Pennsylvania Department of Education
6 Traits: Word Choice
Students explore language arts by participating in a vocabulary usage activity. In this word choice instructional activity, students read examples of great word usage in literature and discuss with the class why some words appear...
Curated OER
Night: Guided Imagery Activity
Prior to reading Night, class members engage in a guided imagery activity that helps them make text-to-self connections to Elie Wiesel’s account of his experiences with his father in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Complete directions, as well...
Curated OER
A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution
Sit back, relax, and transport to 1787! This lesson on the Constitution begins with guided imagery of the Constitutional Convention. The class reads A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution in an...
Curated OER
Understanding and Fighting Stereotypes through Words and Images
Use some provocative modern art to get your class considering stereotypes and the impact they have on us all. Your class will discuss the print art Indian Look-Alike by Melanie Yazzie and stereotypes in general before...
Curated OER
Identify Intended Media Messages
How does media convey different messages? Use this instructional activity to explore media by identifying and analyzing selected images. Middle schoolers analyze a poster and discuss the intended meaning of the imagery and how it makes...
Denver Art Museum
Putting Images into Words
Engage your class in art analysis of Indian Look-Alike by Melanie Yazzie. Using this work of art as inspiration, writers compose a poem or short story. After a peer review session, the teacher conveys information about the work of art as...
Curated OER
Imagining China through Words
When Europeans first came back with tales of China, they provided vivid written accounts and minimal visual imput. This resulted in art rendered mostly from descriptive language. Learners explore this phenomena by listening to...
Curated OER
Let Freedom Ring: The Life & Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Young scholars use text and photos to visualize the delivery of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic "I Have A Dream" speech. They analyze Dr. King's speech for examples of imagery and allusion and create original poetry and...
Curated OER
A Picture Speaks A Thousand Words
Students explore the power of images through political cartoons, particularly in light of the Danish caricatures of Muhammad that have incited violence around the world. They create their own original artwork to submit to an appropriate...
Anti-Defamation League
Understanding and Analyzing “The U.S. of Us” by Richard Blanco
Current immigration issues and the rhetoric surrounding the controversies come into focus with a lesson that uses Richard Blanco's anthem, "The U.S. of Us," written after the August 2019 attack in El Paso, Texas, to open a discussion of...
Annenberg Foundation
Rhythms in Poetry
Rhyme, rhythm, free verse, imagery: Do these words describe poetry, or jazz music? The answer is both! A resource explores these similarities as scholars watch a video, engage in discussion, read author biographies, write poetry and...
Curated OER
Poetry of War and Peace
Students read and discuss the poem "In Flanders Fields," then write poems evoking images of peacetime. They practice the techniques of writing poetry while using textual imagery to create visual images.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...
New Class Museum
Lesson: Emory Douglas: Decoding Images and Vocabulary Activity
To better understand the work of Black Panther logo artist Emory Douglas, learners define literary devices. They define a series of words such as metaphor, simile, and assonance, then place an example of that device found in Emory...
Curated OER
Imagining China Through Words
Middle schoolers create a drawing from a written description to examine images of China in European art. In this art analysis lesson, students create a visual image from a written description of an object. Middle schoolers compare their...
Curated OER
What can money tell us?
High schoolers study the physical presence, imagery and written text on a reproduction of colonial currency. They apply their research to a modern day quarter to compare and contrast two coins. In addition, they design their own colonial...
Curated OER
Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion
Learners explore the economic, political, racial, and religious roots of Manifest Destiny. They read articles and analyze how the concept influenced the nation's westward expansion. Students discover the motivations and expectations of...
Curated OER
Words/Music/Images: Interpretation and Meaning A Motivational Activity
Learners explore popular music in its historical context. In this music lesson, students examine the lyrics, musicical arrangement, and video imagery of selected songs to interpret the messages and themes of the songs.
Maryland Department of Education
A Raisin in the Sun and Dreams Deferred
To conclude a study of A Raisin in the Sun and to prepare for a visit to the Lewis Museum, class members analyze Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." Learners then draw connections to characters in the play and to their own experiences...
Facing History and Ourselves
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown
As part of their continued investigation of the reporting of the shooting of Michael Brown class members analyze photos of Michael Brown and the social media response to these images. The class then develops a guide they...
Curated OER
A Guided Journey Into the Past
Fourth graders use guided imagery to discover and judge an alternative way to enjoy artifacts without removing them from archaeological sites.
Curated OER
Busting the Tobacco Ads.
Fifth graders recognize that tobacco companies target young people with their advertisements. In this tobacco instructional activity, 5th graders understand why tobacco companies target youth. Students define the word adbuster and...
Curated OER
Hello Summer
Young scholars celebrate the great outdoors and the coming summer break by studying the natural world. In this seasons lesson, students engage in bark rubbing and operate a digital camera to capture outdoor imagery for a collage to...
Curated OER
Shaky New Zealand
Students explore Earth science by building a model in class. In this tectonic plate lesson, students identify the impact tectonic shifts have on humans and animals and where the plates and faults lie under New Zealand. Students examine...