readers look up each one in the dictionary to decide which words refer to people, animals, or objects, or have three or more...
Curated OER
Heroic Vocabulary: Using Decoding Strategies and Thesaurus
Develop the decoding skills of your middle and high schoolers. Scholars participate in a classroom activity that requires them to decode a word with a prefix and suffix. They apply the skill of breaking the word into parts of meaning as...
Curated OER
Number the Stars: KWHL Graphic Organizer
Class members use a KWHL graphic organizer to record what they know, want to know, and what they need to learn as they read Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal winning novel about a Danish Jewish family.
Curated OER
Dictionary Dive!
Here is a classic vocabulary activity presented in a very cute way. Children dive into new and unknown words specific to third grade reading and learning content. They choose a word from the list, look it up in the dictionary, then use...
Curated OER
Parts of Speech
This online multiple choice quiz focuses on upper-level grammar concepts. In addition to covering simple parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives, this resource also covers more advanced information, such as transitive vs....
Curated OER
Context Clues Worksheet (Part 3)
Ask your pupils to become amateur detectives and use clues to determine the meaning of words. Once they have analyzed the clues, they write the meaning on a provided blank line. If they internalize this process, they can use context...
Curated OER
Literary Analysis of Theme
Remember reading "The Lottery" and "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson? Learners can experience and analyze the tension, themes, and human experience found in these pieces through reading and class discussion. They use...
Curated OER
All About Me
Kids almost always want to share the things that make them special. They create and deliver an autobiographical multimedia presentation using step-by-step outlines to plan their content. This is a great "All About Me" lesson, perfect for...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Comprehend a Paragraph, then a Page/Section in a Text
Help your class tackle chunks of text with a simple graphic organizer. Pupils read three paragraphs and, as they read, draw pictures in the provided boxes that demonstrate what each paragraph says. There are three boxes on the page and...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 10: Character Development
Make a study of Timothy and his development as a character over the course of the first half or so of The Cay. This idea focuses in particular on chapters 10 through 12. Learners start out by working on double-entry journals created in...
Curated OER
Getting the Word Out
Discuss and generate blogs in this technology lesson. Middle and high schoolers explore examples of blogs and create their own blogs. Use this lesson throughout the year to reinforce concepts from your language arts class (or any class)....
Curated OER
Persuasive Elements
Investigate letters to the editor and their persuasive qualities. Break your class into reading groups and give each one a different article. As they read, they complete a graphic organizer to record their thoughts and opinions. There is...
San José State University
MLA Formatting Guidelines: Ellipsis for Omissions
If you would like a concise overview of MLA formatting, this two-page handout provides it. It addresses page layout, parenthetical citations, and works cited (including when and how to use ellipses to indicate an omission), but it does...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 9: Climax
Conduct a close reading of chapter 9 of The Cay. Read the chapter again and ask pupils to respond to a list of included text-dependent questions. Finish the class with the provided writing assignment, which asks learners to use textual...
Curated OER
Suffix Addition: Dropping Silent "e"
High schoolers engage in a lesson that is concerned with the concept of using the silent "e" in certain words. They practice using the rules while reading them in a review. The application of the rule is given in the lesson and can be...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building - Declaration of Independence
Young scholars read the first part of the Declaration of Independence and mark the words they don't know. First, they try to guess what the words mean by looking at the them in context, and then they look up the words in a dictionary.
Curated OER
Understanding URLs
Study the different domain suffixes in web address becoming familiar with the types of organization that each suffix indicates. They evaluate web site using specified criteria.
Curated OER
"The Merchants of Cool"
Why are so many advertisements geared towards the teenage population? Watch a video with your class (link included), and have them fill out the attached listening guide. Then discuss persuasion, presenting biased information, and where...
Curated OER
Career Planning and Research
What do you want to do when you finish school? Most high schoolers have an idea of what they'd want to do, but little idea of how to achieve this goal. After researching a career of their choosing, learners identify qualifications,...
Curated OER
Personalities of the Renaissance
Have the class interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. They examine sources regarding architecture, art, exploration, government, literature, religion, and technology of the era. Then they use their...
Curated OER
1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and...
Curated OER
Literary Response and Analysis Theme Literature
Analyze the central idea or literary theme found in a series of quotes from the Shakespearean play, Hamlet. For literary analysis, learners paraphrase excerpts from the play and then identify the characters' motivations for their speech.
Curated OER
Analyzing Nonfiction Text Elements - Editorials
Examine the text features of non-fiction. Start the lesson by reading editorial samples provided by their instructor and analyze the texts for word choice, details, and organization. An editorial example and graphic organizer are...
Curated OER
Worksheet for Choosing a Research Paper Topic & Developing a Thesis Statement
How do you choose a research topic? This helpful graphic organizer is provided to aid middle and high schoolers in organizing their initial thoughts and choosing a topic. They have to narrow their topic by culture, time frame, event,...