Curated OER
5 Broken Cameras: How Storytellers Shape the Story
5 Broken Cameras, the award-winning documentary nominated for a 2013 Academy Award and winner of the Sundance 2012 Directors Award is the focus of a resource packet that includes a lesson plan, discussion guide, reading lists, background...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Survival of the Fittest - Variations in the Clam Species Clamys sweetus
It's not often that you come across a clever laboratory activity that is both imaginative and comprehensive! Using M&M's and Reese's peanut butter candies to represent two different clam species, young biologists test for "relative...
Discovery Education
Mood Music!
Grouchy? Sad? Here's a great resource that shows kids how music can be used to lift their spirits. Kids collect and chart data on the effects of music on emotions. After analyzing the results of their experiment, they develop...
PBS
Making Change: Revolutionary Tactics of the Civil Rights Movement
The film American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs introduces viewers to the differing philosophies of and strategies employed by 1960s civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the debate over...
Curated OER
Using Information Resources: Lesson 5
Eighth graders follow along with a teacher lead lesson to find information by skimming and scanning a resource booklet. They examine different types of resources that are available in a library. They practice skimming skills and complete...
Channel Islands Film
Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: Lesson Plan 1
As a practice writing test, fourth graders use the West of the West's documentary Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island and two print resources as source materials for an informative article that identifies information that is...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
What Brought Settlers to the Midwest?
Drawn by promises of fertile land, thousands of settlers poured West because of the Homestead Act of 1862. By examining images of the ads that drew them westward, learners consider the motivations for movement. They also consider how the...
Curated OER
Indian PowWow
Students identify three different American Indian regions and tribes, their food, clothing, shelter, recreation, and transportation. Students create artifacts that can be placed in a museum. Students sing songs, chants, and dance. ...
Facing History and Ourselves
After Charlottesville: Public Memory and the Contested Meaning of Monuments
Are Civil War monuments a kind remembrance or a reminder of a dark past? The activity focuses on the public's memory of the Civil War and the monuments that represent it. Young academics explore past efforts to change historical symbols...
Eau Claire Area School District
Intellectual Property Lesson Plans
Fair use, intellectual property, public domain ... what does it all mean? Scholars act as judges to determine if different scenarios constitute fair use. They also advance their research skills by practicing paraphrasing and citing...
Curated OER
Reference Resources: Being a Good Detective
Students explore a variety of reference resources while seeking information. atlases, almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and online search engines as well as library card catalogs are utilized in this lesson.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - Romeo and Juliet
“What is the theme of this story?” Now there’s a question all pupils dread. Rather than encountering a sea of faces that look like they were painted by Edward Munch, face a classroom filled with smiles and confidence. Show your readers...
C-SPAN
Student Symposium and Resulting Action
Your class may not be able to vote yet, but that doesn't mean they can't feel like they're part of the presidential election! The resource creates a symposium where pupils debate about a selected topic in current events during an...
University of California
The Civil War: Perspective
Confederate soldiers saw the Civil War much differently than their Union counterparts. Scholars analyze the perspective of the Civil War from the viewpoint of various key figures in the fourth installment of an eight-part series. By...
Curated OER
ESL Grammar Lessons
Practice makes perfect when it comes to learning grammar with this ESL resource. Offering a great way to teach about relative clauses, this lesson engages students with a series of partner, small group, and whole class speaking and...
Library of Congress
Determining Point of View: Paul Revere and the Boston Massacre
If you're teaching point of view, this is the instructional activity for you! First, decipher the writer's point of view from a primary resource, then compare and contrast the primary source with a secondary source to explore the...
Novelinks
Zach’s Lie: Questioning Strategy – Cubing
Your class won't be a bunch of squares from using this well-rounded activity! Instead, they'll be expressing thoughtful questions using the cubing strategy. The class brainstorms questions of increasing rigor about Zach's Lie in the...
Premier Literacy
Point of View
Incorporate technology into a literature lesson with an innovative language arts lesson. Middle schoolers read an electronic version of original stories or fairy tales, and after determining the point of view, rewrite the tale from...
Scholastic
Voyage on the Mayflower for Grades 6–8
Imagine living in the hold of a sailing ship for 63 days, enduring rough seas and autumn storms. As part of a study of the voyage of the Mayflower, class members examine an online resource that details life about the ship, watch a slide...
Bully Free Systems
Bully Free Lesson Plans—Seventh Grade
Having a hard time defining bullying with your seventh graders? Discuss the different types of behavior one would see in a bullying situation with a series of lessons, worksheets, and group activities.
Center for Instruction, Technology, & Innovation
Did African American Lives Improve After Slavery?
The Civil War made slavery illegal, but all ex-slaves were not totally free. Scholars visit eight different classroom stations to uncover life during the Reconstruction Era in America. Groups discover items such as Black Codes, 13th,...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Weather or Not
What is the difference between weather and climate? This is the focus question of a lesson that takes a deeper look at how weather data helps determine climate in a region. Using weather and climate cards, students decide...
Curated OER
Mexico Field Trip
Explore how the library or Internet resources function as textual information. Young writers research a chosen topic then read and comprehend the collected information. They structure the information with texts and graphics for a...
Curated OER
Sorting
A lesson plan on classification and sorting is here for you. Elementary schoolers participate in an interactive computer game in which they sort books by theme. They take a trip to the library to observe and discuss how books are sorted,...