Curated OER
All the News That's Fit to Blog
Learners critique three Web logs, each of which offers first-hand accounts, but reflect different points-of-view, on the war in Iraq; students write a response to one of the entries and analyze what they learned about the war from the...
Curated OER
Blog Your Truth
Students explore communication by participating in a digital journalism activity. For this aboriginal research lesson, students view a sample blog on the Internet and identify the techniques behind blogging and Internet journalism...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Yankee Doodle: How Has It Changed over Time?
Grab your feathers and your hat! And perhaps some macaroni! It's time to investigate the evolution of "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Groups do a close reading of sheet music covers, lyrics, and even YouTube videos to see how this political song...
Curated OER
What We Eat, Where We Sleep: Documenting Daily Life to Tell Stories
This is not just a New York Time article to read, this is a set of amazing activity ideas all related to the slide shows "Breaking Bread Everywhere" and "Where Children Sleep." Your class can view each show, read about what they mean...
Curated OER
How To KidPix II
Students practice using KidPix to create illustrations. In this visual arts activity, students define key vocabulary words, such as "palette" and "toolbar" to familiarize themselves with the KidPix program. Students create...
The New York Times
Anatomy of a Scene
Casting, setting, context, frame, camera angle, lighting, soundtrack. Every choice a writer or director makes is conscious. Here's a worksheet that asks readers/viewers to examine these choices and consider how they are used to to...
Tellagami Labs
Tellagami
Bring the world of video messaging into your classroom with this creative communication application. Offering the ability to create animations with customized characters, backgrounds, and recorded messages, this resource is guaranteed to...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Tag: Whose Values
Get young people thinking about their lives and current topics of social justice, advocacy, gender, race, and identity. After examining several works by Barbara Kruger, participants select a tag with one of the questions printed on it,...
Curated OER
The Virtuoso Phenomenon
After reading the New York Times article "Virtuosos Becoming a Dime a Dozen," learners answer eight who, what, when, where, and why questions. They post their answers on the New York Times Education Blog. A fun way to get learners...
Curated OER
Reading about Recent Exhibits in the Art and Design Section
A large part of analyzing or understanding art is knowing how to read about it. The New York Times has put together these who, what, where, when, and how questions to aid learners in comprehending informational pieces related to art and...
Curated OER
What's on Your Playlist?
Upper graders respond to a series of opinions posted about the music played at last year's Fashion Week in New York City. They describe the music on their personal playlists, why they like it, and what moods they try to evoke through...
Curated OER
Watercolor Landscapes
Van Gogh's Starry Night and Thomas Cole's The Oxbow are featured in a watercolor lesson that encourages young artists to explore various techniques before creating their own landscape.
Curated OER
From Zero to Superhero
Students discuss superheroes, focusing first on the details of creating the character of Batman. They work in small groups to develop superheroes for the 1990s, and write stories or cartoons about their superhero's adventures on their own.
Curated OER
A Tough Act to Follow
Learners take on the role of impersonators as they identify the distinctive human traits that comedians and imitators single out in order to do their jobs.
Curated OER
Back to the Classics
Students closely examine chamber music as it has changed from the Middle Ages to today. They work in small groups to research the composers, instruments and typical presentation in 5 time periods. They write biographies and share their...
Curated OER
Boy Bands: Hot Again
Kids read a New York Times article on the allure of boy bands, and then answer several questions via Blog post. They consider why boy bands are popular, why they are so expensive for record labels, and how they are similar to bands of...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Exploring Text with the iMovie Application
Get your class going on one of the final assessments for a unit on short stories by introducing iMovie and its main features. In this tenth lesson in a series of fourteen, pupils take some time to explore iMovie before conducting an...
Curated OER
Life is Starting to Change
Students investigate the tough economic times by discussing supply and demand. In this economics instructional activity, students read a news article and identify specific examples of the oil crisis that has touched their lives....
Curated OER
Off the Record
Music reflects culture and culture is reflected in popular music. Reading an article on how hip-hop has affected the lives of two young men of different races launches an investigation of the development and influences of various musical...
Curated OER
Clay Gargoyles and Grotesques
Grotesques or gargoyles are wonderful subjects for stories or art projects. Here is a simple "how to" for creating a lesson plan about sculpting clay gargoyles. Tip: Have learners research gargoyles throughout history.
Curated OER
Winter Crayon Resists
In need of a quick art project to chase away those winter blues? In just six steps you'll know how to instruct learners on creating winter scenes using crayon resist.
Curated OER
When Art's a Craft
What would it be like to restore modern works of art? By acting as modern art conservators, learners assess the first-hand difficulties faced in restoration efforts. In addition, they create modern art pieces from random materials. Then,...
California Shakespeare Theater
Hamlet Teacher's Guide
Even those experienced teachers of Hamlet can find much to like in a guide that offers many fresh ideas for activities. Class members may take on the role of FBI profilers that investigate Claudius and Hamlet as murderers, or...
All Our Days
Duplo/Lego Tower Pattern Busy Bag
Turn young learners into pattern detectives with this fun hands-on activity. Using the included set of cards showing different block towers, children replicate each pattern with their own manipulatives while...