Curated OER
Media Awareness: Key Concepts in Advertising
Learners examine the basic concepts of advertising. In this media awareness lesson, students discuss target audience, art, and purpose in advertising to determine what makes an advertisement effective or ineffective. Learners evaluate...
Curated OER
Lesson: Paul Chan: Alternumeric Fonts
Learning to analyze language, symbols, and codes is part of becoming a deep and critical thinker. Young analysts consider their ability to see hidden messages as they analyze the work of Paul Chan. There are two fully developed...
Curated OER
The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of a...
Curated OER
Mixed Media Messages: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Students examine the process of recycling by creating a mock television commercial about recycling. In this recycling lesson, students watch an animated demonstration about recycling and answer content questions. Students play an online...
Curated OER
Journey to the Unknown
Students explore the ocean depths. In this scenario based lesson, students pretend they are on a submarine in an unknown part of the ocean. By using clues the class discusses and determines where they are in the ocean. They follow up...
Online Publications
Become a Journalist
Explore the newspaper as a unique entity with a detailed and extended unit. The unit requires learners to consider the newspaper's role in democracy, think about ethics, practice writing and interviewing, and examine advertising and news...
Curated OER
Seeing Words in a New Way
What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...
Perkins School for the Blind
Tactile Journals
I absolutely love this idea. Children with visual impairments create tactile journals which describe an event from the previous week in an artistic way. They verbally describe one event from the previous week and then use a wide array of...
Curated OER
Picturing America: Images and Words of Hope from Romare Bearden and Langston Hughes
A carefully crafted three-day lesson integrates poetry and visual art. By analyzing and comparing Langston Hughes' poem "Mother and Son" and Romare Bearden's collage "The Dove," readers explore the theme of hope. The lesson activates...
Curated OER
Bridge to Terabithia
Students explore scenes from Katherine Paterson's book, Bridge to Terabithia. In this visualization activity, students listen to the story read aloud. The students then choose words and phrases that paint a picture in their heads....
Curated OER
Popular Music and Music Videos
This resource is part of a three-activity unit that introduces your class to the concept of popular culture and the role that it plays in their lives. Here, learners examine the importance of the music industry and music videos in pop...
Dream of a Nation
Creating Awareness through Action Oriented Writing and Research
Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth graders...
University of Virginia
Student Page: Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
History sleuths read articles for and against Uncle Tom's Cabin, examine visual images, print responses, and multi-media tomitudes to better understand the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel on American culture prior to the Civil...
Curated OER
The Fisherman and His Wife
Engage conversation and explore the journey as you challenge young readers to interpret the german folktale, "The Fisherman and His Wife" written by literary brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Curated OER
What Does Art Sound Like?
Help your charges investigate visual art by identifying sounds that are associated with the images. They view art galleries online and discuss which sounds would be present if the image was a real life situation. Additionally, they...
Curated OER
Silent Symbols Speak Loudly: Icons, Brands & You
Students view and discuss visual symbols around them every day, analyze symbols on United States one dollar bill, explore variety of meanings of same symbols depending on context and culture, and create their own money with symbols that...
Curated OER
Exploring Heroism
Students examine the concept of heroism in this lesson, through personal reflection, group activities and a thoughtful analysis of the documentary, HEROES OF GROUND ZERO. They explore their own understanding of what it means to be a hero.
Curated OER
Exploring the Self
Students examine a variety of songs, poems, and books exploring and analyzing the theme of self reliance and being true to one's self. They write a poem, essay, or letter that captures their true spirit and individuality and then they...
Curated OER
Body and Media #1
High schoolers examine how films and media affect their body image. They identify their own definition of body image and research the topic. They discover the importance of using both fact and opinion sources.
Curated OER
A Media Literacy Unit on "Turn Beauty Inside Out"
Students become aware of the importance of distinguishing between inner and outer beauty. They explore how the media's opinion of beauty is biased and should be evaluated rather than just accepted. Each student also assesses how the...
Curated OER
What is Drawing?
Learners explore visual arts by participating in a drawing activity. In this artistic expression activity, students discuss how our thoughts and emotions are conceptualized by illustrating or painting. Learners utilize charcoal, pastels,...
ReadWriteThink
A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative
A picture's worth a thousand words—and even more inspiration! A visual activity uses photographs to inspire writers. The process teaches aspects of narrative writing, such as point of view and characterization.
West Jefferson High School
The Novel — Honor
For classes tackling To Kill a Mockingbird, this lesson plan sets readers up for discussions or essay writing with questions and prompts. The prompts encourage individuals to explore beyond the novel itself, looking at photographs from...
Curated OER
Camera Shots
Understanding how visual codes such as long-shots, close-ups, and camera angles affect meaning helps prepare young filmmakers to plan their own productions. The concepts embedded could also be used to analyze photographs and paintings.