Curated OER
Animal Farm: Propaganda
Eighth graders study the concept of propaganda and its major techniques. they define propaganda; analyze use of techniques in AF; create own propaganda using common techniques on a current topic.
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The Persuaders
Have your upper graders watch the documentary, "The Persuaders" as they explore how advertisers try to gain potential customers. The video is followed by a discussion and close examination of new marketing trends and strategies.
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Social Studies Wonders: An Exploration
Help middle schoolers conduct Internet research and develop a working definition for the discipline of social studies. From a list of websites, they develop classification skills and differentiate between primary and secondary sources....
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Explore your Culture through Storytelling
Explore the cultural heritage through of your class through reading, writing, and speaking exercises. They create illustrated mini-books that express their unique cultural and personal experiences. They share their stores with the class...
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Stories in Quilts
Have your class analyze the narrative art in quilts. They identify elements in this domestic art and the stories they tell. They define a story quilt, view an example, and analyze the work of Harriet Power. This is a great lesson plan to...
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Learning to Ask Questions
First graders analyze historical materials and create questions about Dwight D. Eisenhower. In this question writing lesson, 1st graders ask and answer questions about the life of Eisenhower. Students write about photographs they...
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"Whose (Is)land is This?": topics in Immigration and The Tempest
Class members compare the ways the subject of immigration is treated in The Tempest, Act I, scene ii, Act II, scene i and Act III, scene ii with patterns in American history. After tracing their own family’s journey, a series of...
Denver Art Museum
Tea Gathering Quick-Write
Japanese tea gatherings are the inspiration for a great activity. Learners are provided with an image of a tea caddy made for thick tea and asked to describe what they notice and what that might mean. This leads into a larger activity...
San Francisco Symphony
Dear Mr. Copland and Mr. Ellington
After a teacher-led demonstration on the lives and music of Aaron Copland and Duke Ellington, learners write a letter to them which shows their understanding of how a person's life experiences can be reflected in a composer's music. They...
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Social Studies: Biographical Guide
Fifth graders create a class Powerpoint presentation of historical figures. They each research six names for their assigned alphabet letter and include a thumbnail sketch for the persons. Students present the finished project to other...
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Newspapers: A Connection to Our Past
Learners discuss current events and importance of understanding historical context for events today. They research current event and its historical context, and plan, shoot, and edit iMovie video essay using AppleWorks storyboard.
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Persuasive Writing I
Examine the characteristics of an effective persuasive paper. In a group, eighth graders discuss the analogy of a debate being like a persuasive paper. After brainstorming topics, they write an argument and then debate it. Secretly, the...
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What Makes Our Community Special?
Explore websites, complete research, and use technological tools to create a final multimedia presentation on what makes a community special. Learners of all ages work with a partner to research an interesting aspect of their community,...
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A Way with Words or Say What?
Students explore the language of Shakespeare. In this literature lesson, students examine words invented by Shakespeare as they interpret their meanings in drawings. Students pantomime the meanings and then write a short story...
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The Iditarod Race Compared with the Movie, Iron Will
Feel the freezing rush of an Alaskan sled dog race in this reading lesson. Using research about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, seventh graders compare and contrast the depiction in the movie Iron Will. The lesson lasts for seven days...
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Aztec Myths: Writing Editorials
Middle schoolers write an editorial giving an opinion of whether or not Quetzalcoatl has arrived and if so, what the Aztecs should do. They discuss whether or not they believe Quetzalcoatl is a god or a man, and use an Editorial...
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Lunch Pail
Explore a 1900s lunch pail. For this oral language and 1900s history lesson, students view a photograph of an old-fashioned lunch pail. Students describe the object and make predictions about what it is and its possible uses. Students...
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Asking the Questions and Questioning the Answers
What would you ask a presidential candidate if you had the chance? Bring politics to your language arts classroom with this instructional activity, in which young readers brainstorm questions they would have liked the presidential...
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The "Write" Stuff: Strategies and Conventions for Imaginative Writing
Fifth graders develop and practice the steps involved in imaginative writing. They follow the steps/worksheets included and write imaginative stories of their own.
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Using Effective, Evocative Writing as a Model
Students study an author's style to strengthen their own writing. They read an author's account of the resiliency of the Malian people and about their culture. They examine her focus on Malian women.
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Oral Arguments Online
Students conduct a mock oral argument based on the briefs provided and further research as assigned by the instructor. They write an opinion for the case outlining why one legal argument prevailed over the other based on their own...
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Reading Primary Source Documents: Historical Content
Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...
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Liberty Rhetoric
What is liberty rhetoric? Examine how people have used it in four different time periods and situations. High schoolers investigate original source documents and compare them with the Declaration of Independence to decide how liberty...
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Eloquent Words
Logan’s Lament, a speech delivered by Mingo Chief Logan in 1774, provides pupils with an opportunity to not only study the historical events surrounding the battle between Native Americans and the Europeans for the West Virginia...