Curated OER
Get in the Newspaper Habit
Dive into journalism with your high schoolers! The resources provided here will help your learners write unbiased, clear, and succinct newspaper articles. First they spend time sifting through stacks of articles, filling out a graphic...
University of Arkansas
Assessment and Discussion
"Without concerned citizen action to uphold them (human rights) close to home; we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. . ." Eleanor Roosevelt's comment is used to set the stage for the conclusion of a five-lesson unit...
Curated OER
Who Am I?
Your budding journalists need to understand the five W's for writing a news story. They read a story, complete several graphic organizers to help them organize and write their article, and then use a self-assessment worksheet to edit and...
Curated OER
Archeologists For a Day
Students listen to a reading about fossils and go on a hunt for items with fossil characteristics. In this cross curricular fossil lesson, students will examine their fossil finds and create a graphic organizer. Students...
Curated OER
Beowulf: Lesson Plan and Supplementary Materials
A reading of Beowulf: Dragon Slayer, Rosemary Sutcliff's retelling of the classic epic poem, launches an exploration of what it means to be a hero, a noble leader, and a great warrior. A great way to introduce middle schoolers to...
Annenberg Foundation
Utopian Promise
Scholars learn all about the Puritans in the third installment of a 16-part lesson series. After watching a video, they read and discuss biographies of Puritans and Quakers from American history, write journal entries and poetry, and...
Annenberg Foundation
Modernist Portraits
How did literature reflect people's attitudes in post-World War I America? A lesson explores the topic using a variety of activities. Individuals watch and respond to a video; read author biographies and engage in discussion; write...
Federal Reserve Bank
The Story of the Federal Reserve: Middle School Lesson Plan
After reading the charming cartoon about the United States Federal Reserve, pupils often need to complete activities to retain their learning. The resource does a wonderful job of using class discussion and various written exercises to...
Curated OER
The Making of an Organ
Learners examine and research how cells make up our organs. They create a model of a tongue showing cells, tissues and the organ.
Curated OER
Reading About the Journey: The Odyssey
Students practice their reading skills. For this reading fluency and comprehension lesson, students read instructor-selected passages from The Odyssey following the provided steps for the reading class activity that requires them to...
Curated OER
Independent Reading Responses
Students participate in independent reading activities by reading a book at their independent reading level and selecting activities to complete after reading. Activities are broken up into C Level, B Level, and A Level activities.
Curated OER
Reading: Non-Fiction Format
In this reading non-fiction worksheet, students examine various texts and complete a graphic organizer filling in information about features, columns, paragraph length, font, pictures/illustrations, and purpose of text.
Curated OER
Descriptive Prompt: Precise Language
Incorporate sensory details into a piece of descriptive writing. First, elementary and middle schoolers improve a piece of writing by using precise, vivid language, as well as appropriate word choice. They then listen to a variety of...
Curated OER
Story Mapping
Help your learners map a story with a graphic organizer provided. Four squares for setting, problem, characters, and solution surround the circle for theme. Use this with any story you may be reading to go over important...
Polk Bros Foundation
Meet the Nonfiction Main Idea Challenge
Help your class develop the ability to determine a main idea with a packet of materials that you can introduce and use over a period of time. The packet includes some information for the teacher and rationale for the exercises. There are...
Curated OER
Detail Detective: Story Activity
In this story detail worksheet, students complete a graphic organizer, filling in details about a story read and what characters see, hear, smell, taste, touch and where they go.
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Locate and Classify Information About a Topic
After reading a text, ask your pupils to recall and organize what they've just learned into a blank three-column chart. Class members write the topic and fill in the columns with information. The sheet also prompts students to write a...
Curated OER
Film Festival: An ESL Lesson Plan to Get Students Talking About Movies
If your ESL pupils love talking about movies, here is an activity ideal for providing practice with both informational reading and elements of a story. Given fictional movie posters, they decipher the information and put it into a...
Ware County Schools
Simple Directions
When teaching someone how to do something, it's important to give clear directions. Your youngsters can practice their skills by completing these worksheets meant to help learners describe the steps in a process. It's not just any...
Institute for the Professional Development of Adult Educators
Using Context Clues with Signal Words
When you come across an unfamiliar word in a text, do you skip it and move on? Practice using context clues to identify words you don't know with a thorough set of language arts lessons. The resource reinforces close reading and critical...
Walt Disney Company
Elizabeth Started All the Trouble
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a famous suffragette that paved the way for equal rights for women. Readers respond to before, during, and after reading questions based on her story. The resource is a great addition to a lesson during...
Scholastic
Tell Us a Tale: Teaching Students to Be Storytellers
Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates.
Curated OER
Study Guide for Missing May
Use this comprehensive packet to accompany a study of Missing May by Cynthia Rylant. Starting out with a brief author biography and background information about the novel, this guide includes materials to use throughout the entire novel....
EngageNY
Text-Dependent Questions and Choosing Details to Support a Claim: Digging Deeper into Paragraphs 6–8 of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address (and connecting to Chapter 7)
Readers learn how to choose specific details drawn from a primary source (Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address) to support an analysis of informative text.