Curated OER
Lesson: A Garden Party of My Own
Kids look at a beautiful work of art to practice grammar, make connections from life to art, and sketching. They identify all the parts of grammar they see in the image, discuss what they see and do on a picnic, and then draw an imaged...
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...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Parts of Speech Pronouns: Building Blocks of Grammar
Pronouns are the most helpful parts of speech! Model the ways that interrogative, indefinite, personal, and demonstrative pronouns can specify meaning and enhance writing with a hands-on activity.
Curated OER
Testing... Testing...
Students demonstrate critical- and creative-thinking skills to develop test questions. They write clear test questions or statements using correct grammar, spelling, and sentence structure.
Curated OER
Lesson: Before You Go...Travel Recommendations from the Experts!
Here is a lesson that sounds like a lot of fun. Kids discuss the artistic elements and motives for the painting, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. To get the scope and scale of this oversized masterpiece, they use butcher paper and the...
Curated OER
Food and Dialect
The dialect words for types of food from across the British Isles get pupils thinking about native dialects and how they differ from Standard English. Class members create a dialect dictionary and discuss the difference between accent...
Curated OER
Hatchet: Vocabulary Strategy
Want your class to use critical thinking when discussing vocabulary? Go beyond the dictionary with a vocabulary activity based on Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. Kids write the word in the center of a graphic organizer that also provides...
Curated OER
When Is a Noun a Verb? Examining Double Duty Words
The New York Times' Learning Network provides great lessons! This one uses articles from the paper to help readers understand homonyms like mail (verb and noun). It also includes an exercise in reading informational text. Links to the...
Novelinks
The Book Thief: Cubing Strategy
Whether used to review prior to a reading assessment or as a way to generate ideas for an essay, this activity is sure to encourage critical thinking about Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. Kids create a six-sided question cube with each...
Curated OER
Fahrenheit 451: Social Criticism
Students write a four paragraph essay that tells about two things in society that Ray Bradbury criticizes in the book, Fahrenheit 451. In this social criticism lesson, students develop a thesis based on their reading of the book and...
Novelinks
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers: Literary Mandala
Explore the concept of yin and yang with this resource. On the first page, learners study a picture of George Bush. Then, have learners choose a character from The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. After brainstorming adjectives and choosing...
Curated OER
MONSTERS AND MYTHS: SCRIPTS /SCULPTS
Seventh graders are introduced to myths formed by many cultures as a unique genre of literature. They use critical thinking skills to compare and contrast mythic tales, compare versions of the same story, and respond to literature in...
Azar Grammar
Students as “Grammarians”: Discovering Grammatical Rules Lesson on the Causative “Have”
Groups examine a series of examples, identify the common elements, and work together to discover "the causative" grammar rule represented.
Curated OER
Advanced Synonyms and Antonyms- Multiple Choice Verbs 5
Improve word choice and vocabulary skills with a straightforward grammar worksheet. As young readers observe the highlighted words for 12 multiple-choice questions, they choose the best synonym or antonym for each.
Curated OER
Editorials
Students investigate editorials. In this literacy critical thinking lesson, students compare and contrast two newspaper editorials and two letters to the editor by completing a Venn diagram. Students work in groups to write...
Curated OER
Proofreading - Spelling, Capitalization, Grammar and Punctuation
Fourth graders practice proofreading a passage. In this proofreading lesson, 4th graders complete a worksheet by reading a passage and circling twelve errors. They proofread for errors in spelling, capitalization, grammar, and punctuation.
Curated OER
Vocabulary / Writing Strategies
Students will increase spelling and vocabulary skills. Then they will develop critical thinking skills. Next, they will develop expository writing skills. Finally, students will practice language skills with non-traditional text: a...
Curated OER
House and Holmes: A Guide to Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
Test your pupils' reasoning skills with several activities and a quick mystery to solve. Learners watch and analyze a few video clips that demonstrate reasoning in action, practice deduction with an interactive and collaborative...
Curated OER
The Things That Bothered Farmer Brown
Link language development to literacy skills. This lesson template provides a comprehensible way to use the Braidy Web to maximize language and reading skills. It would be appropriate for developmentally disabled pupils reading at a K-2...
Curated OER
Pair Editing
Practice thinking critically and editing by finding basic errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Partners read the stories What's Up? and Cold Water Clean. They look for and edit any mistakes they find. Worksheets are available...
Curated OER
The Role of Television in Social Justice
Young scholars will discover the direct impact television coverage had on the African American Civil Rights Movement. They will employ listening, information processing, and critical thinking skills while watching the film clips and...
Curated OER
The Pigman: Problematic Situation
What would you do? To prepare readers for the death of Mr. Pignati, one of the characters in Paul Zindel's The Pigman, individuals complete a problematic situation worksheet and then compare their responses to others in their group.
Curated OER
Holiday Flier in Publisher
Students use Publisher in this lesson to make a holiday flier. In this technology lesson, students create a holiday flier. Students choose fonts, use clipart, use grammar and spelling check, and save to their work to a flash drive or...
Curated OER
The Kite Runner: Anticipation Guide
Introduce Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner with an anticipation guide that asks class members to consider their opinions on a series of statements related to themes presented in the novel.