Curated OER
Civil War Essay
Upper graders explore equality by writing an essay. They read the story Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco, and discuss the meaning of the story and its relevance to Civil War events. Learners investigate the five writing process steps and...
ReadWriteThink
Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues
Young environmentalists learn how to craft a persuasive essay about an environmental issue they consider important. After studying the components of a persuasive essay and examining a student model, writers brainstorm possible topics and...
Curated OER
Night Compare Contrast
Using a constructivist approach and a graphic organizer, small groups work together to begin a paper, comparing and contrasting the novella Night and the movie Life is Beautiful. Assuming that your learners have studied both of these...
Curated OER
Five Paragraph Essay
Learners create a standard outline, using a word processing tool, while they are learning about the basic writing device of the 5 paragraph essay.
Curated OER
Magazine Production
Analyze magazines as a class, looking carefully for the target audience, advertisements, and topics presented. Small groups then work as a publication team and receive a magazine that they have to "sell." Each individual has a different...
The New York Times
Making Do: Learning and Growing Through Adversity
What is it that makes people keep going when they face challenges in life? Ask your class to consider this question in relation to their own experiences and as they read material from The New York Times. Using personal experiences and...
Curated OER
Truly Amazing Mammals
Explore the world of amazing mammals with your kids with special needs. Each child identifies one mammal from a previous lesson and writes a short paragraph on that mammal. This lesson states that it is intended for all levels, but not...
Curated OER
Research Listed Websites for Support for Writing a Summary
Summary writing is tough for native English speakers, let alone English language learners! In this plan, high school English learners examine how to annotate online articles and write a one-page summary. They can post this summary on...
Curated OER
Ban That Book!
Take advantage of Banned Book Week to pique students' interest and get them reading! Create a classroom display of previously banned books and allow each member of your class to choose one to read. After they have read their book, get...
Newseum
Slanted Facts and Slippery Numbers
The Internet is known as the information superhighway, but sometimes it's hard to know when to hit the brakes on unreliable sources. Using a well-rounded lesson plan, pupils read and summarize articles about the gender pay gap and...
Curated OER
Writing Police Reports: Emergency!
Young scholars practice writing emergency reports. In this emergency reports lesson, students participate in a visit from a police officer or emergency technician. Young scholars then write a historical report based on the fictional...
Curated OER
Writing to Learn History: Annotations and Mini-Writes
Students use their critical thinking skills to write about historical events. For this historical perspectives lesson, students read documents about historical events and make annotations and marginal notes. Students then respond to...
EngageNY
Structuring The Search: Categorizing Our Research
What can you contribute? Scholars read text to determine how ants contribute to the rainforest. First, they categorize and sort facts gathered from reading. Next, readers focus on specific terms in each paragraphs of the text Ants by...
University of Chicago
Comparing Modern and Ancient Ideas of Ethnicity and Identity
Explore ethnicity and identity with a research and writing assignment. Class members conduct online research, looking in particular at images and carefully noting down their sources on notecards. They read about identity and compose...
Curated OER
Creative Inventions
Ninth graders develop ideas for an invention and write a persuasive essay explaining why their invention is best. In this invention essay lesson, 9th graders review persuasive essay writing. Students create a graphic web for an original...
EngageNY
Documenting Research: Sorting and Recording Information About the Wheelwright
Fourth graders practice using a graphic organizer to record their notes and answer text-dependent questions while supplying evidence of how they found their answer. They focus on a machine called the wheelright, which was commonly used...
Curated OER
Escher-Esque Tessellations
Middle and high schoolers participate in a seven-part lesson creating Escher-Esque tessellations. They demonstrate their knowledge of geometric transformations after viewing a PowerPoint presentation, conducting Internet research, and...
Curated OER
Harriet Tubman Integrated Unit
Students organize facts about Harriet Tubman. In this writing lesson, students research Harriet Tubman, sort facts about her into two categories, and use the information they have found to write about her life in complete paragraphs.
Curated OER
Natural Inquirer Lesson Plan - Bio Energy Edition
Students investigate energy use by discussing the pros and cons of oil use. In this energy source lesson, students portray different individuals in the fictional town of Heatville and argue why they should or should not switch from oil...
Curated OER
My Spanish Christmas
Tenth graders research Spanish Christmas customs on the interent and role play in their writing their findings in an essay. They teacher provides a list of web addresses for the students to locate information on and from that their...
Curated OER
Internet Versus Daily Newspapers
Seventh graders address a series of questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Students find a position to be formulated and defended, specifically the Internet newspaper or the traditional daily newspaper. Students create a five card...
Curated OER
Oil and its Everyday Uses
Explore the properties of oil through an experiment. They use the scientific process to investigate oil, participate in experiments, watch videos,and use information from the internet to determine how oil has changed our everyday lives.
Curated OER
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
Sixth graders investigate ancient civilizations by creating a research project. In this world history instructional activity, 6th graders investigate historic civilizations developed close to important rivers of the near East. Students...