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Marching to Freedom: PowerPoint Presentation debating for or against going to war
Fourth graders present research on war. In this debate lesson, 4th graders create a power point presentation debating for or against the American Revolution. Students share their presentations with the class.
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Using a Magazine/Non-Fiction Texts
Working with magazine articles and other informational texts, middle schoolers identify the parts of a non-fiction work. The learners use SMART board files to guide instruction, as well as a transition to writing their own non-fiction...
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Childhood Through the Looking-Glass
Junior high learners discuss Lewis Carroll's classic story, Alice in Wonderland. They observe the image of childhood in his photographs and compare them to present-day images. There is a plethora of ideas and links for discussions...
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Thinking About Hate
This lesson starts out with a guided discussion about the statement "Birds fly in the sky; airplanes fly in the sky; therefore, airplanes are birds" and goes on to cover logical fallacies and reliable sources, relating these to the topic...
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Henry V Quiz
Five quick questions ask about quotes and characters from Shakespeare's Henry V. Give this quiz to your students as a warm-up or diagnostic test.
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Writing a Summary
Skim, reread, and then take notes. The step-by-step procedure outlined in this resource can be used to help pupils write a summary of a reading passage. Using their notes, class members then draft a summary focusing on the main idea and...
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Author's Purpose
A simple activity for young readers, this introduces the idea of author purpose. Learners analyze various types of texts (newspaper articles, magazines, books, advertisements, etc.) and determine if the author's purpose for writing was...
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Writing an Autobiography
Students use their Life Map to write a strong introduction for an autobiography. They apply the Life Map to a written sequence, use guided imagery to visualize the writing process and experience peer editing.
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Research a Poet and Explicate a Poem by that Poet
Seventh graders choose a poet to research and find a poem by that author to explicate/analyze using a variety of sources for their research that will include their textbooks, the school library, and the internet. After conducting...
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Summarizing: James and the Giant Peach
Text marking and a T-chart format to distinguish important information from trivia help elementary readers summarize effectively. Encouraging readers to construct a chapter summary from paragraph-level topic sentences is another sound...
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Comparing Two Poe Classics
Learners read and discuss The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart. In this poetry instructional activity, students construct a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two pieces of literature.
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Reviving the Renaissance
Bring the Internet and the Renaissance together in this presentation assignment. Middle schoolers give a presentation on the Renaissance, using computers to both research and create the slides. The lesson plan includes a short assessment...
Virginia Department of Education
Editing and Proofreading
This task is best utilized after a rough draft revision is completed. Writers pair-up and identify when the author uses the passive voice, clichés, and wordiness. Basic examples for the revision points are provided for the...
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Harvesting the Crop
What is philanthropy? To find out learners explore the concept through class discussion. They survey, make decisions, implement, and reflect on a service project intended to benefit their community.
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Introduction to Dr. Seuss
First graders look at slides on the SMART Board of different facts about Dr. Seuss and then create a class bar graph of their favorite Dr. Seuss books. In this Dr. Seuss lesson plan, 1st graders review and list facts that they learned...
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Short, Sweet, and to the Point
Students read a passage from a magazine. They highlight the main ideas and facts they feel are important and black out the unimportant details. They review the concept of summarizing and use the highlighted text to write a summary with...
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Middle Ages: Lesson 1
Sixth graders explore World History by completing worksheets in class. In this Middle Ages instructional activity, 6th graders identify the importance of shields during the era and design their own shields. Students complete a Knight...
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Lessons to be Learned: The Importance of Attribution, Accuracy, and Honesty
Students investigate real world examples of media law issues. In this media law instructional activity, students read Janet Cooke’s feature and respond to the writing. Students read articles by Stephen Glass to highlight facts...
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School Newspaper
Fifth graders write a website based school newspaper using a variety of literary forms to present the news of the school.
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Contributions of Immigrants
High schoolers identify the contributions of immigrants to America. They analyze the value of these contributions as well. They discuss how these contributions affect other's personal perspectives of immigrants.
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Paragraph Writing
Third graders receive Gummi hamburgers. They discuss parts and structure of a (real) hamburger. Students dissect the gummi hamburger and rearrange the pieces. Students discuss the problems that would be caused by this with a real...
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Persuasive Writing: Creating Book Reviews
By reading and analyzing examples of persuasive text, students can get a better idea of how to form their own essays.
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What would you do if faced with this problem?
Students determine how and why an individual from each of four disciplines - Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Legalism - might respond to the same problem.