Scholastic
Drones Take Off
Ever wonder what drones are doing high above us in the sky? This article gives your class an insight to what those robots in the sky are doing. After reading an article on drone technology, pupils are prompted to respond to a...
Curated OER
Spin and Bias in the Media
Learners compare different types of media. In this media comparison lesson, students will assess the where all types of media gets its information by viewing a video of a news story and critiquing it.
Curated OER
Turning Literature into News
Students examine the newspaper. In this writing purposes instructional activity, students read the newspaper and discuss the purpose: to inform, entertain and persuade. Students identify facts and opinions. Students write an article and...
Curated OER
School Newspaper
Students investigate writing a school newspaper. In this writing a school newspaper instructional activity, students choose topics that will be included in the school newspaper. Students view online sites about writing articles and break...
Curated OER
Credible Sources on the Internet: What to Trust, What to Dismiss and When to Cite a Source
Wait, you mean researchers don't all use Wikipedia? Teach your class about intelligent research with a lesson about evaluating digital sources. The lesson starts with a quickwrite and includes vocabulary exercises and several...
Jackson Public Schools
Summer Reading Activities
Provide parents with the tools they need to bridge the summer learning gap with this collection of fun activities. Whether it's creating an alphabet poster with illustrations for each letter, playing a game of sight word concentration,...
Curated OER
Banned Books
Should people be able to ban books from schools and libraries if they find them objectionable? Scholars read the three main pros and cons regarding banned books. They also review a list of the top 10 challenged books from 2017 and...
ProCon
Electoral College
The Electoral College's role in elections is sometimes confusing and controversial. Pupils use a debate topics website to research the pros and cons of the practice to debate whether the United States should still use the Electoral...
Channel Islands Film
The Legendary King of San Miguel: Lesson Plan 3 - Grades 9-12
The documentary, The Legendary King of San Miguel Island, introduces the fascinating tale of Herb Lester, his family, and their life on San Miguel Island. Viewers have an opportunity to expand their study of the island and of...
Madison Public Schools
Journalism
Whether you are teaching a newspaper unit in language arts, covering the First Amendment and censorship in social studies, or focusing on writing ethics in journalism, a unit based on the foundations of journalism would be an excellent...
Curated OER
Is that a Fact? Reading the Newspaper
Fourth graders are given a newspaper article. They predict the content based on the title, read and chart fact and opinion statements, and conclude by summarizing the article. They utilize a worksheet imbedded in this plan to guide their...
Curated OER
Harriet Tubman In The News
Students investigate the history of Harriet Tubman. They use newspaper articles from history and modern times in order to gather information. They use a graphic organizer in order to categorize information. They distinguish the readings...
Curated OER
ANALYZING RUMORS AND MYTHS
Eleventh graders explore the phenomenon of "disinformation" that often circulates during a crisis. In this American Government instructional activity, 11th graders analyze an article on myths and rumors.
Curated OER
Shaking the Movers: Youth Rights and Media
Children have rights! Exploring those rights and using media to express those rights is the focus of this Media Awareness Network lesson. Although some of the law links reflect the Canadian Articles of The Convention, the majority of the...
Curated OER
Telling Our Stories of Giving - Writing to Persuade
After identifying the parts of a persuasive piece of writing, young writers explore different prewriting activities for the persuasive essay. They have the option to write a news article, personal narrative, or persuasive essay to...
Curated OER
Making Points on Election Dilemma
Young scholars define a straight news article, and identify characteristics of an editorial news feature. They read a CNN article that examines the 2000 presidential election, and determine what is factual and what is opinion.
Beyond Benign
Medical Ethics
Just because we have the ability to determine an organism's traits through genetic testing, should we do it? Middle-school medical experts examine the ethical dilemmas in biotechnology in the 18th and final installment in a series of...
Curated OER
Lead Critical Reading
Students read opposing views on the lead contamination issue, identify the facts and opinions in each article, and infer the opinion of the author. They create an essay expressing their opinion on the issue complete with citations.
Curated OER
Imaginary Wealth and a Magazine Article
Students explore economics by writing a fictitious news article. In this personal wealth lesson, students participate in a role-playing activity in which the year is 2025 and they must write an article about their extremely wealthy...
Curated OER
Discrimination and Media: Focus on Mental Health
Students explore discrimination by the media. In this media awareness lesson, students examine stigmas concerning mental illnesses as they are portrayed in the media.
Smithsonian Institution
Mary Henry: Journal/Diary Writing
A great way to connect social studies with language arts, a resource on Mary Henry's historical diary reinforces the concepts of primary and secondary sources. It comes with an easy-to-understand lesson plan, as well as the reference...
American University
Factitious
Truth or factitious? Users of an engaging interactive test their ability to identify whether an article is real or fake news.
Curated OER
Justice Is Blind, Colorblind That Is
It's so interesting to see kids respond to articles about education. To start the day, prompt learners to discuss the words colorblindness and diversity. Then, split your class in two and have one side read an article from 2007 and...
ProCon
Daylight Savings Time
An entomologist named Geroge Vernon Hudson is credited with proposing Daylight Saving Time (DST) so he could better study his insects. Using the informative website, scholars read a brief introduction to the topic and then explore the...