Curated OER
Idiom Games
Students identify idioms as groups of words with special meanings that paint a mental picture for the reader.They compete in a game in which they draw and interpret pictures of idioms.
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The Art of Paraphrasing
Tenth graders participate in an activity in which they practice paraphrasing sections of primary and secondary documents. They are to share their paraphrasing with the class to help with their confidence speaking in front of a group.
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Wax Museum
Sixth graders put their research skills to work. In this Revolutionary War lesson, 6th graders research a famous figure from that era. Students use the information gathered to prepare for a wax museum experience.
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The Written Word
Students write a Bible verse in calligraphy. For this calligraphy lesson, students take dictation on a passage from the Bible that is not well known. Students discuss how long it took to take dictation and use a ratio to...
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You Be the Judge
Students explore nonfiction writing by completing a worksheet in class. In this research questions lesson, students read several stories about the Wild West icons Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok. Students answer study questions about the...
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A Comparative Study of Bangor, Wales and Your Community
Twelfth graders research how a university in their local community changes the cultural landscape of the area. As a class, they discover how the town of Bangor, Wales was affected and compare that to a community in their local area. They...
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Pipe-Cleaner Stick Figures
Second graders create puppets out of pipe cleaners and, in groups, put on a puppet show based on a section of a story they have read from their readers.
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Here's an Instant Activity: Onomatopeia Word-Search
Eighth graders complete a worksheet on onomatopoeia. In this spelling lesson, 8th graders review the concept of onomatopoeia. The attached worksheet for students includes a word-search of thirty onomatopeic words. Although the lesson is...
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Apples Personified
Students write a creative writing piece by personifying apples. In this creative writing lesson, students view a PowerPoint about the writing process and brainstorm about apples. Students write a rough draft about their apple and peer...
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Comments WERD
Students examine several examples of similes and metaphors, stating what is being compared. Then each student chooses a different person from the Civil War era and writes similes and metaphors that describe that person.
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What's On Your Plate?
Students keep running record of the activities they engage in and the food they eat. In this instructional activity on healthy living, students discuss the dangers of anorexia and bulimia, record their activity level and food consumption...
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What's On Your Plate?
Students explore the use of sensory details in writing. In this journal writing lesson, students write four journal entries after group discussion about a variety of topics such as their weekend, poverty in the United States, and...
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Animal Diaries
Students read Diary of a Worm by Foreen Cronin. In this journal writing lesson plan, students research an animal and write a diary by their animal. Students apply the research they've completed in their writings. Students share their...
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The Visual Thesaurus and the SAT
Demonstrate strategies for tackling unfamiliar vocabulary words in preparation for the SAT. Using Visual Thesaurus computer software, middle and high schoolers interpret contextual clues, solve sample sentence completion questions, and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes: Poems for a Democracy
Explore the idea of democratic poetry. Upper graders read Walt Whitman, examining daguerreotypes, and compare Whitman to Langston Hughes. They describe aspects of Whitman's I Hear America Singing to Langston Hughes' Let America Be...
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Rooting One's Way to Meaning
Discover the Virtual Thesaurus with your class. They use the Virtual Thesaurus to assist them in an inquiry-based approach to discovering the meanings of some common Latin and Greek roots. Each child then teaches a particular root and...
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Quick and Sticky Context Clues
Discuss strategies for defining word your young readers don't know. They read sentences with key words covered by sticky notes and guess from the context what the word might be. They peek at the first letter and guess again.
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The Beginning, The Middle, & The End
Cut magazine pictures into three sections, having your youngsters piece the pictures back together. With this fun activity, they discover the importance of sequencing a story. Then they use a fun template (shaped like a burger) to write...
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Reporting Live from the Twentieth Century
Students create a news story on one of the top 100 news stories of the 20th century.choose one past news event. They write a news story about that event, and provide a continuation of the story based on their research.
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Knowledge or Instinct? Jack London's "To Build a Fire"
Students examine the relationship of man and nature in "To Build a Fire" and discuss the juxtaposition of knowledge and instinct. They investigate third person, omniscient point of view.
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Explore Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in this literature analysis lesson. Middle schoolers read and summarize the plot of the story. They then adapt passages for a contemporary audience and analyze the...
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Sondheim: Voice of Cultural Change
Students explore Stephen Sondheim's contributions to musical theatre in the context of the dramatic cultural shift that occurred in American life in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
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Antonyms, synonyms and homophones
Shed light on what antonyms, synonyms, and homophones are. In this lesson, upper elementary schoolers create pairs using an antonym, a homophone, and/or a synonym. Then they play an antonym matching game.
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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...