Curated OER
Could You Elaborate on That?
Fourth graders engage in a instructional activity which teaches the parts of an expository essay and how to organize and write an expository piece from a given topic. After a lecture/demo, 4th graders utilize a worksheet imbedded in this...
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Financial Security
Students take an economic angle on social security, working in small groups to create a reader's guide to the program and the current debate.
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Luscious Language Boxes
Learners experience a writing activity aimed at spicing up their writing. They use the classroom Luscious Language Box to add creative parts of speech to their writing.
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Successful Paragraphs
Learners write a five sentence paragraph with varied sentence beginnings. In this paragraph writing lesson, students use a teacher modeled procedure. They complete a worksheet about their favorite things, happenings, and places before...
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Pictograph Stone Carving
Students examine pictures of pictograph writing by Native American tribes, and discuss why this method of communication was used. They create their own messages with symbols and drawings on pieces of Styrofoam to simulate rock carvings.
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Social Studies: Classroom Culture
Sixth graders compose a list of classroom cultural values. They begin with a list of unacceptable behaviors. Each student presents two ideas they think should be part of the class culture. Students try to persuade classmates to accept...
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Who Am I? (Intermediate Grades)
Learners write "Guess Who?" poems in a descriptive manner. They listen to the poems as they are read aloud and try to guess who the poem belongs to.
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Predictable Chart/Sentence Building with "Goodnight Moon"
First graders work on a series of modeled reading and writing lessons based on "Goodnight Moon." students work on pages of a predictable class book.
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Successful Reading Strategies for ELL Students
Learners improve their reading comprehension through predicting, connecting with text and summarizing. Students should have already read the book Seedfolks and made predictions based upon what they had seen from the cover and pictures...
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Successful Art Class Critique
Students follow a teacher directed process to complete an Artwork Critique Form. They select another student's work to critique. After jotting their ideas on the worksheet, they consult the teacher. When the teacher has determined there...
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Words to Numbers
Seventh graders translate word problems into numerical expressions. Through guided practice, 7th graders discover how to take the information contained in a word problem and create a numerical expression using variables. They...
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Let Your Voice Be Heard
Students explore new ways to communicate through technology by utilizing an internet program. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, students utilize the website voicethread.com to share their thoughts and notes about reading...
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Publishing Pupils
Second graders are guided through the writing process and then given time to use the skills they have acquired by writing a story and publishing it using a computer.
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Stick To The Topic
Second graders engage in a lesson that is concerned with the increase of writing conventions. The teacher models the writing process for the students. The students work with the teacher to create a shared writing piece before the work...
Curated OER
Critical Literacy in the 21st Century: Sitti's Secrets
Fourth graders write persuasive letters. In this letter writing lesson, 4th graders read Sitti's Secrets by Naomi Shihab Nye and discuss their areas or topics of concern. Students select a person to write a letter to and how they...
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Five Paragraph Essay
Eighth graders are introduced to the mechanics of writing a standard-form essay. They draft, edit and polish a five-paragraph essay about spending the day as an animal of their choice.
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What Kind of Student Do You Want to Be?
Third graders write an essay which answers the question, "What kind of student do you want to be?"
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Weave a Web of Words
Fifth graders write a first draft of an oral presentation about the American Revolution and take their work through the writing process.
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The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
"The Gettysburg Address" is the basis of a series of activities that not only model for learners how to conduct a close reading of a text, but also how a close reading can help them comprehend a difficult text. The detailed, step-by-step...
State Bar of Texas
Miranda v. Arizona
You have the right to remain silent—but why? Scholars analyze the nature of what has become known as the Miranda Rights. A short video along with paired group work and discussion opens the issue of the rights of the accused upon arrest....
Visa
Smooth Sailing: Exploring Insurance and Estate Planning
While purchasing insurance and estate planning may seem like a rather irrelevant topic for high school high schoolers, introducing this concept now can help your learners develop a solid foundation of financial literacy that...
Curated OER
Trekking to Timbuktu: A Center of Trade
Middle schoolers conduct online research regarding the origins of the city of Timbuktu and discover why it became such an important place. Students write about the city's origins until it became a part of Mali.
National History Day
Leland Linman’s War: A Look at Soldiers’ Daily Lives in World War I
Hunkering down in the trenches of World War I, Leland Linman decided to write a journal about his experiences. By reading Linman's entries in the fourth installment of an eight-part lesson series, scholars get a firsthand look at life in...
Virginia Department of Education
Succession
The final lesson in a two-part series prompts scholars to create newspaper articles and succession events. Applying their knowledge of the ecosystem and the past examples of succession, they predict what will happen in the future...