Curated OER
Vandalism leads to locked bathrooms
Students research bathroom vandalism in other schools like Freedom High after reading an article about Freedom High and their situation. Students then decide if their school has a similar problem and interview administrators and janitors...
Curated OER
Cutting athletics = cutting scholarship chances
Students collect financial statements from the district and find out what, if anything,is cut from athletics. Students investigate how many hope to use athletic scholarships next fall. Students interview students, their parents and...
Curated OER
First Amendment and the Future
Students read the Knight report and discuss key findings before deciding what aspects of the findings students can replicate in their own school and conduct a survey. They write survey questions and test them on sample group before...
Curated OER
Journalism: Foreign Language Summer Program for Teens
Learners research the new Foreign Language Academy and other free summer programs at colleges for teens. They write features stories about the opportunities and interview deans and university officials. Students also interview school...
Curated OER
Does My Hair Disrupt Your Learning
Students research the laws and policies for school dress codes. They interview school employees to find out opinions of the policies. This they compare the findings with student interviews that are conducted.
Curated OER
Essay: The Importance of Physical Education
Originally designed for a physical education classroom, this lesson plan asks learners to argue for their school to keep their PE class during budget cuts. Whether your school is facing this challenge or not, it does pose a great...
Curated OER
Minority Graduation Rates: A 50-50 Chance
High schoolers conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources. For this lesson the issue is minority graduation rates.
Curated OER
Practice Paraphrasing
Help your high schoolers identify the main idea of a passage with this lesson on paraphrasing. First rewriting a paragraph in their own words, they then underline the most important words in their paraphrase and use them in a summary....
Curated OER
Follow Your Dreams: Career Goals
It is so important for impending high school graduates to start thinking about their potential careers. Here, they discuss the persistence of Blondie Hasler and his impressive transatlantic trip. They follow various routes on a map and...
Curated OER
Hair, Clothing Considered Disruptive
Students investigate dress codes in their school and how they compare to what courts have ruled as well as interview school administrators, students, and teachers on their views of the dress code. Students then write a news feature about...
Curated OER
World can't wait, students say
Pupils create a lesson to present to the rest of the class about current laws, including expressing killing the president as a joke. Students research past events and current laws. Pupils present to the class using mult-media, oral...
Curated OER
Take a Second. Make a Difference
Students are taught an important lesson about how an adult can influence life in a positive or negative way. They are encouraged to accomplish their best at home and school. The students write a personal story about a special person that...
Curated OER
Idea-Noun Definition: Source Searching
A great idea for showing language arts pupils the universality of themes, even in the real world! Have class members choose an idea-noun (peace, justice, war, love, etc.) at the beginning of the year or semester. They complete weekly...
Curated OER
Cornell Notes with I Tunes
Note taking is an invaluable skill and requires practice. This lesson incorporates the Cornell Notes format, however the plan itself could be implemented to teach any style. The basic idea here is to use university lectures on podcasts...
North Carolina Standard Curriculum
Rhythm Counting
Understanding time signatures and rhythm counting are two very important parts of playing an instrument well. Here are three basic lessons rolled into one that prompt upper graders to play their instruments with care. They'll practice...
Curated OER
Speaking Out Against War
Students discuss the affect the Iraq War has had on citizens taking advantage of their right to express themselves through non-violent protests and pledges of resistance. They research and discuss local community and school events and...
Curated OER
Hair a disruption or personal expression?
When does hair (or clothing) disrupt the school process? This question is the topic of the argumentative paper your class with write. They read and react to an article about a boy who was expelled from school for sporting a Mohawk, then...
Curated OER
Teaching Others About Being Deaf
Students read two articles about how college students taught others about being blind or deaf. In their school, they interview students with a physical challenge and use the internet to research how to write about those with...
Curated OER
Note Taking
Third graders get ready to take notes on a field trip. In this notetaking lesson plan, 3rd graders take notes to remember what they've seen on a field trip. Students draw and analyze diagrams of what they have seen. Students...
Curated OER
Telling Stories: Symbols of a Life
Art and literature can go hand in hand, they both are used to express elements of the self in a creative and interesting way. Budding story tellers interpret and analyze the narrative elements they find in a work of art. They focus on...
Curated OER
It's All in the Way You Say It
High schoolers unearth multiple meanings based on connotation and cadence. After defining denotation, connotation, and cadence, readers evaluate similar words to compare connotations. They then play with how cadence affects meaning by...
Curated OER
Irony in Poetry and Prose (Fiction and Non-fiction Texts)
Middle and high schoolers examine the impact of irony in poetry and prose. In this figurative language lesson, they read instructor-selected literature and identify uses of irony. Then they discuss how irony enhances literature.
Curated OER
How to Locate and Evaluate Information, Part III - Internet Sites
This is the third in a series of lessons scaffolding the research paper. It purports to teach researchers how to evaluate internet sites, but the lack of links, specific criteria, or site evaluation rubrics would require additional...
Curated OER
Allusions to Shakespeare in Popular Culture
Send your high schoolers on a scavenger hunt through popular culture (music, television, video games, movies) to find allusions to Shakespeare. They must each provide three to share with the class, and the one they present cannot have...