Curated OER
"Weighing the Elephant"
Can your class solve the problem presented in the Chinese folktale, "Weighing the Elephant?" Read your class the description before having them attempt to solve the problem. After they've come up with an answer (or attempted to!), finish...
Curated OER
The Wonderful World of Slugs
Examine a slug? Of course, what else would a 2nd grader do with it? Pupils use clues and go on a slug hunt, read a slug story, or make a cooperative group mural of a slug's habitat. While older learners catalog slugs, go on a slug hunt,...
Curated OER
Hidalgo's Fight for the Independence of Mexico
Tenth graders study and examine the life of Miguel Hidalgo while working to identify major themes. Small groups create sequence of event chains, analyze and label maps of Hidalgo's travels, and work together to create giant chalk maps...
Curated OER
Roping Quadrilaterals
Learners explore with quadrilaterals. In this roping quadrilaterals lesson, students work in cooperative groups to play the game, "Question, please!" in order to identify, describe, compare and classify quadrilaterals. Learners also...
Curated OER
Friends in the Snow
Students practice reading a story in order to develop character recognition skills. They participate in reader's theatre in small groups to increase cooperation and fluency skills.
Curated OER
Understanding Tibet
Students work in cooperative groups to read one current situation of Tibet. They respond to a set of discussion questions. Pupils write a newspaper article expressing the current information explored. Students write an editorial or...
Curated OER
Literature Circles in Action
Students form cooperative groups to read, discuss, and respond to a novel. They select a novel from offered choices or by criteria given by teacher and complete a culminating project on the novel from such choices as: creating a...
Curated OER
Dealing with Differences
Students list at least ten things they have a hard time doing. After reading and discussing Be Good to Eddie Lee, Students, in cooperative groups, write at least six ways people can assist people with disabilities.
Curated OER
Brace Yourself!
Students create a list of dental problems and tactics that can be used to correct them. They then study about how the field of orthodontics is changing, and work in cooperative groups to research and build models of how various types of...
Curated OER
THE FOODS WE EAT
Students discuss the five food groups and the seven basic nutrients. They decorate Food We Eat booklet pages with pictures of foods found on background, rubber stamp and animation tools in KidPix. (Booklet has a page for each food group.)
Curated OER
Personal or Social Tragedy? A Close Reading of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
Students complete close reading activities to analyze Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. In this literary analysis lesson, students analyze key quotations from Ethan Frome and respond to contemporary reviews of the text. Students use textual...
Curated OER
Arthur's Birthday
Students investigate birthdays. In this literacy cross curriculum lesson, students listen to the book Arthur's Birthday by Marc Brown. Students re-read the book orally, graph birthdays, design a word search, and create birthday cards...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Workshop (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Bring this instructional activity into your unit about creative writing and precise language. First, middle schoolers create a piece of writing with the help of their classmates. In the second part of this workshop, they edit their own...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Engineer a Dam
To begin the learning about dams, learners read (or are read to, depending on the age group) a passage about how dams work. Next, they work in groups to use the materials provided to build a small scale working dam. After the experience,...
Read Works
Trading Pumpkins
Can you imagine a pumpkin patch without pumpkins? Learners read how Tammy's family solves their problem in a cooperative way, followed by a set of 10 reading comprehension questions.
DocsTeach
Apollo-Soyuz: Space Age Detente
The Space Race saw the Soviet Union and the US go from competitors to partners. Scholars read a letter regarding the first docking of the US and Soviet space craft. Young historians also complete a written assignment and participate in...
US House of Representatives
“‘The Negroes’ Temporary Farewell,” Jim Crow and the Exclusion of African Americans from Congress, 1887–1929
Despite some advances made during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, the period from 1887 through 1929, African Americans serving in Congress suffered severe setbacks due to Jim Crow Laws and voter suppression. Class members...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Adaptive Device Design
After reading about how engineering has made adaptive devices possible for people with disabilities, pupils work in groups to discuss different devices to determine whether or not they are adaptive. They also disassemble a pair of...
Novelinks
The Dark Is Rising: Biopoem
How well do your learners really know the characters in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising? A biopoem activity prompts readers to investigate the characters and their traits. Line by line, writers add the characters' relatives,...
Curated OER
Mercer Mayer 1: Guided Reading and Using Concept Maps
Students observe a model classroom of children working in a cooperative group activity. After the video, students discuss how cooperative group learning is used to be most effective. They explore the effectiveness of giving well thought...
Curated OER
Write All about It (Cooperative Learning)
Students listen to a read aloud and while working with other students, write alternate ending to the story.
Curated OER
Hug O' War
Students discuss philanthropic behavior. In this philanthropy lesson, students read Shel Silverstein's Hug O' War and brainstorm ways of working together.
Curated OER
Time, Talent, Treasure and Economics
Students work cooperatively to create a quilt. They choose a pattern and determine the specific skills and steps needed to produce that quilt. Labor is divided equally between group members and a quilt is created assembly line style....
Curated OER
The Tell Tale Students
Young scholars practice summarizing text by retelling what they have read. They read selected, leveled passages and use enthusiastic and createive ways to members of their group. Students complete a journal entry documenting their...